Blogger C.O. Moed passes on the upsetting news that the Blarney Cove on East 14th will be closing this month. She writes:
"They changed one of the TVs to the Mets game, we got Rolling Rocks in big ass glasses because the Pabst only came in tall boys, the guy at the end of the bar played every version of every baseball song on the jukebox for us, including a song about being a Mets fan which really should be listed as a mental disorder in the diagnostic book and we watched the Mets play the Marlins. I asked the bartender when they'd be closing. 'End of June,' she said. 'It's sad.'"
Mars Bar, the Holiday Cocktail Lounge, and now Blarney Cove. A king among dive bars, it's been here for decades--maybe over 50 years--and still regularly tops "Best Dive Bar" lists for the city. Wendy Mitchell, author of New York City's Best Dive Bars, wrote: "In a city of homogenized bars, The Blarney Cove stands apart as a true one-of-a-kind."
And New York Magazine described it, "Blarney Cove isn't a faux dive bar, it's the real thing... one of the last places in the ever-gentrifying East Village where you can still hoist a Bud with characters who have earned their reputations over decades of serious drinking."
But the Cove's stretch of 14th Street has been changing dramatically--E.V. Grieve notes those changes in his coverage of the upcoming closure.
photo: Ken Micallef
I don't go often enough to the Cove, but when I do, it's always good, always a scene, always a story. Last time I wrote about it here, I noted:
At the Blarney Cove, old men hook their canes to the lip at the edge of the bar before taking their seats. One of those old guys says “ha-ha” and “ha-ha-ha,” not laughing, just saying "ha." And if you're lucky, you might overhear a mature lady explaining to another gray-haired fella all about her dear mother’s “nice pair of tits.”
The Cove has a rough-and-tumble reputation, but it's a friendly place. The second time I ever sat at the bar, Matty the bartender asked me if I wanted “the usual.” Since I’d only been there once before, I figured he had me confused with someone else, but he knew exactly what I wanted and how I wanted it. After my second drink, he bought me one on the house.
More dives on VNY:
Holiday Cocktail Lounge (vanished)
P&G (vanished)
Hickey's (vanished)
Mars Bar (vanished)
Dick's (vanished)
JJ's Navy Yard (vanished)
Ruby's (almost vanished)
Holland Bar (vanished, then revived)
Jimmy's Corner
Sophie's
Subway Inn
Also: Check out the documentary "New York Dive."
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