BY TINA BENITEZ-EVES | For 20 years, Cafe Pick Me Up has anchored the corner of E. Ninth St. and Avenue A. It started out as a coffeehouse back in 1995 and, a decade later, had grown into a full-service restaurant. But it will all come to an end in less than two weeks. The restaurant will close its doors for good on Sun., May 31, following a reported rent hike by landlord Icon Realty Management.
Cafe Pick Me Up fills adjoining spaces in two different buildings with separate leases. Last April, Icon Realty purchased 145 Avenue A, which houses the larger, cafe section of the restaurant, for $10.1 million from previous owner Bethany Realty. Cafe Pick Me Up’s kitchen and additional seating are located in a narrower space on the ground floor of 147 Avenue A, owned by 9300 Realty.
By the end of the month, the main cafe section of Cafe Pick Me Up, on the corner, will close. The fate of the cafe’s smaller space, in No. 147, is still unknown.
For years, Cafe Pick Me Up has been a respite for locals in need of caffeine or a momentary work or people-watching post. Serving up mostly java and pastries, Cafe Pick Me Up also offered a medium-sized menu of favorites, from nizzarda, caprese and other salads, gnocchi al pomodoro and more under the cafe’s pasta selections, soups, sandwiches and breakfast dishes, such as farm-fresh eggs and potatoes or the restaurant’s tofu scramble.
Like a restaurant constructed from thrift shop finds, Cafe Pick Me Up’s interior sports wobbly wooden tables and chairs, velvet-upholstered banquette and ottoman seating, antique gas lanterns and a sprinkling of kitschy wall art. The restaurant cultivated and retained its artsy coffee bar feel throughout the years.
Now, the popular corner hangout is on the market. Icon is currently listing the 600-square-foot space, which also includes a 724-square-foot basement, for $15,000 a month.
The Villager was unable to reach the restaurant’s management, but one employee shared the owners’ sentiment on the restaurant’s closing.
“It’s terrible,” said Connor Peterson, who was worked there for a year and been a Cafe Pick Me Up patron for more than five years. “What they are asking for is ridiculous,” he said of the rent hike.
But Joe Goldsmith, a lawyer for Icon Realty, said Cafe Pick Me Up’s rent was never raised and that the restaurant was having difficulty paying its rent under the previous landlord.
“This was their decision,” said Goldsmith. “They decided to leave. [Icon] would have worked out a renewal with them, but they weren’t interested.”
Luckily for regulars who need their morning pick-me-up, the cafe will reportedly live on in some form down the street at Gnocco, on E. 10th St. near Avenue B, which is also run by Cafe Pick Me Up’s owners. The cafe part of the restaurant will reportedly continue serving breakfast at this nearby Italian eatery.
Along E. Ninth St., near Cafe Pick Me Up, other retail spaces are also on the market, including the former Cloak & Dagger location, at 441 E. Ninth St., and 445 E. Ninth St., which used to house Bridal Veil Falls, a wedding-accessories shop that recently closed after 10 years in business. Both retail spaces are also owned by Icon.
“I guess that’s what Manhattan is now,” Peterson said. “It’s about ruining businesses and pushing people out. I don’t believe in it. I don’t believe in raising the rent in a place like this where people are already struggling.”
