Lit, the onetime “place where the Strokes hang out” and the only place that was Lit before a hundred places were “the new Lit,” is turning 16. In New York City nightlife years, that’s about 95, so who can blame the East Village bar for entering its teenage/golden years with a killer b-day party. Sure, the den of depravity atop a cavern of chaos has seen some changes over the years, but as you can see from the Friday the 13th-themed flyer, it can still draw a virtual dream team of downtown scenesters, including Ben Cho (Dima Dubson’s right-hand man during Morrissey night at Sway), Eric Duncan of Rub N Tug, Lit owner Erik Foss, and many more. It all happens Monday, Feb. 23, from 10pm to 4am — if nothing else, go chat up Paul Sevigny so you have a chance in hell of getting into his new place.
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Rostarr’s New Mural On the Roof Of The Standard Will Floor You
(Photos: Daniel Maurer)
Rostarr, the artist who did a mural for our pop-up newsroom a little over a year ago, has taken things to a whole new level — the rooftop level of The Standard, High Line, to be exact. On Friday, friends of Romon Kimin gathered in the hotel’s gift shop to raise their champagne glasses at his epic new work covering the ground of Le Bain, the hotel’s 18th-floor lounge.
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Lit Is Opening a Place in the McKibbin Lofts
Barack and Mitt at Lit. (Photo: Daniel Maurer)
We’ve been hearing rumblings that the folks behind Lit, which just celebrated 12 years in the East Village, were working on a new bar in the McKibbin lofts. Back in December, Erik Foss said those were just rumors, but now he’s let the cat out of the bag.
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Odessa Bar Is Gone, and Motor City Comes Back in a Music Video
Odessa’s bathroom. (Photo: Bedford + Bowery’s Instagram)
After the Bedford + Bowery Bazaar on Saturday, we ended up stopping by Odessa Cafe Bar‘s last night after 48 years on Avenue A. Around 3 a.m. the place was buzzing with a very young crowd, though at least one member of the old guard had planned to pay his respects. Erik Foss, who was a bartender there before opening Lit and Fuse Gallery (the latter is also closing, on September 11), wrote on Instagram: “ODESSA , the bar I started out at in the east village is closing tonight for ever, so sad, and haden’t it been for this magical place LIT probably wouldn’t have existed.” Lauren Dillard (Lauren Flax‘s bandmate in CREEP) chimed in: “That’s where I would get perogies before I would Dj for the night at lit!”
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Here’s What Went Down On Max Fish’s Last Night
So, yeah. Max Fish closed last night with an epic sendoff. Yesterday photographer Daniel Savage shared his photos of the bar’s regulars and last night, our own Taji Ameen stopped in (or tried to, anyway) to hang with them. He brought back the video above and the report below.
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Bicycle Film Festival Returns to LES This Week, But May Be Brooklyn Bound
At last year’s street party. (Photo: Stephen Robinson)
The Bicycle Film Festival kicks off tonight with a party at Le Baron in Chinatown and continues through the weekend with dozens of screenings at Anthology Film Archives, an after-party at Lit, and, of course, the annual street party.
Despite speculation that the 13-year-old festival might move to Brooklyn, organizer Brendt Barbur decided to keep it local — for now, anyway. “This is where we were born,” he said of the East Village and Lower East Side.
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