It's become a regular, morbid NYC rite of passage: finding out one of your favorite bars, restaurants, book stores or local shops is going out of business because of rising rents and lease disputes (or because it's just too hard and draining to run a successful mom-and-pop business in NYC in 2018), and then taking to social media to mourn the loss. Change is written into the lifeblood of the city, but it does seem like there's been a major escalation in this trend over the last decade. This year alone, it's happened with beloved neighborhood places like Videology, Dojo, and Cafe Loup (although that last one later reopened).

And today comes news of another longtime East Village business calling it quits: after it almost shut down earlier this year, dive bar and former metal/punk venue Continental Bar announced that it will shutter on December 15th (musician Jesse Malin will host a final closing night party). The 27-year-old bar stopping being a live music venue in 2006, and became famous in recent years for its ridiculous shots deal (five shots of anything for $12). It had received several extensions on its lease at 23rd Third Avenue in the past year, and the space will now be turned into a boutique office building (with ground floor retail).

"It is with heavy heart that I have to inform everyone that Continental's days are numbered," owner Trigger Smith wrote on the bar's website (when he first thought it was being demolished last year). "Sometime late this year, this entire corner will be knocked down and developed. It's truly heartbreaking that we and so many Old Skool places are falling by the wayside but unless you own your building that's how it goes. This Bar has been my life. First as a Rock Club and then as a Dive Bar and I've loved every minute of it (mostly speaking)."

And earlier today, Smith told EV Grieve that the time had come to move on: "I think that most people think we’ve already closed. It’s just my emotions and sentimental attachment that’s been keep me from leaving. All my neighbors have left. It’s time!"

But there's a major difference between the shuttering of the Continental and all the other aforementioned bars and restaurants whose closures tugged at NYers nostalgia receptors: nobody is all that sad. If you scroll through Twitter, instead of heartfelt memories of good times, it's mostly people happy to say good riddance to one of the worst bars in NYC:

Continental bar shutting down is the one closing we can all get behind . no mourning necessary — 𝘋𝘈𝘙𝘊𝘐𝘌 𝘞𝘐𝘓𝘋𝘌𝘙 (@333333333433333) November 27, 2018

so many mixed feelings about this. it's like hearing the uncle that's a scream half the time and a disastrous mess the rest finally drank himself to death — justyn w. (@goodoldbus) November 27, 2018

Imagine going to a farewell party for this discriminatory shithole https://t.co/0VLkpU7AMi — Larry Fitzmaurice (@lfitzmaurice) November 27, 2018

"legendary" east village dive the continental is closing down after 27 years in operation.

on behalf of the late combat jack, i'd just like to say fuck the continental as a staff, a dive bar, and as a motherfucking crew — doc raz (@mattRAZ) November 27, 2018

I'd say of all the dozens upon dozens of venues and bars that I've seen close in NYC over the years, this one, hands down, is the one I will miss the least — Sir Reply (@shuffleknowsall) November 27, 2018

I spoke to a half dozen former patrons of the bar who offered a lot of reasons why almost no one is mourning the Continental today: some noted that it was "always a place with rude shitty bartenders," some bemoaned the fact that it should have shut down in 2006 once it transitioned from a music venue to a bar, others mentioned that fights seemed to break out more regularly amongst its highly inebriated customers. But the number one thing that came up again and again was the unwritten racist door policy which resulted in the bar being investigated for three complaints by the city's civil rights commission, and led to protests over the years as well (those complaints were later dismissed).

"Well, Continental was really racist, and would use any excuse not to let black people in," said Eric Hardy, a Brooklyn resident who first visited the Continental in 2014 with some white NYU classmates. "I'm black, and the first few times I went with some white people I had no problem, then whenever I was with black people I would have issues concerning the dress code even though we'd be dressed the same as white people or even nicer."

"The bouncers were known to be the rudest in the Village and possibly the city," he continued. "They kicked people out of the line and didn't let them in for taking too long to find their ID or for 'having an attitude' or anything they felt. And Continental is a dive bar that's pretty grungy inside, so the racism and difficulties were completely unwarranted as there was nothing nice or special going on to keep the 'others' out of. The deals will be missed, but not the place itself."

Back in winter 2010/2011, the dress code door policy issue became a big deal as multiple persons of color said they were denied entry to the bar. At the time, Smith rigorously defended his door policy, which he claimed "creates a certain vibe" by rejecting patrons based on prohibiting saggy jeans, open-laced sneakers, and "blingy" necklaces or sideways caps. "I'm not going to be politically correct and just let anybody in," Smith said. "I look at things in the long run... and I’ll turn away people if they don’t meet my dress code. It just so happens that more people of a certain minority wear these things than others. But I don’t want white trash either, or Jersey Shore boys."

Nothing gold (and covered in vomit) can stay. https://t.co/u6CE17H3mz — Fletcher Christian Finnegan (@ChristFinnegan) November 27, 2018

"I remember being turned away the first time I went to Continental because I wasn't wearing the right clothes," said Harlem resident Jozen Cummings, who first visited the Continental back in 2004. "I'm used to these coded door policies, but something about the way The Continental enforced these policies just came off as targeted and racist. I remember a friend of mine being turned away because of his sweatshirt, and it was an alma mater hoodie. Another guy got turned away because of his briefcase. And all of the people were black."

"From that point forward I never tried again, and every black person I met had a similar story when that place came up," he added. "The doormen were black too, but you know that scene in Knocked Up where Craig Robinson is a doorman and tells the woman he can only let in five percent black people? That's how it seemed at The Continental."

Jeffrey L. Wilson said that the Continental also had a reputation for its brawls: "I have several other friends with similar stories of having to defend themselves from drunken dudes who either wanted to throw hands or took offensive at some minor social infraction. I don't think they'll miss the joint."

as shitty as it was, we losing a bit of ny https://t.co/Yoqqd3NQR6 — bedford park jesus (@_nusehtton) November 27, 2018

Over the years, Smith remained defensive and unmoved by patrons offended by the door policy (there's an entire section of the bar's website devoted to the controversy)—even in his goodbye statement, he included a pre-emptive defense aimed at anyone who might criticize the policy:

P.P.S. to the haters, trollers and people we denied entry to (let me guess- you've never owned or managed a bar)- get a life. A busy, centrally located, bar without a Door Policy will soon devolve into chaos, violence and things disappearing. At the Community Board & Precinct meetings, Continental was never in the conversations re underage drinking, bar fights or pocketbook, cell phone or any other common bar theft. Our door policy was strictly about dress code and vibe code. That's it. And I'm absolutely certain that we denied entry to more intoxicated, caucasian, bro types than any other group or race.

"The Continental is in that very rare category of bars for me that's not so bad that it's good—it's just bad," said Vice writer Allie Conti. "A big banner outside of the bar advertises platters of shots for $10, but then when you get inside, there's signage declaring that the owner is under no legal obligation to serve customers water. This is obviously an irresponsible combination."

Conti wrote about her experience at The Continental as part of a humorous piece in which she searched for the "worst bar in New York" for Vice back in 2016. She also experienced some weird blowback from Smith because of it. "When I wrote an article about bad bars in 2016 that mentioned [the civil rights commission investigations], I also noted that he put a 1,200-word rebuttal on his website," she explained. "After hearing that the Continental was closing, I checked the site for the first time in two years and saw that he had added an entire section to his site calling me a creep for merely pointing out those facts."



(Screenshot of The Continental's website)

Not to say that Continental was a total loss: regardless of how watered down those shots may have been, no other bar in the city could compete with that deal. It was an ideal place for people new to the city to have a formative drinking experience (assuming they could get in the doors). And one of my colleagues, who shall remain nameless, waxed poetic about its lax rules for teens. "I remember being 17 and thinking I could drink five shots of Jameson in a period of 10 minutes, because you COULD do that at Continental since they were so watered down," this misguided young man recalled.

EV Grieve, who has been documenting life in the East Village for over a decade, agreed that he hadn't "heard of many people shedding tears over its closure." He noted that the vibe of the bar changed over the last decade since it gave up being a music venue where the likes of Iggy Pop, the Ramones and Guns N’ Roses all played.

"I've talked with people who wished that Trigger had called it a day in 2006 instead of turning it into a place known for its 5 shots/$10 (and later) 6/$12 deals that aligned with the East Village's reputation as some kind of Mardi Gras experience," he said. "Even some sentimental loyalists were starting to experience closure fatigue with the various last-call dates, including July 2018, October 2018 then May 2019. Now we can turn our attention to the new office building slated for that northeast corner. Among other amenities, office tenants will have access to a golf simulator!"

"I won't lose sleep over it being gone, but it's always a little sad to see places I'm familiar with being lost to something as dry and nondescript as an office building," echoed Cummings. "I may not have gone inside The Continental (because I was never allowed to), but at least I had a story I could tell about it."

"I'm sure that there are regulars who have fond memories of the place, and I guess I'm sad for them," Conti added. "But this isn't CBGB's closing—it's a bar where frat bros go [so] they can puke everywhere. This marks one of the only instances in which gentrification of the East Village will do something positive for the neighborhood."

