Hop Devil Grill

Before Hop Devil, the space on St. Marks Place was Stingy Lulu's, from about 1992 to 2004¹. Hop Devil Grill opened in March 2005¹, an ale house with 24 taps run by Queens-born twins Bill and Keith Reichenbach, who also had a stake in David Copperfield's². As we put it then, it left you to weigh the complexity of a Belgian ale against the straightforward sincerity of a German lager.

Its run was eventful. In 2008 it was shut down for allegedly serving minors and was reportedly denied a license renewal, and that December the owners remodeled it as the Southwestern-themed Hop Devil Lounge, though later reports call it Hop Devil Grill again^{1, 3}. On April 10, 2015, the state seized it and its sister bar, the Belgian Room, for nonpayment of taxes; a tax agent's sale followed, and neither bar reopened^{3, 4, 5}.

In 2016 the wall came down between Hop Devil and the old Nino's pizzeria on the corner^{5, 6}, and in August 2017 a Starbucks opened in the combined space⁷. By 2025 it was one of only two Starbucks left in the East Village⁸. On September 26, 2026, it closed too; the windows are covered and the sign is gone⁷. The East Village outlasted Starbucks.