Gavin Thomas (Photo: NY Mag)
Spike Hill has closed and is auctioning off its every last bottle this afternoon.
We just came from the public auction, where the globe lights went for $5, a refrigerated bin went for $125, and incredibly, the handsome antique bar went for just $300.
Spike Hill was an unwitting symbol of gentrification in 2005, when Earwax owner Tom Schmitz opened what was then billed as a gastropub. In an NYMag.com listing, Emily Gould opined that “with its fancied-up bar food, sweet-natured staff, and frequent Bugaboo sightings,” the bar seemed “to have been whisked off its foundations in Park Slope and plopped down in Williamsburg by a tornado.” But she admitted that “in the form of a frosty pint of Guinness, gentrification goes down remarkably smooth.”
Nearly a decade later, with a Dunkin’ Donuts next-door and a Starbucks Reserve around the corner, the bar is now being portrayed as a victim of gentrification. Last month, when news first broke of the sale of 186 Bedford Avenue and the bar’s imminent closure, Gothamist wrote, “Sure, the bathrooms were icky and it kinda smelled like pee in places it shouldn’t, but it’s always a damn shame when a grungy dive rock bar shutters, especially in bourgie-besieged Williamsburg.”
Now the bar has made it official, via a Facebook post: “That’s it, y’all. Thanks for the good times. If you want your own little piece of Spike Hill, stop by Wednesday at 11AM when pretty much everything that’s not bolted to the walls (and some stuff that is in fact bolted to the walls) will be up for a public auction.”
When we left, the auctioneer was selling off bottles of amaretto. “You’re going to need them for the holiday,” he nudged a crowd of several industry types. Fifteen bottles of Old Overholt went for $5 a pop.