Here Are Some Of The East Village Businesses That Closed In 2017

EAST VILLAGE, NY — 2017 saw numerous beloved local businesses shut their doors in the East Village, as small business owners increasingly clamored for more protections from skyrocketing rents.

The storied neighborhood suffered a particularly devastating blow to its proud history when a Starbucks opened on St. Marks Place, the avenue that has long been a symbol of the neighborhood's counterculture. Local business owners continued to organize this year and are asking city leaders to create a "special business district" that would restrict the number of new chains that could open in the area. While that proposal is being reviewed by local leaders, multiple longtime bars, restaurants and shops have closed their doors in the East Village.
Here are some of the long-running local businesses that closed their doors in 2017:

• Angelica Kitchen, 300 E. 12th St: The popular vegan restaurant closed in April after 40 years in the East Village. The restaurant opened in 1976, and in 2017 announced it was closing because of operating costs and increased rent; Monica Gotz, a friend of the restaurant's owner, said the rent for the space at 300 E 12th St. was about $21,000 a month. You can read more here.
• Cafe Orlin, 41 St Marks Place: The beloved St. Marks Place restaurant Cafe Orlin closed in the East Village after 36 years in the East Village. The owner did not give a reason for the standby's closure.
• Polish G.I. Delicatessen, 109 First Ave: The longtime Polish deli closed in June after 21 years in the neighborhood. The owner declined to comment on the reasons behind the closure.
• San Loco, 123 Second Ave.: The East Village taco shop closed in June after 30 years in the neighborhood because of "unsustainable" rent increase, its managers said. The restaurant, located at 124 Second Ave., first opened in 1986, the flagship location of the mini-chain. Now, 31 years later, San Loco's original location is shutting its doors. The family-owned business said in a Facebook post that the Second Avenue location was closing "due to a rent increase that is unsustainable." The chain's remaining locations, on the Lower East Side, in Williamsburg, and in Bushwick, remain open.
• The International, 120 1/2 First Ave.: Although The International hasn't vanished completely from the village, the dive bar did close its doors at the East Village storefront where its been open for nearly three decades this year. Its owners moved the storied bar in with another watering hole they own, the Coal Yard, just one block south on First Avenue. Coal Yard reopened as the International at 102 First Ave.
• HiFi, 169 Avenue A: The legendary bar closed in October because the new generation of East Village bar hoppers were "indifferent" to the quirky rock bar's storied history, its owner said. The watering hole had long been a local favorite, and served as a starting ground for some of today's most successful indie rock bands. The bar was also famous for its massive jukebox that held more than 4,000 records. "The generation of people who inhabit this neighborhood on weekends remain mostly indifferent to the place," owner Mike Stuto wrote on Facebook. "HiFi seems to occupy a place square in the middle between 'dive bar' and 'mixologist paradise' -- and while I hoped that would help us have a broad appeal to the newbies, it turns out that it translated as utilitarian (aka boring) to their tastes." The bar first opened in 1989 as Brownie's, where it frequently hosted indie-rock bands including Spoon, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Death Cab for Cutie.
• Continental, 25 Third Ave.: The East Village bar, famous for its shots deal, announced that it would close in 2018. The bar has existed under different names for nearly thirty years, and its famous for its shots deal. Continental offers one of the best boozy bargains in NYC, with a round-the-clock 5 shots-for-$12 special.Until recently, the bar's shot deal sold for just $10. The building that houses the Continental, along with two neighboring buildings, is going to be demolished and turned into office space.

• Grassroots Tavern, 20 St Marks Place: The longtime dive bar Grassroots Tavern closed this year after serving its last rounds on New Years Eve. The beloved local institution first opened on St Marks Place in 1975. One of the bar's co-managers, James Stratton, told Bedford and Bowery that the rent had simply become too high for the bar to sustain. "We were not forced out by any means, it would just have required a radical change for the business and the way we operate," he told Bedford and Bowery. "We basically decided we had to throw in the towel."

Image credit: Ciara McCarthy / Patch