Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

According to a member of the Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District, the corner space at Columbus & 71st has become increasingly shabby over time since former tenant Penang closed. Owned by a wealthy Spanish clothing designer who doesn’t maintain the building, apparently a homeless person used to (still does?) regularly defecate in front of the vacant storefront.

Hopefully that’s about to change.

DNAinfo has the story of a new wine bar that’s slated to take over the space at 240 Columbus.

This is the same bar that was first proposed to open in ritzy 25 CPW, but was beaten-back by wealthy tenants in the building and neighboring 15 CPW. I thought MyUpperWest had a post detailing the drama, but I can’t find it. Thankfully, @ReporterLeslie covers a bit of the history in her article.

Upper West Sider and Amsterdam Billiards founder Greg Hunt is behind the new bar. His concept is that of a “grown-up cafe and cocktail lounge” that will play Billie Holiday music and cater to an upscale crowd.

“I want to create a place where we can go and not be surrounded by 21-year-olds,” Hunt said.

“And preferably not be surrounded by human shit either,” added Mike from MyUpperWest.com.

Filed under: Bars, Food & Drink, Going Out, Manhattan, New York City, News, NYC, Openings/Closings, Real Estate, Things to do, Upper West Side, Upper West Side Blog, Upper West Side Date Stuff, Upper West Side Oddities, UWS No Comments »
Tags: 15 CPW, 240 Columbus Avenue, 25 CPW, Amsterdam Billiards, Greg Hunt, human feces, New York City, NYC, Penang, shit, Upper West Side, UWS, Wine Bar