Raucous East Village Beer Spot Closes After 20 Years — and More Closings

March 5

— Popular East Village beer house Zum Schneider left Avenue C this week after a contentious three-month battle to stay in the neighborhood. The Bavarian restaurant and bar — known for raucous Oktoberfest celebrations, weekend screenings of soccer games, and many noise complaints — has reportedly been booted from its 20-year home by the building’s landlords, who are “not interested” in renewing the lease. Zum Schneider was able to avoid being removed from the property once before, back in 2006 when the owners of 229 East Seventh Street attempted to evict the bar for “excessive noise.” That time, the bar stuck around with help from a local petition that massed over 1,000 signatures. Owner Sylvester Schneider tells Gothamist that he will begin searching for a new home for the bar in the spring.

— Chef Gabriel Kreuther’s confectionary shop and cafe has closed this week after four years in Midtown. Kreuther Handcrafted Chocolate is the younger sibling to Kreuther’s namesake restaurant located just next door, which Eater critic Ryan Sutton praised in a glowing three-star review.

— Hell’s Kitchen Italian staple Bricco leaves the neighborhood after 23 years. The owners did not cite a reason for the closure, although in March 2014 the restaurant was temporarily closed for nonpayment of taxes.

— Ninja may have generated more buzz for its theatrics than for its food, but the Japanese restaurant will go down as a Tribeca mainstay all the same. This week, a message on the restaurant’s website informed customers that the subterranean sushi haunt had lost its lease after a 15-year run.

— Venerable New York City lunch counter Burger Heaven closed its last location this week after more than 75 years in Manhattan. Dimitri Dellis, one of the restaurant’s owners, tells the New York Times that the once-thriving diner chain couldn’t keep up with the rapidly evolving food delivery landscape in New York City.

— Palais by Perfect Pie, a French-American bistro from former White House chef Bill Yosses, has shut down after just five months on the UES. There was no official reason given for the closure of Yosses’s first solo project, but the Times notes that the restaurant was underfunded from the beginning.

— The chef behind East Village Italian mainstay Hearth and popular bone-broth counter Brodo, has closed his wine and oyster bar down the street. Marco Canora tells EV Grieve that Zadie’s Oyster Room never attracted enough customers to remain open.

February 27

— Selamat Pagi, the pastel-colored Balinese restaurant from the Van Leeuwen ice cream team, closed this week after more than eight years in Greenpoint. The all-week brunch spot, translated as “good morning” in Indonesian, was well-liked for its all-week brunch menu, where deviled eggs with Makrut lime regularly shared table space with coconut sambal grilled fish. Less than a week after the closure, CEO Ben Van Leeuwen announced that the company had secured $18.7 million in a new round of private equity funding, which will be used to expand the brand’s wholesale and retail presence. The fancy Brooklyn-based ice cream maker currently runs 17 locations in New York City, with another location planned inside the New Jersey mega-mall American Dream.

— There’s paper over the windows of East Village bar the Third Man, which closed earlier this month after seven years of business. Owners Eduard “Edi” Frauneder and Wolfgang “the Wolf” Ban did not cite a reason for the closure; however, last April the duo also closed their Austrian restaurant Edi & the Wolf due to “increasing operation costs.”

— A neighborhood Vietnamese restaurant with locations in Chelsea and Midtown has closed without explanation this week, according to a tipster. Co Ba, one of the few Vietnamese restaurants in Chelsea, was known for its pho and bahn mi lunch specials.

— Upper West Side wine bar and rotisserie chicken spot Le Petit Rooster has closed its doors less than a year after opening. There was “not enough business to survive,” the manager tells local publication the West Side Rag.

— After more than a decade, Midtown’s beloved Aldea has closed. Chef George Mendes, whose Portugese-influenced restaurant has maintained a Michelin star for years, tells Eater editor-in-chief Amanda Kludt that it’s time to take a break and “hit the reset button.”

— Būmu served its last dinner service this week just four months after opening its doors. The West Village izakaya was the latest from Joaquin “Quino” Baca, a chef who spent the early part of his career in the kitchens of Momofuku restaurants but who has had difficulty sustaining his solo projects in recent years.

— Chef and author Fany Gerson closed the flagship location of her Bed-Stuy doughnut shop Dough this week to focus on opening a new store, called Fan-Fan Doughnuts. Dough’s other locations and wholesale business will remain open.

— Lost Hours, the ambitious and esoteric Midtown cocktail bar from the team behind Death & Co, has shut down after one year of operation. The bar will be replaced by a whiskey-focused bar called the 86.

February 20

— Fort Greene staple Walter’s has closed its Williamsburg sports bar offshoot, Walter Sports, after more than a 12-year run in the neighborhood. The sports bar originally debuted as Walter Foods in Williamsburg in March of 2008, back when the only thing that owners Danny Minch and Dylan Dodd knew was they wanted to serve French dip on their menu. Eleven years later, Walter Foods had grown into a neighborhood staple, the kind of place where every person who walks through the doors “could feel like a regular.” But it wasn’t quite enough. In July 2019, Walter Foods announced that it would close, only to reopen as Walter Sports with five giant televisions three weeks later. Now, the Walter’s team is saying goodbye to Williamsburg to focus on sister restaurant Walter’s, which added a hidden Japanese restaurant Karasu to its back room in 2016. Minch and Dodd have also closed their all-day cafe Apollonia, which shuttered last month after less than a year in East Williamsburg.

— Williamsburg’s community-driven tasting room, Humboldt & Jackson, went out with dancing, smiles, and high fives this week after six years of business. The family-run restaurant and bar was known for hosting community events, including kitchen takeovers, wedding celebrations, baby showers, and drag bingo. The energy that propelled Humboldt & Jackson’s to local stardom will be carried on by Ben Turley and Brent Young of Meat Hook, who are planning to open a new tavern and restaurant at the same location this May, called Cozy Royale.

— Taïm chef Einat Admony’s couscous-focused West Village restaurant Kish-Kash closed last week after a little less than two years in the neighborhood. Despite receiving stellar reviews early on, business never quite picked up, and Admony says the restaurant’s location wasn’t ideal. The restaurant’s labor-intensive, Moroccan-style couscous will appear as recurring Tuesday specials at her nearby Middle Eastern restaurant Balaboosta starting next week.

— Forty Carrots, the Upper West Side ice cream shop located inside of Bloomingdale’s, has closed.

February 13

— Midtown sandwich shop Artiserie Sandwich Boutique shuttered this month, citing the high fees of food delivery apps as one reason for the closing. The restaurant posted an announcement on its door informing customers of the closure and advising them to not “order from a third party app unless you must.” In the beginning, food delivery apps like Seamless and Grubhub were popular with both businesses and customers, as they allowed restaurants to offer online delivery without having to build a website of their own. But increasingly, that access has come at a cost. “Restaurants pay up to 30% for each delivery order made through an app,” the owners of Artiserie said.

— New York institution the Meatball Shop closed its Lower East Side location over the weekend. In a note on the restaurant’s website, the owners shared that they are “shifting focus to a fuller, more familial, and more modern Italian experience,” featuring new menu items, drinks, and vegan options. The closure comes on the heels of other Meatball Shop departures in recent months, including in Westport and in Washington, D.C.

— After more than three years of serving vegan doughnuts to the East Village, Dun-Well has closed. According to an announcement over Instagram, the doughnut maker will now focus on expanding its flagship Brooklyn location and wholesale operations, which span closer to 20 stores across Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens.

— Charming East Village Italian restaurant Via Della Pace was destroyed in a fire after nearly 20 years of business. In an announcement over Instagram, the owners shared that the interior of the restaurant had been completely destroyed as a result of the fire and that they were unsure if and when they would be able to continue in the restaurant business.

February 6

— Two upscale eateries are saying see you soon, but not goodbye, to Staten Island this week just a few years after opening at a massive waterfront development in Stapleton. Barbecue restaurant Surf and seafood spot Barca, which landed in Urby Staten Island courtesy of Victor Rallo and Dave Pasternack, wrapped up service on Sunday. Following the closure, an announcement on Barca’s Instagram account revealed that the duo plan to bring two new restaurants to same locations: Navy Pier Prime — a prime steaks, chops, and cocktail lounge — and burger, wings, and beer spot Navy Pier Tavern.

— Gina La Fornarina and Gina Mexicana have closed their shared Italian and Mexican location on the Upper West Side. The joint restaurant has had a rocky few years, culminating in June of 2018 when the business temporarily closed and was forced to pay employees over $350,000 in back wages.

— Health-conscious ice cream spot Bive has closed after a little over a year of business on the Lower East Side. The Orchard Street ice cream shop — known for using non-traditional ingredients like echinacea, aloe vera, oak milk, and soursop — has covered its windows with brown paper.

— Comfort food and grilled cheese maker Melt Shop closed its East Village location less than a year after opening. A sign on the door from the “Melt Shop 4th Ave Fam” did not cite a reason for closing.

— Upper East Side pizzeria Numero 28 has closed its doors. “It closed about a week ago,” an employee told local publication West Side Rag, although no reason was offered.

— Taste of Persia, a beloved Persian restaurant tucked inside a Union Square pizzeria, closed over the weekend. An announcement by owner and chef Saaed Pourkay on the restaurant’s Facebook page confirmed that the restaurant’s lease would end on January 31.

— Llamita — the casual and eclectic offshoot of the acclaimed Williamsburg Peruvian restaurant Llama Inn — closed after more than a year of business in the West Village.

January 31

— East Williamsburg all-day restaurant Apollonia has closed less than a year after it opened. The restaurant’s owners — who also run Walter Foods (now Walter Sports) in Williamsburg, and Walter’s and Karasu in Fort Greene — made the announcement on the restaurant’s Instagram page. The stylish restaurant, which served Mediterranean-inspired dishes like lamb ribs, green chicken cooked in a cast-iron skillet, and anchovies with harissa, opened in June last year, but did not get enough customers to justify keeping the restaurant open any longer, the owners wrote in the Instagram post. They will, however, open a new restaurant in the space sometime this spring.

— Chicago-based pizza chain Uno Pizzeria and Grill’s Bayside, Queens location has shuttered after more than 30 years in the neighborhood. The pizzeria served its final meal on January 26, and the owners likely decided to close because of the rising rents in the neighborhood and issues with renegotiating the lease, according to local publication Qns.

— Lower East Side bubble tea destination Hey Tea & Hey Chick has closed less than nine months after it opened. A rebranding from an earlier name didn’t help it stay open either.

— West Village institution the Spotted Pig closed last weekend following a rocky few years due to the explosive allegations of sexual misconduct against its primary owner, Ken Friedman.

January 24

— A Times Square restaurant serving Korean corndogs with melted cheese and other epic fixin’s appears to have closed this week without explanation. Snowy Village closed its doors less than a week after Eater critic Robert Sietsema raved about their deep-fried, potato cube-dotted, and sugar-dipped dogs. The restaurant did not make an announcement about the closure but quietly removed mention of its Midtown location from its Instagram bio. All’s not lost however, a Snowy Village representative tells Eater that the corndogs are still being served at their Gansevoort Market location.

— Italian restaurant 10 Corso Como, located the South Street Seaport area, has closed to the public. The restaurant announced that it would be catering to corporate customers on an event-only basis through the New Year but has since extended that policy indefinitely.

— Soho’s Karvouna Mezze closed following a visit from the City Marshal last week. The traditional Greek restaurant closed less than a year after opening, making it the fourth closure at 241 Bowery in the last eight years.

— Upper West Side coffee shop and cafe Cafe 86 has closed for good after temporarily closing due to health violations.

— Acclaimed Houston chef Anita Jaisinghani closed the Nomad outpost of her casual Indian restaurant Pondicheri four years after it opened.

— After just one month of service, the Windows on the World employee restaurant Colors has permanently closed after reopening briefly in December.

January 16

— Cobble Hill lost a neighborhood favorite at the turn of the new year. Watty & Meg, a 12-year-old wine bar and restaurant on the corner of Court and Kane Streets, was a popular neighborhood gathering place for more than a decade, especially in the summer months when patrons would sit on the sidewalk. A note posted on the door did not say why it closed.

— After more than four years on Avenue A, Venezuelan restaurant Arepa Factory closed its doors. The owners shared the news over email, though they didn’t cite a reason for the closure. In addition to maintaining their location at Turnstyle food hall, which Eater critic Ryan Sutton enjoyed, the owners announced that they would open two new Arepa Factory restaurants in the near future.

— Neighborhood Italian restaurant Giorgione has closed after nearly two decades, the restaurant announced in an Instagram post set to the tune of the Byrds’ “Turn, Turn, Turn.” Owners Giorgio DeLuca, Jim Giddings, and AJ Cataffo also owned a sister restaurant called Giorgione 508 in Greenwich Village, which opened in 2005 and closed in 2008.

— Liquiteria, which opened in the East Village nearly 25 years ago and claims to be NYC’s first cold-pressed juice chain, has closed its five existing locations, with no mentions of the closure on its social media accounts. The first signs of trouble for the juice bar might be traced back to the 2018 closing of the original location at East 11th Street and Second Avenue. At that time, Liquiteria was operating six different locations and did not reveal any plans for a full shutdown.

— One of the Financial District’s liveliest cocktail bars, with live jazz and Cuban drinks, closed this week after more than a three-year run. Blacktail — the second project from the award-winning cocktail team behind the Dead Rabbit — served its last rum and coke on Friday.

January 10

— Brooklyn Heights Polish mainstay Teresa closed after 31 years of serving cheese pierogies, potato pancakes, and borscht, among other specialities. Neighborhood residents came to know of the restaurant’s closing after the owners listed the space for rent back in September 2019. The owners told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle that they wanted to retire, and were looking for a change. The humble diner was beloved among locals and served its last meal over the first weekend of January.

— Less than a year after it opened, Lower East Side fan tuan shop Jiang Xin Fan Tuan has closed. Eater senior critic Robert Sietsema named the rice roll spot one of his best restaurants of 2019. The tiny restaurant was also featured in the Times’s Hungry City column, but that wasn’t enough to save it from closure.

— A small food court located on the second floor of the WTC Westfield mall closed abruptly at the end of last year. An eviction notice posted on Market Lane’s entrance was the only notification of its closure. Westfield did not respond to a request for comment.

— Laidback Williamsburg bar Soft Spot closed after more than a decade in the neighborhood last week.

— After six years, Square Pizza on Clinton Street, on the Lower East Side, has closed.

— East Village restaurant Avenue C closed abruptly a little more than six months after it landed in the neighborhood.

— Upper East Side Mexican restaurant Mexicue has closed about a year and a half after it opened.

— After nearly 60 years, Times Square’s Tad’s Steaks is no more.

— Adam Leonti’s long-awaited namesake restaurant Leonti is gone after just a year.

— After six years, Upper East Side roast meat restaurant Rotisserie Georgette has served its last meal.

— Park Slope’s major black brunch destination Woodland Bar closed after noise complaints from neighbors that the owner claimed were rooted in racism.

— Splashy roast duck flop DaDong closed after just over two years.

— Forest Hills Lebanese favorite Wafa’s Express closed. While it started off in Forest Hills, it had relocated to East Williamsburg at the time of its closing.

— Greenwich Village Mexican restaurant Horchata is no more.

January 3

— A Kips Bay restaurant that served the same meal for 90 years has closed. Marchi’s, an Italian restaurant located on East 31st Street, near Second Avenue, served its last meal on December 28. Since its opening in 1929, the family-run restaurant offered just one pre-fixe dinner menu comprised of an antipasto, lasagna, a fish dish, options to choose between a chicken or veal dish, and two choices for dessert. Owner Christine Marchi told the Post that the family was ready to take a break after its decades-long run. Located the base of a townhouse, with an idyllic entrance surrounded by vines, the restaurant had a loyal fan base, and at the time of its closing, dinner cost $61.75 per person.

— After 47 years of business in Soho, health food favorite Spring Natural — formerly Spring Street Natural — closed on New Year’s Day. The owners made the announcement in a post on the restaurant’s Facebook page but did not specify the reason behind the closure. Owner Rus Shoenholt founded the restaurant in 1973 at its original location at 146 Spring Street. A rent hike forced the restaurant to move around the corner in 2016, albeit to a bigger location at 96 Kenmare Street. The restaurant was known for dishes like its almond veggie burger, the taco salad, the challah French toast, and the Mangolian beef and broccoli.

— Greenpoint pizza spot Ria Bella closed after five years of business in December. Its Sicilian pies attracted local residents to the northern end of Greenpoint, according to local blog Greenpointers.

— Cocktail bar Mailroom, located in the South Street Seaport area, closed abruptly in December. It was started by the team behind Montauk party destination the Surf Lodge.

— French restaurant Tree Bistro, located in the East Village, closed after 12 years of service.

December 27

— Upper West Side mainstay Cleopatra’s Needle has closed after 30 years of business in the neighborhood, the West Side Rag has learned. The restaurant and jazz club was one of the few places in the neighborhood that played live music every night; it served Mediterranean fare like a falafel platter, baba ganoush, and stuffed grape leaves, and was known for offering happy hour cocktails every day of the week. The restaurant shuttered due to a combination of factors, including the escalating rents and the competition in the neighborhood, one of the owners told the West Side Rag. The space, located on Broadway between West 92nd and 93rd Streets, is already undergoing demolition work for a new tenant.

— Popular Upper East Side French bistro Demarchelier — known as much for its classic French fare as the Cubist and Surrealist art created by its owner — closes on December 28 after 41 years.

December 19

— Acclaimed Flatiron District Korean restaurant Hwaban has closed just a little over a year after it opened on West 19th Street. The restaurant — known for its modern Korean fare with dishes like kimchi stew, braised oxtail, and roe soup — closed just before Thanksgiving. Owners Mihyun Han and Key Kim tell Eater that business wasn’t greatand that they’ve decided to focus on their sushi omakase restaurant, Kosaka, in Greenwich Village. Times critic Pete Wells gave the restaurant two stars in his review and Post critic Steve Cuozzo lauded it for its simplicity.

— Cozy Greenwich Village Ethiopian restaurant Injera closed last week after five years of business at Abingdon Square, according to a tipster. The restaurant posted a sign on its window alerting visitors to its permanent closure. “Thank you for your support all these beautiful years,” reads the sign out front. The restaurant was known for its namesake flatbread topped with its beef and chicken preparations.

— Popular Italian gelato chain Grom closed its West Village location in November, according to a tipster. The international gelateria still has two NYC locations: one at the Westfield World Trade Center mall, and the other at Columbus Circle.

— The fast-casual Chinese American restaurant Lucky Lee’s, which sparked outrage for its racist marketing language, closed less than a year after it opened.

— Trailblazing Filipino restaurant Maharlika closed after nine years in its East Village home. Owners Nicole Ponseca and Miguel Trinidad will continue to run their nearby gastropub Jeepney.

December 6

— East Village coffee shop the Bean has shuttered two of its locations, EV Grieve learned. The locations at First Avenue and East 9th Street, and Second Avenue and East 3rd Street have closed due to rising costs. The coffee shop has one remaining location on Third Avenue and East 9th Street, and a soon-to-open location at on Broadway and East 9th Street.

— A Long Island City diner called Dorian Cafe, located right off of the Vernon Boulevard-Jackson Avenue subway stop, has closed.

— An East Village bakery serving traditional Colombian food is no more. Punto Rojo had racked up several food safety violations at that time of its closure.

— After a little over two years on St. Mark’s Place, Tramonti Pizza has closed its East Village location, and plans to re-open in a new, bigger space in Nomad.

— Inventive East Village sandwich shop Harry & Ida’s Meat and Supply Co ended its run after four years, at the end of November.