New Pop-Up Bar Raises Money For Puerto Rico Hurricane Relief

CARROLL GARDENS, NY — A new pop-up bar opened at the former on Court Street that will donate all of its profits to Hurricane Maria relief efforts in Puerto Rico. The spot is the first temporary bar set up by the owners of a former East Village spot that donated their funds to anti-Trump groups.

The El Puente bar opened last week at 387 Court St., which formerly housed August Laura, and plans to run until the middle of January. It was started as a partnership with the group behind the former East Village Coup and human rights group El Puente to raise funds and awareness.

"It’ll be a place where people can come and have drinks and have great cocktails and all the profits from the drinking will go towards Puerto Rico," said Ravi DeRossi, owner of Coup.

For the pop-up, DeRossi teamed up with two craft cocktail bartenders from Puerto Rico who came up with drinks like a Chocolate Caliente, Mexcal Sour and more to serve. Aside from profits, the bar will also accept donations like blankets and sleeping bags to send to Puerto Rico, where parts of the island are still without power three months after the storm.

(Image via Paul Fedele)

El Puente is the first pop-up bar made by Coup team after they shuttered their East Village space to focus on hosting similar temporary ones around the country to raise money for different causes.

Coup made headlines in April when they opened the city's first non-profit bar at 64 Cooper Square and vowed to donate all profits there to anti-Trump organizations. However, the group couldn't legally register as a 501c3 while running the bar, so decided in September to shut their space.

"We’re donating all the profits but we were still paying a ton of money in taxes," said DeRossi. "We were paying more money to the government then we were actually donating."

The group wanted to officially register as a non-profit and decided to host pop-up bars around the country to raise money. The paperwork to become a 501c3 hasn't gone through yet, so DeRossi said they decided to just focus their efforts on New York City in the meantime.

"We wanted to sort of keep this thing alive and we're doing little pop-up here and there," he said.

Once the 501c3 goes through, DeRossi said the group thinks they'll host their first pop-up bar somewhere in Los Angeles.

Lead image: Paul Fedele