Friday, February 20, 2009

Ruby's Still Waiting For Life Signs This Coming Season

New Yorker magazine's Grub Street approached Ruby's Bar & Grill owner, Micheal Sarrel for any updates on whether they will be open for this coming season and received a 'still negotiating with Thor' response.

Grub Street writes:

The venerable Ruby’s isn’t included on a list of establishments that will definitely be open when Coney Island starts its season on April 5, so we decided to check in with owner Michael Sarrel. He tells us he’s presently negotiating with Joe Sitt, the landlord, who has doubled his rent, to try to open the boardwalk dive for another season. “It’s a coin toss at best,” he tells us. “There’s not that much money to be made up in Coney Island.” Asked whether he’ll have to operate at a loss if he agrees to a higher rent, Sarrell says it depends on the weather and also on how many people return to the boardwalk now that Astroland is closed. “There’s speculation he’s going to get some kind of circus where the park is going to be, but that’s just speculation. I expect at best to do 75 percent of what we did last year. I don’t know that that’s going to be enough to stay here. It’s tough because we’ve been there so long that it’s in our blood.” Sarrell should have a better idea of where things stand in a couple of weeks.

Coney has many rumors, and one buzzing around is about a circus that Thor plans to bring in on the empty Astroland slot, which Grub Street picked up on.

Here's what, so far, will be open in Coney Island this coming season.


Image courtesy of Andrew Karcie [Grub Street]


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh Dear

So there is a good chance there will be no bars (Ruby's or Cha Cha's) to sit and watch the Boardwalk and the Ocean this summer and looking at the whats open link I see the Friday night fireworks is looking for a sponsor, so there could be no bars and no Friday fireworks, to me its feels like Thor have riped the heart out of Coney with Astroland gone and now they are going for the sole.