Stay Classy, the Will Ferrell-themed bar at 174 Rivington, is closing. The venue attracted an avalanche of media coverage when it opened in the fall of 2015 and has inspired a pop-up concept in other cities, but the owners say the Lower East Side location will cease to exist after a couple of farewell parties this week.
Here’s what The Lo-Down was told in an email last night:
After 18 months in NYC, we felt it was time to share the love with other places. We intend to pop up in NYC once per year as well starting in 2017. For now we just did (Los Angeles and) now we are doing Boston, Philly and Miami this winter. We still own the space at 174 Rivington and are installing a new place there which is going to be so awesome can’t wait to start telling people about it! We will be open Friday and Saturday this week as our “good bye” New York nights.
Stay Classy was opened by Zach Neil and Brian Link. Earlier this month, they brought a pop-up to the former Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood for 10 days. During the fall, Neil opened another theme bar, “‘Merica,” to East 6th Street, but as EV Grieve reported, it closed after about three weeks in business.
Here’s what Neil told Grub Street in October about his reception on the Lower East Side:
I opened up in the Lower East Side, which is known for being an artsy community and pretentious and all hipsters and punk rockers and blah blah blah. And I had a million people that live there tell me how horrible of an idea it was and how it was going to fail. Then I served 45,000 customers in 90 days. Then I had lines around the block for seven months. Then I got so big I actually had to close down for days just to tell people I can’t take the business. It’s been a year and I’m doing a great business over there. Everyone who comes in says the same thing. They laughed.
According to the State Liquor Authority, the liquor license at 174 Rivington St. expires at the end of January.
