By Benyamin Davidsons
The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for the restaurant and bar industry—particularly in Manhattan’s East Village.
As reported by the NY Post, the East Village restaurant and bars, famed for their active night life, were the hardest hit of any Big Apple neighborhood. The East Village, sometimes called NYC’s version of “Bourbon Street”, is known for its young, late-night crowd which spends more money on drinks than food. The neighborhood was most negatively impacted by the pandemic led curfews put into place after the lockdowns were eased, and which now still stand at 11 p.m.
Since last March, when the pandemic first hit, some 55 restaurants have been permanently shuttered in the East Village. That is more than double the number of restaurant closed for business in other New York City neighborhoods, as per The Infatuation, a Web site tracking closures during the pandemic. As a comparison, in the West Village 21 restaurants have closed; 19 restaurants closed on the Lower East Side; 15 closed in Williamsburg and 15 in Staten Island; 14 closed on the Upper West Side; 13 closed in Midtown; and 11 closed in Chinatown, as per the Infatuation.
The exaggerated number of closures in the East Village makes sense in line with the active liquor business that had flourished there pre-pandemic, and the curfew placed restricting their businesses. “There are more liquor licenses per square block in the East Village than anywhere else in New York, and when you destroy the liquor business, you can’t survive,” said restaurateur Stratis Morfogen.
“The neighborhood is filled with college students and first-time apartment owners — people in their twenties who don’t sit down to eat until after midnight. Pizzerias stay open here until 7 a.m. In most neighborhoods, food is 75 percent and liquor is 25 percent. In the East Village, it’s the opposite. Liquor is a vital part of the East Village’s restaurant business and it has been crushed by the curfew,” Morfogen said. “They would have been one of the first neighborhoods to recover if it wasn’t for the curfew, since it is easier to serve drinks than food. Now it will be one of the last,” he added.
“How can a restaurant that has been closed, with no outdoor space, pay $35,000 a month in rent? PPP money only goes so far,” said Ismael Alba owner of Argentinian restaurant Buenos Aires, who says he stayed afloat because he owns the building, and he began selling imported Argentine meat out of his restaurant.
