Coffee at the Holiday Cocktail Lounge

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy

Back in November, The Holiday Cocktail Lounge announced that it was opening at 8 a.m. for coffee and breakfast items in a new venture titled Holiday Coffee Lounge. 

We're always looking for a stress-free coffee option. As you undoubtedly noticed, the rise of hybrid and remote work has turned coffee shops into impromptu offices during the week. People camped out for hours, laptops open, and long coffee cups empty. Our favorite: the people taking part in Zoom/Teams meetings in a crowded space. (This is above my pay grade, so let's put a pin in this until we can get our ducks in a row and get buy-in from upstairs!)

Balancing a café's role as a workplace and a welcoming space for all has become a pressing challenge. (Maybe have no laptop hours?) 

Given that some of our favorite places can be overrun during the week, we decided to check out the morning service here at 75 St. Mark's Place between First Avenue and Second Avenue. 

During two recent visits, there were plenty of open tables...

The daytime service features espresso from local Superlost Coffee, tea and juice, pastries, croissants, mini beignets, breakfast items, and sandwiches. There's also free Wi-Fi. 

We also tried the grilled cheese for lunch (solid!).

The Holiday serves coffee from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. when the liquor service starts. 

For now, the place remains a safe haven for those seeking a quiet retreat during the day... (and sorry if we blew up your spot with this post!).

2 familiar names now offering coffee on St. Mark's Place

Two St. Mark's Place businesses, better known for their other offerings, are now selling coffee.

The Holiday Cocktail Lounge at 75 St. Mark's Place between First Avenue and Second Avenue now opens at 8 a.m. for coffee and croissants... aka, Holiday Coffee Lounge. 

Updated: Here's more info via a Holiday rep after the new offerings: 

Holiday's new coffee service ... includes outstanding coffee and espresso from local Superlost Coffee, plus, tea, juice and boosters, freshly made pastries, croissants, mini beignets, breakfast items, and sandwiches. The Wi-Fi-friendly space (70 indoor seats; 40 patio seats weather permitting) to enjoy delicious liquid in a cup throughout the day and into the evening, when its traditional cocktail service starts at 4 p.m. and is open until 2 a.m.

Meanwhile, on the next block to the west, the bookstore Village Works at 12 St. Mark's Place has opened a cafe with coffee and muffins...

 

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Saturday's parting shot

A snapshot of today's weather on St. Mark's Place this afternoon ... photo(s) by Steven...

The new Holiday Cocktail Lounge opens tonight

[Photo from December]

The latest iteration of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge returns tonight after a three-plus year closure.

A quick recap. Stefan Lutak, the longtime proprietor who bought the place in 1965, died in early 2009 at age 89. Shortly before his death, Stefan decided to retire, and the bar closed for several weeks… only to reopen under new management on Jan. 17, 2009.

The post-Stefan Holiday lasted until Jan. 29, 2012. News broke a few weeks later that Robert Ehrlich, the founder of Pirate Brands, which makes Pirate's Booty, bought the building at 75 St. Mark's Place between First Avenue and Second Avenue. After some anxious moments, we learned that Barbara Sibley, who lives in the building and runs La Palapa next door, would be helping oversee the operation.

No. 75 needed a a top-to-bottom renovation, and it was a long process. Sibley talked to us about it back in January 2014.

The building was in terrible condition ... It’s been such an exercise in zen and archaeology. As much as we’ve been trying to maintain it, you couldn’t keep everything. We were lucky on their closing night that we didn’t all fall through. Every time we look behind a wall it’s been a major repair. It’s been an endless process.

And here we are.

According to The New York Times, who first reported on tonight's reopening, "enough of the bar’s ancient innards have been retained that old regulars will recognize a familiar friend."

The tight horseshoe bar where W. H. Auden and Allen Ginsberg (and possibly Leon Trotsky) once presided has been given a rubdown, though it has been moved about 20 feet and now stands in the center of the space. Also still there are the battered awning, an old wooden phone booth and an exotic mural from the place’s earlier days as a burlesque cabaret.

The resurrection could not have happened without Robert Ehrlich, the snack-food mogul who created Pirate’s Booty, who decided to buy the building and preserve the bar.

The bar will include some beer-and-shot combos for $8 … and $6 cocktails served in glassware used by the old Holiday. But it won't all be the old Holiday. There are a few craft cocktails on the menu, via Michael Neff (the Rum House) and his brother Danny.

Said Michael Neff: "You have to honor the past without trying to duplicate it — that would be Disneyland."

Previously on EV Grieve:
The founder of Pirate's Booty is taking over the Holiday Cocktail Lounge

Why the future of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge may be in doubt

There goes the Holiday Cocktail Lounge

Last night at the Holiday

The Holiday Cocktail Lounge is closing Saturday night

"Beat writers...spent considerable time with the bookies, dope dealers, working girls and alcoholics for whom the Holiday was a second home"

A new (old) awning arrives at the Holiday

This morning, workers installed a new awning outside the former Holiday Cocktail Lounge at 75 St. Mark's Place.

And it's an exact replica of the previous awning...



Back in July, some dude on a skateboard came by and slashed the name off of it.

The new awning is the next step for the new venture here. As previously reported, Barbara Sibley, the owner of La Palapa next door, will help run a tavern-restaurant in this space.

First, though — the building had to undergo a top-to-bottom renovation. And it has taken awhile. Sibley has firsthand experience — she lives in the building. She talked to us about it back in January.

The building was in terrible condition ... It’s been such an exercise in zen and archaeology. As much as we’ve been trying to maintain it, you couldn’t keep everything. We were lucky on their closing night that we didn’t all fall through. Every time we look behind a wall it’s been a major repair. It’s been an endless process.

The Holiday 2.0 closed Jan. 28, 2012.

No word yet on an opening date... but the new place will go by the name the Holiday.

July CB3/SLA highlights: Holiday Lounge, Brick Lane Curry and more tacos

[99 Second Ave. from August 2012]

The July CB3/SLA docket is now out... We'll look at the whole thing later... but a few quick highlights... (The meeting is July 15.)

Applications within Saturated Areas
• 117 Ave A Food & Drink LLC, 117 Ave A (op)

The mystery applicant looking to take over the Odessa Cafe and Bar on Avenue A is back on the agenda.

Sidewalk Cafe Application (unenclosed)
• Mighty Quinn's Barbeque (CMH BBQ Holdings LLC), 103 2nd Ave

• Brazen Fox Kitchen and Bar (106 3rd Ave NYC Inc), 106 3rd Ave

The folks from the White Plains-based bar The Brazen Fox are opening a bar-restaurant in the former Friend House space at East 13th Street ... the space is still under construction and they are already seeking a license for a sidewalk cafe. Very Brazen!

• Boulton & Watt (Downtown Dining LLC), 5 Ave A

New Liquor License Applications
• Holiday Lounge (75 St Marks Place LLC), 75 St Marks Pl (op)

Barbara Sibley, the owner of La Palapa next door here on St. Mark's Place, will be opening a bar-restaurant in the former Holiday Cocktail Lounge space... we're looking forward to the end results of the work... She told Grub Street last year that "We're going to try to preserve as much of the history as possible."

• Otto's Taco LLC, 141 2nd Ave (b)

Ah! Last week, contractors told EVG regular William Klayer that a "taco place" was opening at the former Good Guys, the burger-fries-salad-wraps-waffles-smoothie eatery that replaced a Subway on Second Avenue. Good Guys closed a few weeks ago.

• Bricklane Curry House (BLCH I LLC), 99 2nd Ave (op)

Looks as if there's finally activity here ... most recently home to Sea Salt, the upscale fish eatery that closed in early 2008 after a seven-month stint... Brick Lane announced in April 2011 that they'd be taking over the space ...

The Beat goes on at the Holiday today

A crew was on-hand today to film scenes for "Kill Your Darlings" at the dearly departed Holiday Cocktail Lounge on St. Mark's Place... set in 1944, the drama involves writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs and Lucien Carr's murder of David Kammerer...

Michael C. Hall, pictured here, plays Kammerer...

The Times has a lot of the backstory about the murder here; the version of the story for this film can be found in "And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks," the 1945 novel by Kerouac and Burroughs.

I'm sorry, I'm too distracted by the photo of the crew member ready to eat that slice to keep going...

Photos by Bobby Williams.

The Beats will live again at the Holiday Cocktail Lounge (for one day, anyway)

So you know that the Holiday Cocktail Lounge closed on St. Mark's Place back on Jan. 29. Robert Ehrlich, the founder of Pirate Brands, and Barbara Sibley, the owner of La Palapa next door, will open a tavern-restaurant that serves staples such as fish-n-chips.

Allen Ginsberg, among many other literary luminaries, frequented the Holiday back in the day ... so it may not be so strange then that crews will film scenes for "Kill Your Darlings" at the Holiday on Monday.

IMDB simply puts the plot this way: "A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs." The crew has been shooting scenes around the city, including at Columbia, the last several weeks. (The Times has a lot of the backstory about the murder here; that the version of the story for this film can be found in "And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks," the 1945 novel by Kerouac and Burroughs.)

Sibley told us that crew members will arrive today to transform the interior to look like the 1940s, which, given the bar's timeless look, likely won't take too much.

In the drama, Daniel Radcliffe plays a collegiate-age Ginsberg just as he's meeting Kerouac (Jack Huston) and Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan). Elizabeth Olsen is Kerouac's first wife, Edie Parker, and Ben Foster portrays William Burroughs. Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Jason Leigh, David Cross and Kyra Sedgwick round out the cast.

[Lucien and Allen in the movies. Via]

As for the rest of the renovations, Sibley says they are coming along slowly. There's major work ahead, including with the sewer line.

There goes the Holiday Cocktail Lounge

Workers are cleaning out the space at 75 St. Mark's Place this afternoon, as this photo by EV Grieve reader David shows...

The bar closed back on Jan. 29. Robert Ehrlich, the founder of Pirate Brands, and Barbara Sibley, the owner of La Palapa next door, are teaming up to open a tavern-restaurant that serves staples such as fish-n-chips.

Sibley told Grub Street that they were "going to try to preserve as much of the history as possible."

Previously on EV Grieve:
The founder of Pirate's Booty is taking over the Holiday Cocktail Lounge

Why the future of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge may be in doubt

Avast! The Holiday Cocktail Lounge is becoming a restaurant that serves fish-n-chips

So you know that Robert Ehrlich, the founder of Pirate Brands, which makes Pirate's Booty, bought the building that housed the now-former Holiday Cocktail Lounge.

Last night, he went before the CB3/SLA committee and revealed his plans. (He never responded to our requests for an interview.) According to a report by Claire Nugent at Eater, the committee approved his plans to open "a new restaurant/tavern offering local, regional cuisine."

He is teaming with Barbara Sibley, the owner of La Palapa next door. Per Eater:

They said they hope their restaurant will echo the restaurants that have disappeared, with a menu offering those foods New Yorkers "miss" like Shepard’s Pie and fish 'n’ chips.

Ehrlich reportedly didn't win the rights to keep the Holiday name.

Updated 11:50 a.m.

Grub Street has more. Sibley, who will manage the space, said, "We're going to try to preserve as much of the history as possible."

Previously on EV Grieve:
The founder of Pirate's Booty is taking over the Holiday Cocktail Lounge

Why the future of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge may be in doubt

Not just the Holiday: Pirate Brands founder bought all of 75 St. Mark's Place

Last Wednesday, we first reported that Robert Ehrlich, the founder of Pirate Brands, is taking over the Holiday Cocktail Lounge space. (We're still waiting to hear back from him.) He will go before the CB3/SLA committee on Monday.

Yesterday, the Observer noted that Ehrlich bought the whole building at 75 St. Mark's Place where the Holiday lived.

Per the Observer:

According to Corcoran broker Dan Brady, who held the listing with his colleague Nick Arnold, Mr. Ehrlich will not be moving in. Instead, he plans to keep the space as is: four floor-through apartments with a commercial unit on the ground floor. Will there be a Pirate Shop occupying the hallowed, beer-baptized grounds of the former Holiday Cocktail Lounge? A Pirate Bar? A bar with pirate booty snacks? Whatever it is, it probably won’t hold a candle to the timeless bacchanal that was the Holiday Cocktail Lounge.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The founder of Pirate's Booty is taking over the Holiday Cocktail Lounge

Why the future of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge may be in doubt

The founder of Pirate's Booty is taking over the Holiday Cocktail Lounge

When we reported that the Holiday Cocktail Lounge was closing, we did mention that the bar was on the February CB3/SLA docket for a new liquor license.

Documents on file with CB offer few details about the fate of the space on St. Mark's Place, but we now know who is hoping to take over the bar: Robert Ehrlich, the founder of Pirate Brands, which makes all-natural snacks including Pirate's Booty, Smart Puffs and Original Tings.

There's not a lot of information on the CB3 forms. The applicants are calling the space a tavern, with hours starting at 11 a.m. ...

There's also mention of a "local regional menu."

What about snacks?

In addition to his healthy-snack empire, Ehrlich operated several cafes in Sea Cliff. We sent an email to a Pirate Brands media representative last night in hopes of getting more information about Ehrlich's plans for the space. So let's wait and see what's in store here...

Also, someone did fax the form to CB3 from Pirate Brands ... in case you were questioning this...

Last night at the Holiday

The current incarnation of the Holiday Cocktail Lounge closed for business after last night... Matt LES_Miserable sent along a few photos taken in the early evening... We heard that the place was packed for a good part of the night...

And now, the speculation begins as to what is taking over the space...

Last call at the Holiday Cocktail Lounge tonight

As we first reported Thursday, the iconic Holiday Cocktail Lounge is closing tonight. The building at 75 St. Mark's Place has been sold, and the people who have been running the bar since Stefan died in February 2009 are out.

And while the place had started creeping into sports bar territory (featuring the Jagerettes!) at times, we'll still really miss the Holiday.

There are all sorts of silly/absurd/funny rumors making the rounds. We'll hold off on those for now.

If you happen to go tonight, then please let us know how it was... (You have photos too?) Perhaps they'll even be another bar brawl out front, as Eater noted Thursday night.

The Holiday Cocktail Lounge is closing Saturday night

[Ben Rosenzweig/Grub Street]

We feared the worst when 75 St. Mark's Place went on the market last fall. Aside from several apartments, the building is home to the beloved Holiday Cocktail Lounge, whose future seemed shaky ever since its owner, Stefan Lutak, died two years ago.

Meanwhile, the Holiday is on next month's CB3/SLA agenda under new license applications. Suspicious, given that they already have a license.

Well. Turns out the building in in contract...

A well-place tipster notes that the Holiday as we know it will close after Saturday night. "Locks will be changed immediately."

We understand that another bar will take its place. What happens to the current appearance is unknown.

Per the tipster: "Another EV historical institution gone."

Indeed.

And now, a walk-off passage from an article by former East Village resident Mike Hudson in the Niagra Falls Reporter a few years back:

[L]ike many Manhattan dives the Holiday Lounge had its writers.

For years Allen Ginsberg had a large apartment in a building almost directly across the street, and he and other Beat writers like Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso and Herbert Huncke spent considerable time with the bookies, dope dealers, working girls and alcoholics for whom the Holiday was a second home.

[adm on Flickr via JVNY]

For further reading:
Holiday Cocktail Lounge (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Posts that I never got around to posting: The Holiday is now open seven days a week

Oops! Meant to post this about 6-7 weeks ago! In any event, good news. Cheesy promotions aside (and we understand you need to make some money), we're pleased that the Holiday is back on a seven-day-a-week schedule. After Stefan's death earlier this year, there were questions his family would even keep the bar going... Soon enough, the Holiday was open just on the weekends. Then, in April the bar expanded its hours to Wednesdays and Thursdays. So here's to a great place to drink Mondays and Tuesdays now... and any other day, really.

The Holiday continues with the cheesy promotions

What, no Jagerettes?



I'll say this again:

1) I understand the fact that the beloved Holiday Cocktail Lounge on St. Mark's Place needs to make money to stay open...so why not attract the dreaded free vodka crowd.

2) Stefan never would have gone for this.

The Holiday expands its hours

After Stefan's death earlier this year, the Holiday was only open on the weekends. Now, though, as this flier on St. Mark's shows, the Holiday is expanding its hours. Which is a good thing.

A REAL bad sign: The Jagerettes at the Holiday

1) I understand the fact that the beloved Holiday Cocktail Lounge on St. Mark's Place needs to make money to stay open...so why not attract the dreaded Saturday night crowd.

2) Stefan never would have gone for this.

PS
Well, it could have been worse, like the Jager dudes...

PSS
I've never actually seen the Jagerettes...here's a shot (so to speak) from another event that I found on the Internets...

The Holiday Cocktail Lounge lives

Not sure if these signs went up yesterday or today at the Holiday on St. Mark's Place...Good news, nonetheless. If it was open last night...anyone go in for drinks? And hooray finally for some good news.

[UPDATED: Jeremiah stops by for a drink....]

For further reading:

Holiday Cocktail Lounge (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

Is the Holiday over? (NYPress)