On Saturday, two neighborhood long-timers quietly said goodbye. In Greenpoint, the Palace Cafe, which had officially closed Sept. 3 after 60 years in business, held one last goodbye party. Meanwhile, in the East Village, Edge Bar turned off its neon “SLEEP LATE” sign after 29 years on East 3rd Street. In what was surely a somber bar crawl, photographer Nick McManus went to both to take some Parting Shots for us.
As DNAinfo reported, the Palace Cafe’s 72-year-old owner, Geraldine Curtin, decided it was time to retire, in part because the bar’s onetime Irish-American clientele had dwindled to just 10 regulars.
For those in the know, the Tudor-styled throwback room across from McGolrick Park, which had housed a bar since the 1920s, remained a great conversation spot with a semicircular bar and a killer jukebox. But the owners– including Mike Ryan, who was there Saturday when McManus took his group portraits– have decided to sell the place and the building.
Meanwhile in the East Village, one of the neighborhood’s unsung dives, the Edge, closed just weeks after its 29th anniversary party. A bar rep told EV Grieve that it was shuttering because “[the landlord] found an opportunity to sue us for a bunch of money that we can’t pay.” McManus described the last night to us: “Many members of the nearby Hells Angels were in attendance that mingled with everyone and the place stayed full till almost 5am.”
