228758 Fri Dec 02 14:37:26 -0800 2005 27 18 Manhattan 0 1215247 people have asked and wondered, so fyi below is official word about the closing of one of the best craftbeer bars around, the blind tiger ale house. it's from an email: "Dear Blind Tigerites: > > I've got some bad news. I meant to tell you sooner, but with all the > hurricanes and earthquakes, I didn't want to depress you further. Now > that we have a strategy for victory in Iraq, however, and hurricane > season is over, and the Pakistanis finally have some blankets, and the > bird flue pandemic is still a ways off, and the housing boom hasn't > crashed yet, and we haven't run out of oil, I feel like this is a good > time to tell you the Blind Tiger is closing. We're still open of > course, but we're basically a dead bar walking. Our execution is set > for Tues Dec 27th at 4 a.m. There will be no reprieve. The good news > is, according to a recent scientific study, stress does not cause > cancer. If it did, the Blind Tiger would be taking us with her. > > According to the official story, our landlord is renovating the > building for some really expensive apartments, and he wants to replace > us with a Marc Jacobs store. If he let us stay, we might keep his new > tennants up at night. I tried to tell him our stereo only has one > working speaker left, and it doesn't always work. He didn't care. I > also said you guys would be really really quiet. He told me Starbucks > was hiring and they had a good pension plan. Gentrification is pretty > funny until it happens to you. > > Don't worry, we've got our own "Strategy for Victory." The Small > Business Administration is offering cheap commercial property in Iraq, > and they're throwing in paramilitary training for anyone who's > interested. After searching fruitlessly for an affordable space in New > York, we decided to purchase an excellent corner in an up and coming > section of Fallujah. It was even cheaper than some of the other > properties because it's still behind enemy lines. > They say that if you can make it in New York, you can make it > anywhere. Well, we didn't make it. Maybe we'll have better luck > opening a micro-beer bar in the middle of a jihad. > > In any case, the most important thing to remember in all of this is > that the landlord has a dumpster with our name on it, and there are > only 25 drinking days left before he carts us away. I suggest you use > them wisely. > > I'll keep you informed as to further developments. > Adam Avery will be visiting us on Weds Dec 14th, as planned, to help > us implode with a bang. Also, it was Brian Yaussi's birthday > yesterday. We were having an event so we couldn't celebrate it > properly, but we'll make up for it this Monday night at 6pm. Please > join us in a toast to one of the founders of this place. > > And keep your head up...Your a Tigerite for God's sake... > > If you wish to vent about the injustice of all of this, write us > directly at tigerale@msn.com." Fri Dec 02 14:37:26 -0800 2005 0 mrnyc 1 1215251 good riddance. The place was a dump and the service was awful. Great beers though. Fri Dec 02 14:42:01 -0800 2005 1215247 0 dkstar1 2 1215252 Dkstar, you are freaking unbelievable; that's exactly what the place was supposed to be, a drinking den for people that would rather not deal with the pretension of Manhattan. Fri Dec 02 14:45:49 -0800 2005 1215251 0 Wingman 3 1215259 Please. I'll take the Holiday Cocktail Lounge, which is as big of a dump as you can get, over this place any day. At least the drunks behind the bar at the Holiday Cocktail Lounge take notice that you are there and serve you...whereas my experiences with the Blind Tiger are of painstakingly slow bartenders who look as if they are in a daze...and after 10 minutes still forget to get you a drink. Plus, the place lacks any character. If it were a cool dive, that'd be one thing. But alas, its not. Fri Dec 02 15:00:04 -0800 2005 1215252 0 dkstar1 4 1215266 ok, i am a semi-regular and i hear you. i even agree to some extent, not to your extreme, but to some extent. all i can say is sometimes it's work to get the good stuff. thats why i usually go in the afternoon and not at night when its packed full. if you aint a craft beer fan then yeah it aint worth it. ok so now if you are a craft beerfan i ask you, where the heck are we ever gonna drink such an excellent rotating variety of craft beer like that again in the nabe??? i'll tell you where...nooo wherrre! it's ovah. Fri Dec 02 15:28:47 -0800 2005 1215259 0 mrnyc 5 1215268 I see where you are coming from...thanks for your input. It's not my neighborhood, so I can see why people like yourself are truly disappointed. Personally, I have to travel out of my nabe to get a good beer-serving bar, so my rotation won't take much of a beating with the loss of Blind Tiger. Fri Dec 02 15:43:35 -0800 2005 1215266 0 dkstar1 6 1215273 Even if you don't feel bad for the patrons, feel for the poor guy who owns the bar. Coming from a family were my father was a small business owner I found your original post to be disgusting. Fri Dec 02 15:48:52 -0800 2005 1215268 0 Wingman 7 1215278 Why should I feel sorry for the owner? If I was treated with good service during my visits there...something that should be instilled by the owner, then okay. But that's never been the case. I'd start a petition or whatever, to keep it open if I thought the place deserved it. Leases run out. They were prepared for this for quite some time. If he has a loyal enough following, he'll find another space and people will come back. Fri Dec 02 16:02:16 -0800 2005 1215273 0 dkstar1 8 1215283 Forget it, it's just another case of you completly missing the point. Fri Dec 02 16:08:27 -0800 2005 1215278 0 Wingman 9 1215284 I have to admit, much as I'd prefer the place to stay, my first reaction was that more singularly interesting and historic New York bars disappear with half the fuss. Nothing against the owner. Fri Dec 02 16:10:26 -0800 2005 1215283 0 Wilfrid 10 1215285 I'm not crying over the place clossing, it just irks me when someone has absolutley no compassion for a place that many people seem to really enjoy. It's not as if they overcharge for beer, they provide some free stuff and basically never "sold out" to the generation of bud light drinkers. I'm just very suprised to see someone say "good riddance" to a place like that; especially on a board that is supposed to be filled with people who seek out establishments such as this one. Fri Dec 02 16:14:10 -0800 2005 1215284 0 Wingman 11 1215287 oh please. Instead of crying over the loss of it, why don't you ask the owner what he has been doing about relocating since he has known about the closing of the bar for several months? Fri Dec 02 16:22:43 -0800 2005 1215285 0 dkstar1 12 1215333 trying to negotiate a new place in the west village, that's what! this first came public knowledge at the end of september: http://www.chowhound.com/boards/manhat61/messages/213232.html think about what they are looking for--somewhere in the west village that won't charge an arm and a leg for rent now.!!! now don't you think that would be a little challenging?? Fri Dec 02 20:07:28 -0800 2005 1215287 0 wvgirl 13 1215876 Please, don't feel sorry for the owner. The partners made their investment money back in their first year. The new people want to look for a new place but don't hold your breath. The managing partner ain't looking too hard. The place makes plenty of money and the owners knew their lease was up and the building was going to be renovated. Look it up on the DOB website, it will show you when the owner put in for a gut renovation. It's going to be a Coach store. Tue Dec 06 13:48:11 -0800 2005 1215333 0 eyespiturgrav 11 1215304 "I'm just very suprised to see someone say "good riddance" to a place like that; especially on a board that is supposed to be filled with people who seek out establishments such as this one." Best point yet!!! F' everyone else, all the haters. The place was great for what it was, great beers and nothing like it around. Dkstar, maybe you couldn't get the bartenders attention for other reasons... think about it. Its probably you not the staff. Fri Dec 02 16:56:48 -0800 2005 1215285 0 Hmmm 12 1215312 There are several other places that have the beer selection that Blind Tiger had. Hopefully the only thing missing from those bars is you. Fri Dec 02 17:26:18 -0800 2005 1215304 0 Nycer 13 1215317 Yeah, but in the East Village, not in the West...for the neighborhood it was a true asset. Fri Dec 02 18:25:44 -0800 2005 1215312 0 Dave 12 1215332 why the personal jabs? I'm amazed that you take my opinion to heart. Fri Dec 02 19:47:24 -0800 2005 1215304 0 dkstar1 9 1215288 So what exactly is the point? The neighborhood had to have been somewhat "gentrified" in the first place to support a bar with craft beers. They ain't cheap. With the "gentrification" comes an even larger customer base, allowing the Blind Tiger to stay in business and make a profit. It is very crowded during peak times and even not-so-peak times when they had special events. Quite frankly, I agree with dkstar that the service was terrible as the bar staff seemed to spend more time tasting than they did serving. That being said, it was a unique place and an asset to the neighborhood. Coming from the Upper West Side, I would take a great beer-bar with bad service over no beer-bar any day. I'm quite certain that if the owners want to, they can find a new location to open up, but it's hard to really feel too sorry for them. This isn't a case of a lease being too expensive, but rather a landlord who doesn't want a bar in the base of their buidling. There are constant bar closings and openings all over the city and specifically in this area. The customer base is there, and so is the loyalty. All the owners need to do is find a new location and reopen better than even. Fri Dec 02 16:22:46 -0800 2005 1215283 0 JoeM 4 1215271 Free hot dogs on Monday? An oyster festival? Murray's cheese? Unbelievable beer selection? I've been to worse places. Fri Dec 02 15:46:02 -0800 2005 1215259 0 vegas dreams 5 1215280 as have I. Good point vegas dreams. I bet all of the things you state are great examples of what that bar provides but I haven't been privy to such niceties. That's clearly my loss. And I no doubt believe that those events and such will be greatly missed. My experiences have been far less than that. I didn't realize I had to take into the account of people's feelings on this board when I give an opinion. (Not pointing fingers at you). Fri Dec 02 16:06:58 -0800 2005 1215271 0 dkstar1 2 1215257 "Service"? Its a bar! They gave out free cheese! Fri Dec 02 14:57:18 -0800 2005 1215251 0 c212 1 1215254 This is TERRIBLE news. Why do all the good ones close yet Joshua Tree is doing bang-up business selling $5 Bud Lights? Fri Dec 02 14:50:53 -0800 2005 1215247 0 Schinman 2 1215263 Because you can drink 12 bud lights ($60) or two pints of Stone Arrogant Bastard ($12ish) and pretty much call it a night. Quantity, not quality, unfortunately. Fri Dec 02 15:25:23 -0800 2005 1215254 0 JoeM 1 1215265 Didn't even give them New Year's Eve!? So sad to see the 'gentrification' of this neighborhood. Soon we'll be looking at $2 cupcakes... Fri Dec 02 15:25:32 -0800 2005 1215247 0 cal 1 1215315 The place is closing because people who sit around and cherrish a 7 dollar glass of beer for an hour dont spend as much as a college kid banging down 15 shots of tequila in a night.. Fri Dec 02 18:17:35 -0800 2005 1215247 0 Spanky 2 1215486 Ha! Your message made me particularly sad to see Blind Tiger go. I personally had to limit my visits there because the beer selection coupled with the tequilla menu usually made me lose the next day to that place. And I almost always went on off nights, but thought the bartenders attentive and patient. And happy to work through an impromptu tequilla tasting with me. I do know understand your point though: way higher profit margin on cuervo out of plastic shot glasses. Sun Dec 04 10:46:36 -0800 2005 1215315 0 bml 1 1215402 I'm not sure how anyone can actually be suprised or saddened by any closing in the West Village at this point. Tour buses lined up outside of Magnolia, Kim's Video closed and empty for years, Marc Jacobs and Ralph Lauren stores as far as can be seen, celebrity-architect towers. Bottom line is, Blind Tiger just does not fit into Soho West, good beer or not. I was a little sad, but shed no tears, to move from the hood 3 years ago after 7 years living there, but, like most NYC neighborhoods, things never stay the same. By the way, there are some great craft beer places in and around Carroll Gardens (kinda looks like the W.V. too, pre-tour buses.) Sat Dec 03 14:23:35 -0800 2005 1215247 0 jimmyjazz