Earlier this month, news broke that Life Cafe, the East Village standby where Jonathan Larson wrote some of his musical Rent, was officially closed for good. Today the Villager reports that next door neighbor Ninth Street Espresso will be moving into the western portion of the restaurant's space, and the other half will be sectioned off by a wall, for use by another business.
The Life Cafe space is split between two landlords who didn't want to work together to finish repairs on the building — the owner of the restaurant partially blamed the scaffolding outside for the demise of her business. With the addition of this new space, the tiny "annex" of Ninth Street Espresso will nearly double in size, and the new layout will include access to Life's backyard, which they plan to winterize for year-round use. The new, expanded version of Ninth Street Espresso should open in about four months.
· New Life for Life Cafe Space [The Villager]
· All Coverage of Life Cafe [~ENY~]
[Photo: EV Grieve]