Lucy's

Our old listing promised pinball, pool and not much else, and not much else was the point: Lucy's was known for never changing, with dim lighting, worn linoleum floors, pool tables and a jukebox¹. Ludwika "Lucy" Mickevicius took over the bar when it was still called Blanche's, and it was later renamed in her honor¹. The lease dated to December 1987².

It came through the Tompkins Square Park riot in 1988¹. The 1997 teen drama Hurricane Streets filmed a scene there, and the bar kept its well-worn poster³. It even came through the pandemic, closing for a while and reopening in May 2020¹.

The lease ran out in May 2015, and Mickevicius stayed on month to month². In November 2023 paperwork problems forced what was meant to be a temporary closing². That December the building sold for $19 million, and the rent went from $8,000 a month to $25,000¹. That's a lot of pinball. The new landlord served notice ending the lease on February 29, 2024, and someone painted over the hand-painted Lucy's sign^{2, 4}.

The rescue came from a former regular, Jon Neidich of Golden Age Hospitality, who had lived in the apartment just above the bar in his twenties, as his lawyer told the community board at an August 2024 liquor license hearing⁵. The sign came back, and on March 4, 2025, after more than a year closed, Lucy's reopened at 135 Avenue A^{1, 3, 4, 5}. It takes credit cards now⁵. The Hurricane Streets poster didn't make it back³.