A few weeks ago, The Observer spent a hell of a long time in Mars Bar, the storied punk-themed dive on Second Avenue, expecting it to close any day. Then, we got word of a grace period that could last up to six weeks. They wouldn’t go out without a fight. Old habits die hard. All that good stuff.
But today, EV Grieve reported that Mars Bar’s bottles of whiskey stopped pouring. Could the beloved tattered closet of a saloon be done for good?
We called, and it seems the time of demise is still up in the air.
“Hello,” a man said when he picked up the bar’s clunky plastic land line phone.
It’s The Observer, we said.
“We’re closed,” he said.
What happened?
“Health Department shut us down.”
So, is this the end?
“No,” he said. “I have to go.”
The stalwarts, then, insist the place will get its act together before the wrecking ball comes, but that date’s just a few weeks away. Aspiring punk rock revivalists, start looking elsewhere. You better pray there’s another charmingly rude rust den to serve you Leroux Rock & Rye because Mars Bar is done, dead today or dead tomorrow.
