Often described as the last bastion for the East Village, Mars Bar is looking to close down to make room for a fancy new building, I'm assuming something shiny, metallic and out of place. But I guess that is how things go now a days. We should be thankful it lasted this long throughout this neighborhood transition.
I'll miss that juke box that's for damn sure. Filth, Dystopia, Crass, NWA, I mean what more could you want. 
I'm sure we all have a few good stories around this place. If any of ya'll like to share, please comment. I knew, um, someone, who after drinking waaaay too much went down to catch the F train and 2nd Ave stop and decided to hop off the platform and walk the tunnels. Great plan. Maybe if he had a flashlight, and wasn't blackout drunk he wouldn't have required those face stitches. Listening to Filth will do that to you, be careful.Mars Bar 'Renovations' Will Actually Be Total Demolition
By Nate Freeman
December 9, 2010
December 9, 2010
Mars Bar is a cramped, derelict bar in the East Village frequented mostly by the kind of crusty folk who wish the block were still crawling with addicts and punks. And the people adequately faking it, of course. Anyway, it's closing for two years, and we explained why this is a bad thing for the neighborhood and, well, the city's drinking establishments in general. Mars Bar is truly a gem, if you get to know it.
Which makes this news especially crushing: Curbed is reporting that instead of "renovating" Mars Bar and the two tenements above it, the plan calls for full-fledged destruction. Taking its place will be an eyesore sure to riotously offend anyone with taste below 14th Street — a blocky, too-sleek, 12-story apartment building that will rise up on the patch of Second Avenue where Mars Bar currently stands.
Though the new space will be three to four times bigger, the owner says, it will have to be incorporated into the same boring residential-cum-retail model that's infiltrated much of the area. So, basically, an extension of the Whole Foods that stands a few hundred feet away. We'll miss you, original Mars Bar.
Which makes this news especially crushing: Curbed is reporting that instead of "renovating" Mars Bar and the two tenements above it, the plan calls for full-fledged destruction. Taking its place will be an eyesore sure to riotously offend anyone with taste below 14th Street — a blocky, too-sleek, 12-story apartment building that will rise up on the patch of Second Avenue where Mars Bar currently stands.
Though the new space will be three to four times bigger, the owner says, it will have to be incorporated into the same boring residential-cum-retail model that's infiltrated much of the area. So, basically, an extension of the Whole Foods that stands a few hundred feet away. We'll miss you, original Mars Bar.
5 comments:
apparently its Drew Berrymores favorite NYC bar. There is a cut out about it right on the window.
alot of stories indeed.
Don't forget to add Max Fish to the list. They'll be closing up shop in January. Get your drink on while you still can.
whats happenin to MaxFish? why o why?
wow that blows. . I used to work across the street from that bar 20 years ago, my boss would go in for a drink every day. I think the bartender was chic with a shaved head and a tattooed eye on her neck or on her head.. cant remember... coulda been a magical unicorn for all i know it was so long ago
Yeah I lived around the block from Mars Bar... times they are a changing
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