It’s finally happened: the impending closure of Video Café has become reality. After 40% off, then 50% off, they’ve cleared out their home of 20 years.

Residents have left their farewells on the door:

Sad times.

The simply-​named 642 Deli Grocery, on the corner of 45^th & 9^th, has closed its doors recently, with crews already at work on the interior. It’s looking like more of a renovation at this stage, so we can probably expect to see them open in the near future all new and shiny, but in the mean time locals on that block will have to hike a bit further for deli needs (in this weather?).

Of course, the spot is prime 9^th Ave corner-​facing real estate, so there’s always the fear that a rent hike or something is pushing them out (because 9^th Ave doesn’t need delis…). For now at least, it’s looking more positive. We’ll keep an eye out though.

The last thing you’d want to do in the middle of winter – let alone last week’s Polar Vortex™ – is ride a bike through the ice wind, so unsurprisingly bicycle stores tend to struggle a bit while the temperatures are down (plus Citibike no doubt took a big chunk of the rental market away…). It looks like Manhattan Bicycles, near 53^rd & 9^th, couldn’t make it through the winter, and has closed for good. The shutters have been down for the past few days:

And they’ve already covered up the sign…

You can still just make out the always-​humorous open-“Sonday” message on the shutters:

It’s disappointing to see what many seemed to consider to be a good, reliable bike shop close down. Manhattan Bicycles even was picked as the “Best Reasonable Bike Shop” in 2012 by the Village Voice. It’s not all bad news for bike shops though – Danny’s Cycles relocated to a big new spot on 10^th Ave in September – but it looks like at least 9^th Ave has gotten too expensive (as if that’s a surprise to anyone) for them to stay.

Sad news today. After their building was sold, Stile’s Farmers Market are being forced to close their long-​time location on the corner of W 41^st St & 9^th Ave at the end of the month, as reported by DNAinfo. For the uninitiated, per their article:

Stile’s Farmers Market began in 1987, when Steve Stile’s father, Joseph, set up an umbrella, a cigar box and a table full of produce at the spot. It’s since grown into one of the neighborhood’s most popular markets.

The news came in the form of this huge sign posted out the front of the store:

The neighboring pizza place (my favorite $1 slice in the area at the moment) will also be moving, and they’ve already got a location: 360 W 42^nd – halfway between 8^th & 9^th.

Fortunately, this isn’t the end for Stile’s: they’re already looking at replacement locations, including one a few streets down at 37^th & 9^th, so hopefully they’ll be able to find a new location soon. Former neighbor the Big Apple Meat Market was forced to move last year, and seem to be going strong in their new “temporary” location. Hopefully the same happens for Stile’s.

That whole block is going to be changing in the next few years, with a giant 38-​story hotel (the “Times Square Hotel”) going up eventually next to it, which Hell’s YEAH covered at the start of this year. The farmers market/​pizza combo building wasn’t part of that development though, so we’d hoped they’d be spared. Clearly, another set of developers have other plans.

Anyway, while all this is going on, the other outpost of Stile’s is fortunately still up and running on 52^nd St:

Still, sad to see the original spot closing. There’s some fond memories of the place being left on Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York’s post about the news. We’ll be looking forward to the spot’s reopening (hopefully) soon.

As if they hadn’t caused enough trouble earlier this month, it turns out Fairytail Lounge decided to go on operating without a liquor license, as covered by DNAinfo. Smart move. The NYPD shut the place down on Saturday, although apparently they reopened that night (still without a license), so obviously that had an impact.

The bar is pretty popular, but as we saw last time, they’ve got a very, very smug, superior attitude to petty things like “neighbors”, and now it looks like that attitude extends all the way to things like “the law”. Naturally, like before, Gothamist is blaming “Hell’s Kitchen NIMBYs” (and now the community board) for going after this poor, defenseless establishment. Good times. Look out for the inevitable next chapter in the ongoing Fairytail Lounge Sagas soon.