Remembering good times and dead bodies at The Blarney Cove

[June 2013]

The Paris Review has an essay by Joe Kloc on the late, great Blarney Cove on East 14th Street…

Tommy, another regular, recounted an oft-told Blarney Cove legend. One evening, he said, a regular was sitting alone at the end of the bar, minding his business, enjoying his $1.50 mugs of beer with all the usual contentment of an old drinker on a young night. Suddenly, but without fuss, the man set down his mug, shut his eyes, slumped forward, and died right there in his chair. “They put him in the freezer,” Tommy said. And the next day his body was gone.

Read the whole piece here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here is the future of East 14th Street and Avenue A: 7 stories of residential and retail

City OKs permits to demolish the empty storefronts along this section of East 14th Street

The Blarney Cove closes for good after tomorrow night

The Blarney Cove sign is down! The Blarney Cove sign is down!

Here lies the Blarney Cove

While we're on the topic of bars that we used to like … we were walking on East 14th Street just east of Avenue A on Friday … and noticed that the ongoing demolition here has now claimed the former Blarney Cove space.

[Moment of silence]

The Blarney Cove closed for good in June 2013. But we got the sign.

Given the water on the site, perhaps we can call it The Blarney Cove. Or The Blarney Cove Cove.

As you know oh so well, many of the businesses on East 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B either relocated or closed to make way for two, 7-floor retail-residential buildings.

Previously on EV Grieve:
New 7-floor buildings for East 14th Street include 150 residential units

The Blarney Cove sign is down! The Blarney Cove sign is down!

[June 2013]

Just yesterday we pointed out that the sidewalk bridge arrived ahead of the demolition of the single-level buildings along East 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

We wondered what would/will become of the Blarney Cove sign... The neighborhood bar closed for good last June to make way for the new retail-residential complex.

And, OMG, here it is yesterday afternoon just lying there on the sidewalk, apparently discarded by construction workers ...



… and a short time later… Little Town Shoes sent along these photos…



…gutted and tagged!



But that's not how this story ends.

EVG regular Dave on 7th happened to be walking by yesterday afternoon… and he saw the sign still intact on the building. He asked the workers if they would take it down for him.

They did.

From there it wasn't easy to remove the two sides of the Barney Cove Bar sign from the frame. First, there were a million rusty screws. Then there was the matter of navigating two 7-foot by 2-foot (!) pieces of Blarney Cove sign home.

Along the way, someone offered Dave on 7th $200 for the signs. He declined.

Eventually, one of the signs split it two. But! As of this moment, the two signs (now in three pieces) are in good hands. Repeat, the two signs (now in three pieces) are in good hands.

"I wish I could have left the whole thing intact, but that just wasn't in the cards," said Dave on 7th, who has the signs in his building. "I started to wipe the dust off the back, and it turns out that's what made it white. Either super old paint or a fluorescent powder to make it glow brighter.

"Man, I worked my ass off taking it apart."

Now if we can only find the Blarney Cove cooling and refreshening system…


[Photo from May 2011 by the long-lost (sob) Intern of EV Grieve]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here is the future of East 14th Street and Avenue A: 7 stories of residential and retail

City OKs permits to demolish the empty storefronts along this section of East 14th Street

The Blarney Cove closes for good after tomorrow night

City OKs permits to demolish the empty storefronts along this section of East 14th Street

The city OK'd the permits yesterday for workers to demolish the empty storefronts along East 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B ahead of a new luxury retail-residential complex.

The storefronts that once housed Stuyvesant Grocery and Pete's-a-Place (before the fire on May 12, 2010) at Avenue A east to, and including, the former Animal Hospital at No. 532 will be demolished. The lone exception: 520 E. 14th St., the tenement building where the Dunkin' Donuts resides. Presumably new development will happen on either side of this building.

[Click image to enlarge]

Gary Barnett of Extell Development grabbed up eight parcels in a 99-year lease worth $35.14 million. And as noted in previous posts on the topic, the new development will look something like…


[RKF]

Time is running out to get that Blarney Cove sign.

Previously on EV Grieve:
East 14th Street exodus continues

The disappearing storefronts of East 14th Street

[Updated with correction] 8-lot parcel of East 14th Street primed for new development

East 14th Street corridor now nearly business-free ahead of new development

Here is the future of East 14th Street and Avenue A: 7 stories of residential and retail

The Blarney Cove closes for good after tomorrow night

Tomorrow is the last day for the Blarney Cove on East 14th Street ... they moved the closing date up by one day. So that's that.

As we've been noting, many businesses on East 14th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B are either relocating or closing to make way for some yet-unspecified development.

Previously on EV Grieve:
East 14th Street exodus continues

The disappearing storefronts of East 14th Street

[Updated with correction] 8-lot parcel of East 14th Street primed for new development

Bargain Express has closed on East 14th Street

The Blarney Cove will close for good at the end of June