26 January 2012

Another Dive Takes a Dive: Holiday Cocktail Lounge to Close


Sad, nay tragic, news from the Holiday Cocktail Lounge. From Eater:
Last summer, the East Village lost Mars Bar, and now another legendary dive is closing: Holiday Cocktail Lounge on St. Mark's Place. EV Grieve reports the news, noting that Saturday will be the final night of service, and that after that "Locks will be changed immediately." A new, as-yet-unnamed bar is apparently moving in.
People have been speculating that the bar might close for a few months now. Back in October, a real estate listing for the building noted that "The commercial lease is controlled by the owner, so it can be delivered vacant or the Holiday Cocktail Lounge continued." Holiday Cocktail Lounge's original owner, Steven Lutak, passed away back in 2010. 
The Holiday was one of my earlier haunts when I first moved to New York. It wasopened by Stefan Lutak in 1965. W.H. Auden was a regular. So was Allen Ginsberg.

Mars Bar, Rum House, Holiday. Watch them fall, folks.

3 comments:

bigmissfrenchie said...

Way to strip the city of all of its character, Mayor Bloombucks and greedy landlord friends. Ugh. Why don't we just knock it all down and turn it into a shopping mall and get it over with?

Ed said...

I still think the Mars Bar closing was the key closing. I suspect all these other places will be gone within the next five years.

And I've made this point repeatedly, but this wouldn't be a problem if you had other, equally cool, places opening.

Brooks of Sheffield said...

Completely agree, Ed.