After 33 years in business, the Odessa Café Bar on Avenue A will close on Sat., Aug. 31. Odessa Restaurant next door will remain open. Last Saturday a half dozen customers lounged over lunch and drinks. Two locals said they were saddened by the impending closure. “Where are we going to go now?” wondered Meg Rowley, 25, of the East Village. “There are no other bars like this. We’ve had birthday parties here. We bring people here. It’s our go-to bar.” Her friend Erin Mosbaugh, 24, of the Lower East Side, took a dimmer view. “I think it’s going to become the ubiquitous $14 cocktail spot that we have so much of already,” she said fatalistically. According to the food blog Eater, the building’s new owners plan to convert the retro cafe / bar into a “full-service American brasserie restaurant.”
