Interstate Food & Liquor | The Lo-Down : News from the Lower East Side

Orchard Street’s Interstate Food & Liquor Sold

IF&L, 74 Orchard St. Photo by Alex M. Smith.

Interstate Food & Liquor, the 18-month-old bar and restaurant at 74 Orchard St., is changing hands. Owner Andy Boose tells us the new owners are “a nice group who will be maintaining much of the look and ‘neighborhood’ feel of the place.” They also plan to retain the chef and the manager, Boose says, though the establishment’s name will change.

Boose holds a regular day job as a global event planner and is also involved in Spitzer’s Corner, Los Feliz and the new Tiny Fork, an oyster bar just up the street at 167 Orchard St., which Boose says is set to open “imminently.”

Lower East Side Bar Crawl: Post-Sandy Style

Forgtmenot co-owner Abby Sierros was serving up candlelight, cold draft beer and steak frites last night.

The streets were dark and quiet last night, as most Lower East Side residents huddled in their homes or fled to friends and relatives, but for those who ventured out post-superstorm Sandy, food, drink and comaraderie were on tap at several bars and restaurants. Just as many locally owned coffee shops were functioning while Starbucks all over town remained locked up tight, the establishments that opened their doors to their neighbors last night were generally the ones owned by the neighbors. There were no honking taxis or stretch limos dropping off stiletto-clad visitors from outside the LES, no DJs on the scene, just locals chilling out with each other and killing time until life gets back to normal.

169 Bar on East Broadway ran a small generator and a big party.

At 169 bar on East Broadway shortly after 7 p.m., the beer-and-a-shot $3 happy hour special was flowing freely to patrons relieved to get out of the house for a while, and pleasantly surprised to find generator-powered lights, plenty of company and even a little food. At Forgetmenot on Division Street, co-owners Abbie and Paul Sierros had a system. Abbie was behind the candelabra-lit bar, cheerfully offering to cook anything from the remaining contents of her refrigerator: steak, french fries and eggs. Meanwhile, Paul kept the power coming via a long extension cord plugged into an electrical inverter in a van parked out front.