BARA, a French/Japanese bar-restaurant at 58 E. First St., closed after service on June 11.
A sign on the door here between First Avenue and Second Avenue reads, "BARA is permanently closed. Bummer, right?"
The restaurant opened in December 2014 ... serving a menu created by Momofuku vet Ian Alvarez.
At a friend's suggestion, I tried BARA and liked it, dining here several times. (I've never eaten at any of the Momofuku places, for the record.) The BARA staff was low-key and friendly, and they played music by Can, Television and Richard Hell & the Voidoids on evenings I was there.
It was a good early-evening adult spot after seeing a movie at the nearby Anthology Film Archives or Sunshine Cinema... in part because it wasn't really that busy. (Meanwhile, people were in line for a table at Prune a few doors away.)
The previous establishment here, Prima, closed in August 2014 after nearly three years. In a refreshingly honest assessment, Prima's owners said that they closed because they just weren't busy enough.
Before Prima, the space housed the Thai restaurant The Elephant for 17 years).