The Abbey Pub at 237 West 105th street has been closed for two weeks under somewhat mysterious circumstances, and the owners are now asking fans to contact the community board to try to get it reopened.
The bar was apparently shut down during a Halloween party on October 30. One tipster said she was in the bar when police came in and shut it down, but she wasn’t sure exactly what violations had occurred. “I was there on Wednesday night around 9:30 pm when it happened. The cops came in, closed the bar and made us all leave. They answered no questions except that there was something illegal going on.”
We reached out to police and the State Liquor Authority and have not heard back, and attempts to contact the pub owners by phone and Facebook have been similarly fruitless. A sign pasted on the pub says that it was closed “due to circumstances beyond our control.”
The pub is encouraging people to email Community Board 7. Via its facebook page:
“if you would like to help the Abbey Pub reopen, please send an email to community board 7 at mail@cb7.org . Please put attn: Penny Ryan in the subj line, I will type an example, but please don’t copy, write in your own words & from the heart, we need your help. attn: penny ryan I am writing in regard to The Abbey Pub at 237 W 105th St (b’tween b’way & Amsterdam). Recently they were closed down and I just wanted to get in touch with you to show my support of this neighborhood place that has been there for decades. It is a family friendly local place that I have frequented for years. I was hoping you could make some calls to prevent this from becoming permanent. We need family owned businesses like the Abbey in our neighborhood. Please don’t allow the City and The Police Dept. to force this to happen, thank you for your time & concideration.”
Thanks to Nik for the photo.
Anyone know the story of why it was forced to close?
Yeah, I love the place but why would I write a letter to reopen it when I have no idea why the cops closed it??
@John/Ed I heard they caught underage folks there. Which is whatever… Halloween is a rush and I’ve seen them shooing out underage kids in the past, who were trying to sneak in… so you know, I don’t know. Just imagine the rush and the costumes…
Anyway I see where you’re coming from; it’d be hard to write the CB telling them to cut the Abbey slack if they were caught like dealing crack or something… but it sounds like a run of the mill f&#$ up.
But if you wanna do it, better sooner than later. I imagine they’re getting absolutely slaughtered at this point being closed 3+ weeks. On top of fines… well… that’s a big hit for a small business…
I used to live in the building opposite of this, and from what I hear landlord is pushing them out so that he can raise the price and rent to a chain (see the now Edible arrangement formerly the French Brazilian bistro), or sell to a developer. Just hearing. So, most likely a snitch has called DOH or CB.