Iconic East Village Bar Angel's Share Is Shuttering: Report

EAST VILLAGE, NY — In a melancholy piece of neighborhood news, the iconic Japanese-style cocktail bar Angel's Share is closing, multiple publications report and the building's landlord tells Grub Street.

Angel's Share has served customers at 8 Stuyvesant Street since 1993, but will shutter soon due to an inability to come to an agreement on a new lease with its landlord.

“Unfortunately, the tenant informed us of their decision to vacate the property," the cocktail bar's landlord Cooper Union told Grub Street.

Rumors of the famed speakeasy's closing first gained traction when New York Times reporter Alex Vadukul tweeted that an employee told him Village Yokocho was facing a "massive rent hike."

Village Yokocho is the business that customers pass through to enter Angel's Share.

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The end of the long-term lease and the new asked for rent by the landlord appear to be driving out the entire street of businesses, with neighbors Pan Ya and Sunrise Mart also expected to close because of the upped price.

Angel's Share has not responded to a request for comment from Patch or any other publication, and also has not posted anything about the upcoming closure on its website or Instagram.

A spokesperson from The Cooper Union, which is a private college in the city, told Patch that Angel's Share chose to vacate, and was not asked to despite the fact that the restaurant hasn't paid rent since 2020.

The Cooper Union spokesperson also added that it is through a 10-year plan to return to a full-tuition scholarship for all undergraduates and that the above properties help to generate revenue for the student scholarships.

People reacted strongly to the news that Angel's Share and the other East Village businesses were closing.

"Closing Village Yokocho, Angel's Share, Pan Ya, and Sunrise Mart is like closing the East Village," one person wrote on Twitter. "This is so f***** up."

"I don't want to exaggerate but truly an East Village without Angel's Share and Sunrise Mart isn't the East Village," another person typed out on Twitter.

You can find out more about Angel's Share on its website.