Victory Cafe Calling It Quits
A reader passed along this sad news about the Victory Cafe, a longstanding neighborhood spot on the corner of State and Hoyt. According to her, “They’re being evicted by the landlord… According to some of my neighbors, he has refused to give the Victory a lease for a long time, keeping them month by month,…
A reader passed along this sad news about the Victory Cafe, a longstanding neighborhood spot on the corner of State and Hoyt. According to her, “They’re being evicted by the landlord… According to some of my neighbors, he has refused to give the Victory a lease for a long time, keeping them month by month, and apparently he’s now kicking the café out for good.” Some nearby residents are planning on boycotting whatever moves in, and City Room just posted a lamentation for the spot. GMAP
Seriously, take it out on the new guy? Way to keep the neighborhood spirit up! (and the storefronts empty)
FYI Nat Hendricks is the LL….
I go to the victory almost every morning. Normally I’d avoid such a cramped little space – but I absolutely loved this place (Western Empanadas!) and the people who worked there. I will definitely miss it, and sure as hell wont go to the creepy little cafe that the landlord opened next store. Total BS.
I can not comment on what the LL is doing here, but I was not a fan of Victory. I realize I’m probably in the minority here, but this place will not be missed. Adieu!
This has been brewing (no pun intended) for some time. There was the missive posted in the window last year (I found it still up at Eater: http://ny.eater.com/archives/2010/01/big_fight_a_brewin_a_victory_cafe_in_boerum_hill.php#more)
Apparently there has been no lease for 3-4 years, so obviously the real question is why there isn’t some agreement on what the new rent should be.
Also, I didn’t see any record in the NY Courts’s website of the litigation that is mentioned in the City Room story, but I am not a master of navigating/searching the online court docket files. Does anyone know what names might be on the lawsuit?
There’s was also some funny business when the predecessor to the Sweet Cafe (Zoila) a few years ago was forced to leave. I heard that there was some claim about mice, but also heard there was some contention over whether the Victory was complaining that it was too close in competition of offerings in violation of its lease terms.
Hah. This post was written a couple of days ago–just didn’t get around to running til this afternoon…
Lame. It wasn’t a bad little joint (only been there once) but clearly not a fan of what the landlord is doing.
Plenty of shuttered businesses in the bowery and the East Village. Can’t wait for Brooklyn’s tawny BoCoCaBlah neighborhoods to be next.
On another note – assuming the Victory’s side of this story is true, why would the landlord be acting like this? That space on Hoyt around the corner was empty for months and months while the landlord aggressively advertised it for a “cafe-type” business. They must have pretty specific plans for the Victory space to be forcing it out in such a calculated manner, yeah? Better hope whatever’s in the works is worth the bad PR and the ire of the whole neighborhood.
Damn – NYT scoops Brownstoner by blogging about this first, then Brownstoner scoops me by editing the post to put the NYT link in it! What next?