Village club shutters after more than 30 years

Kenny's Castaways
Kenny's Castaways

Kenny’s Castaways, a historic a Greenwich Village club that has hosted acts from Patti Smith to the Fugees, will close its doors tomorrow, joining a number of Manhattan music venues that have shut their doors of late, due to rising costs, the New York Times reported.

“The rents have become so astronomical around here that mom-and-pop places just can’t make it happen,” Maria Kenny, an owner of the club, told the Times. She indicated that rent at the venue’s 157 Bleecker Street space has more than doubled in the last five years.

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Bruce Springsteen performed some of his first New York City shows at Kenny’s Castaways original location, on the Upper East Side. Kenny’s moved to the village in 1976, the Times said.

Mars Bar, a beloved East Village drinking spot, was razed last year to make way for condominiums. And CBGB, perhaps the best-known venue of the 1980’s, which was located just down Bleecker from Kenny’s, shuttered in 2006. [NYT] — Guelda Voien