Lower East Side’s anchor businesses are nearly endangered species

Jess Wisloski, Yahoo! Local editor

News Analysis

Rising rents have changed the Lower East Side over the years, but a set of longtime Ludlow Street establishments will be the most recent casualty, Gothamist reported this week.

In January, the neighborhood bids farewell to two grandfather tenants, gallery and bar Max Fish and Pink Pony's "Cafe Litteraire & Cine Club." [The landlord, Gothamist discovered, was not aware of the departures.]

Both places nurtured a relationship with the local creative types of the Lower East Side, as the Observer's Nate Freeman reports, and it flourished as those types attracted the other types - their fans, friends, and followers.

In the days before Cake Shop or Pianos, and well before Arlene's Grocery faded into the mix of Rivington Street's many attractions, I remember when the bars and eats in the tagged-and-tattooed neighborhood were fewer and farther between.

In 2000, I was an NYU film school kid, and Ludlow St. was increasingly the happening place. Then, the still-gritty block reeled when its first uber-trendy nosh shop, Grilled Cheese NYC, moved in, right between the Pink Pony cafe and Ludlow Guitars' old location. It was greeted with a mix of excitement (dare you hate on grilled cheese?) and apprehension, seen then as a harbinger of bold new things to come.

At night the streets still saw noisy locals and occasional muggings, and getting a cab required hailing one madly from down the block on E. Houston St. — but it was a destination — not just for grilled cheese and frozen margaritas to-go, but for vintage shops and fashion boutiques. For the people.

That scene helped to build the area into a place where condo complexes and luxury apartments wanted to be, too.

Astronomical rents have now forced both tenants out - their bill had tripled, according to Gothamist. Pink Pony's owner told Grub Street he anticipates opening elsewhere. January 30 is expected to be the last day.

Max Fish - or "Fish Bar" as the Observer story notes - was not successful in a May bid to get a new liquor license in an area now exhausted by nightclubs and bars. The community board rejected the request, citing residents' complaints of patron noise and honking cabs.

On a separate note, another local staple, Mars Bar, may face gut renovation or extinction, though the loss of the garish dive-bar would be to benefit a low-income housing development.

So what of the wave of new businesses that followed those pioneers? If it's any indication, Grilled Cheese NYC also closed.

Images Top to Bottom: Ludlow Guitars is seen on Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side August 18, 2005 in New York City. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images); Max Fish, provided by Max Fish for the New York Observer; Old street scenes of the Lower East Side (AP Photo)