Chocolate Bar on 8th Avenue in Greenwich Village is closing. Already, a "Store for Lease" sign has appeared in the window.
Owner Alison Nelson has written to her employees:
"It is with sadness that after 13 years of business and much contemplation, I have decided to close our West Village location. Over the past year we have fought the struggle with rising costs and stagnant sales due to street construction and difficult weather. We have seen much of our neighborhood change over the past few years, fought 3 years of street work right outside our door and watched many of our fellow small businesses and neighbors leave due to rising rents and expenses. All of this has taken a steady and sometimes biting toll upon us and our operations. Know that it is with a very heavy heart that I have made this decision. I never envisioned leaving the West Village, a place that had been my home for nearly 20 years, and Chocolate Bar's home for over a decade."
Their last day will be Sunday, April 26.
6 comments:
I will miss them, used to like the spicy hot chocolate drink. They are right near Li-Lac on Jane & 8th, hope they will endure. In this article Li-Lac complains of the store being "surrounded by shops with purses and shoes without price tags." Interestingly, when Li-Lac moved its production facilities to Sunset Park Brooklyn some feared that would mean further gentrification for that area.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/nyregion/chocolate-factory-in-brooklyn-asks-what-us-gentrifiers.html
that's insane.. I was about to go there toDAY to get those amazing peanut butter cookies when I realized it was past 8pm
While I am sad for the employees and friends, I am happy they will no longer have to fight the good fight. After living in Manhattan for 20 years I gave up and moved to Brooklyn 6 years ago because I tired of fighting for even the smallest space and paying 75% of my income to be miserable in it. I have never looked back and never regretted my decision to leave. There is so little that attracts me to Manhattan any longer. I am happy I have my memories of NYC 25 years ago. Those keep me warm in my affordable one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn.
I know where it is. Used to work a few blocks from there. Sad that it's going.
House of Cards, which is just a few doors north, is closing at the end of May. They've been there for decades and are an offshoot of a store that used to be on the SE corner of 8th Ave. and 12th St., called Wendell's.
The proprietor of House of Cards remembers me picking up the Sunday Times at Wendell's when I was a teenager. My 49th birthday was a couple of weeks ago.
another adorable little unique family shop closed. whats next? more disgusting froyo for tourists? a cellphone shop? oh nevermind.....just take the whole block & do a duane reade & a uslessbank. how attractive is that??
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