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It is a New York right of passage to to do something deeply embarrassing and forever memorable while out drinking at Dallas BBQ on the corner of Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place in the East Village.
Alas, city dwellers will soon have to settle on a new sort of local initiation ceremony as the downtown staple will officially shutter after service on December 31, as first reported by E.V. Grieve.
According to the outlet, "news of a closure had been expected since an applicant for a new bar-restaurant appeared before Community Board 3 in June" as the building's landlord did not want to renew the chain's lease and opted to find another tenant instead.
A brief history of the dingy-but-iconic family-owned brand: the original Dallas BBQ opened in 1978 on the Upper West Side Side and now lays claim to a dozen locations around town, including this one in the East Village that debuted some time in the 1980s. Back in 2018, rumors started swirling about a potential downtown closure but protests from regulars convinced the owners to stay put.
As sad as we are about the recent news, we are happy to cite E.V. Grieve's reporting that the staff at the East Village spot has "been offered jobs at other locations, including one near JFK in Jamaica, Queens, and a new one set to open in New Jersey."
As is always the case when updates of the sort are made public, New Yorkers have rallied on social media to pay their respects to the beloved venue while reminiscing about those, well, embarrassing but memorable nights spent on premise (including one experienced by yours truly back in 2007—when a pair of gloves and a portion of this then-college student's dignity were lost).
Here is a collection of some of the best reactions we found on Facebook:
