The Hose has run dry. The infamous Alphabet City gay bar, which opened earlier this year on Avenue B between East 13th and East 14th Streets, has spent months playing host to popular parties like Manthrax, Mooseknuckle and Rocket but is no more.
“The rumor is that the Hose was shut down because the owner refused to renew the lease,” says Benjamin Haber, a regular at the bar who plans to participate in a farewell celebration and vigil on the sidewalk in front of the bar Friday night. “We heard from the bartenders and door people on Tuesday night and they’d heard the same night from the manager, who wasn’t actually too involved in the running of the bar. I was told the actual owner decided to not leave the bar to him anymore.”
Since its opening, the bar has been popular—singer Patrick Wolf brought a posse there after a recent concert and declared it “the coolest spot in town,” while none other than Justin Bond told a New York Press reporter, “It’s good to have a new East Village gay space.” Not good enough apparently. Is the Hose closing because it's controversial? No one will say on the record.
“I’d love to find out the actual reason. If the bar owner says to not renew the lease, it doesn’t happen in just a day, it seems like some other thing is going out,” says Haber. “A lot of people think that’s a devious explanation.”
Bartender Jeffrey Ralston says, “I am especially bummed because I feel that the Hose was just starting to catch on and be recognized as a place much more than just a seedy gay bar. It had become our clubhouse and our family. Creativity was alive and growing fast. When I got a phone call from my dearest co-bartender that the bar was closed, all I could think was that we need a new venue and fast. The beauty is that everyone involved feels the same and has been searching. It's not the bar that we are trying to keep or hold onto, but the stew of creativity that has been boiling. It's that downtown scene that we have been missing for so long now in NYC.
"Some say that the Hose was too short, while others say the Hose was too long—but I think differently. What comes out of the Hose has the most importance, not its length.”
Calls to Robert Morgan, the leaseholder on the space who also operates Shoolbred’s bar on 2nd Avenue, were not returned.
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