Crowned in the down-and-out 80s, Mars Bar weathered the gentrification of the East Village that followed the boomtimes of the mid-90s better than most dodgy watering holes, but alas, the building in which it resided for over 25 years, seemingly in a perpetual state of rotting that never fully came to fruition, was marked for demolition in favor of a shiny new something. So it goes.
The bar will reopen in the new building or possibly in a new location at some point in the future, but it will be—can be—Mars Bar only in name. Our original review follows:
Mars Bar is as it always was: covered in graffiti from ceiling to floor, full of punks & drunks, local celebrities, NYU students, aging hippies and dreadlocked white rastas. Most happening after the midnight hour, the legendary jukebox has all the classics from the Dead Kennedys to the Clash and many others you haven't heard for two decades. Drink prices remain ridiculously low.