(Photos courtesy of Tilt)
Lit’s Follow-Up Inside of the McKibbin Lofts Finally Opens Friday
lit lounge
The Cock Slips Into Lit’s Old Home, Gets ‘Bigger, Longer, Harder’
The Cock has moved its trademark neon rooster up a few blocks and it’s now glowing/crowing atop the former home of Lit Lounge. After going two rounds in what might be called a cockfight with Community Board 3, it looks like the gay bar and East Village institution has emerged with its feathers unruffled. Last night, the Oh, Fuck You Honey party was in full swing in the basement, which looks pretty much exactly like it did before Lit closed in July, with the notable addition of some gogo dancers, a shirtless bartender, and some red light bulbs strung up on the ceiling.
Ryan McGinley’s New Photos: Walking Buck-Naked in a Winter Wonderland
(Photos: Daniel Maurer)
Ryan McGinley’s seventh opening at Team Gallery was just like all the others: at any given moment, there were just as many people on Grand Street as in the gallery – a fact that did not go unnoticed by the uniformed and undercover cops who rolled by to tell the mob of downtown scenesters to clear the sidewalk and bike lane.
We’re Still Waiting For the ‘Last Special Nights’ of Lit Lounge
Outside Lit (Photo: Daniel Maurer)
We waited with bated breath last week for what we expected to be an epic reopening of Lit Lounge. Last month the bar, which is nearing its end of days in the East Village, posted on Facebook that “after a much needed deep cleaning and even more crucial maintenance and repairs,” the place would reopen on Friday, September 11. But that date came and went, and the gates at the downtown institution remained down.
Community Board Blocks The Cock, Chance for a Bigger Cock Now in Hands of State Liquor Authority
The State Liquor Authority Committee at Community Board 3 convened yesterday evening (Photo: Nicole Disser)
Members of Community Board 3 tried to block The Cock from moving to the former Lit Lounge space at a meeting last night. But Allan Mannarelli, owner of the gay dive, is going forward with his plans despite outcry from neighbors.
“If they think I’m going to stand and get abused they have another thing coming,” Mannarelli had texted us before going before CB 3’s SLA committee.
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The Cock Is Moving into Lit’s Old Space, ‘Will Prevail’ Against Naysayers
Lit. (Photo: Daniel Maurer)
Yesterday, while sharing our oral history of Lit Lounge, we reported that Allan Mannarelli, owner of The Cock, was taking over the space. Today he confirms to us that he plans to move his Second Avenue dive a few blocks up into Lit’s currently shuttered home, and hopes to have bands like Scissor Sisters and Peaches play at the new incarnation of the “rock ‘n roll fag bar.” The potential move isn’t sitting well with the East Fifth Street Block Association, aka the “plywood patrol.” Ahead of a Community Board 3 meeting on Monday, the association is circulating a flyer demanding that neighbors “BLOCK THE COCK” and tell the “notorious” Mannarelli to “KEEP HIS COCK WHERE IT IS!!!!!”
‘It Was Our Fantasy’: The Story of Lit Lounge, Told By Its Regulars
Cookie Gates at Lit Lounge (Photo by Erik Foss)
When Lit Lounge’s co-owner Erik Foss announced a month ago that the East Village institution would close after 13 years, we thought the place would have at least a few more wild nights in store if not the goodbye party of the decade. But after a particularly unseemly incident (even for Lit) a couple of weeks ago, the bar unceremoniously shuttered without so much as a nod and a “later, guys.”
Tags: aliya naumoff, Arts + Culture, bars, Bars + Restaurants, carlo mccormick, cat marnell, dan colen, dima dubson, East Village, eric duncan, erik foss, gibby miller, Ivory Serra, Jeremy Bastard, Justine Delaney, leo fitzpatrick, lit lounge, Mark Ryan, Matt Campbell, Michael Hornburg, Mike Nouveau, oral history, Paul Sevigny, RIP, ryan mcginley, Shelter Serra
Erik Foss of Lit Clears the Air After Backlash Over Instagrammed Text Message
Photo courtesy of Lit Lounge
For better or for worse, we live in a world in which things you text to one person have the potential to get screen captured and blasted to their 2,475 followers. That’s precisely what happened to Lit Lounge co-owner Erik Foss following this week’s “Lit Mondays.”
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Eat a Sloppy Joe at Currant Cafe Sunday While You Wait For Lit Brooklyn to Open
Meet Us in the Bathroom at Lit’s 12th Birthday Party
In the wake of Odessa and 7A closing (and more recently, the shuttering of San Loco’s Avenue A location), why not celebrate an East Village institution that’s still here? Lit is turning 12 and some notable men-about-town (or, men-about-downtown) are DJing its birthday party. Sunday night, Jonathan Toubin (also doing a dance-off at Brooklyn Bowl this weekend with Andrew WK), Prince Terrence (last seen hanging with One Direction), Paul Sevigny, Steve Lewis and several others (see flyer above) will be “entertaining.” The party goes from 10:30 p.m. till whenever Shepard Fairey shows up.
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