Max Fish Is Closing, and the Pink Pony May Be, Too (Updated)

?What is it about deaths always coming in threes? A day after news spread that Mars Bar is planning to close for two years to accommodate the development of low-cost housing on Second Avenue, there are sad tidings of the imminent demise of Max Fish, and possibly its Ludlow Street next-door neighbor, the Pink Pony.

Paper magazine is reporting that Max Fish, which has stood on Ludlow Street for 21 years, will close its doors on Jan. 30. The cause of death: rising rents, and the failure of the art bar's landlord to come to an agreement with its owner, Ulli Rimkus.

Rimkus does plan to re-open Max Fish elsewhere with the same staff and reasonable prices, and this Sunday will hold the bar's annual birthday celebration, as scheduled. No word on where she'll re-open, but we wouldn't be surprised to see another Rag & Bone boutique colonize the bar's empty shell.

Whatever ends up there, it may or may not have the Pink Pony as its neighbor, as Rimkus told Paper that it, too, is closing. A staffer at the laid-back, quasi-French bistro told Eater they know nothing of the closing, so perhaps the rumor is just that. But there's a chill on upper Ludlow Street, and it's not just from the glass towers that have cast it in a permanent shadow.

Update: The Pink Pony's owner Lucien Bahaj confirmed to Grub Street that his restaurant is closing, but he plans to re-open it elsewhere in the neighborhood.

Have a tip or restaurant-related news? Send it to fork@villagevoice.com.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured site: So, Why is Wikileaks a Good Thing Again?.

View the original article here