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Mars Bar Owner Confirms Return To East Village
By
Nell Casey
Published May 1, 2014
Modified May 1, 2014
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By
Nell Casey
Published May 1, 2014
Modified May 1, 2014
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It looks like some form of Mars Bar may really, actually return to the sacrificial altar that gave birth to TD Bank. The docket for Community Board 3's May 12th meeting includes "Paul Mil Cafe Inc, 11-17 2nd Ave (op/alt/gut renovation) (Mars Bar)" under its SLA committee docket meeting. Reboot rumors began and were ultimately confirmed by Mars Bar Frank Penza, who told Bedford + Bowery they are "going to reopen."
Though the bar and jukebox are rumored to still exist, Penza says that whatever they end up doing, "it'll be much different than the other place." Developers for Jupiter 21—the apartment complex that sits atop the bar's grave—own half of the bar plus the liquor license, so they'll have a big influence on whatever happens. Penza also isn't sure of the establishment's name; "I don’t even know if they’re going to call it the Mars Bar but they have a right to call it the Mars Bar, or anything else, because [they own] 50 percent.”
EV Grieve notes that the bank has occupied most of the retail space, including the corner spot that use to be the bar, but there's a few thousand square feet of space on the East First Street side that includes a basement. There's no timeline for an opening but Penza says there's extensive renovating that needs to be done, so we probably won't be tippling there in the near future. We're all for paying homage to an East Village institution, but is Mars Bar without fear of disease contraction really Mars Bar?
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jupiter 21
mars bar
td bank
Nell Casey
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