Thursday, December 9, 2010
Food & Drink
Time to Plan Your Final Pilgrimage to Mars Bar
Posted
by Mark Asch
on Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 4:26 PM
It's seemed for a long time that Mars Bar, the dingy and narrow East Village bar constructed entirely from graffiti and the body odor of rent-controlled neighborhood lifers, was living on borrowed time on the ever glitzier corner of Second Avenue and East First Street. It had been reported earlier this week that a much more sanitary new development coming to the the street would result in the temporary closure of Mars Bar 9 and 11-17 2nd Ave were expanded and renovated—but now it
appears the the buildings will be demolished and rebuilt (though owner Hank Penza will retain control of the space).
The low-income guarantees built into the 12-story, 60-unit (ugly as hell) development seem to have the support of the community at this stage of the process, so unless things change you can expect to see a rebuilt Mars Bar coming to a Hartford museum some time in 2013 or so.
First they came for the OTB, and I was not a retired chain-smoker breathing from an oxygen tank, so I said nothing...
Tags: Mars Bar, East Village, Development, Gentrification, The Bad Old Days, Vanishing NYC, The OTB
