New York City’s SideWalk Cafe will close its doors for good after this weekend, as Brooklyn Vegan and Bedford & Bowery point out. The venue and restaurant opened in 1985 on the corner of Avenue A and East 6th Street in the East Village, and provided an early-career home for artists such as Beck, Michelle Shocked, the Moldy Peaches, Regina Spektor, Darwin Deez, and more.
In 1993, SideWalk Cafe partnered with Lach—one of the founding musicians of the Antifolk scene—to host the Antifolk Festival in response to the more mainstream New York Folk Festival. SideWalk has hosted the festival biannually ever since, and will shutter after the final installment of the event tomorrow night. Find the schedule for SideWalk’s last nights here.
Throughout its tenure as an East Village concert venue, bar, and restaurant, SideWalk Cafe hosted live music, comedy sets, open mic nights, and other performances seven nights a week with no cover charge, according to the establishment’s website. The fate of SideWalk Cafe has been uncertain since late last year, when the venue underwent a change in ownership.
Read “Pitchfork Staffers Pour One Out for Other Music, Another Closing NYC Record Mecca” on the Pitch.
