LUDLOW BLOW:Lower East Side partiers won’t be chilling at Max Fish after the Ludlow Street bar closes. (NY Post: Tamara Beckwith)
When bar owner Ulli Rimkus opened Max Fish on Ludlow Street in 1989, her neighbors were a paper-supply store and “the pillow man,” a Hasidic Jew who made comforters and shed feathers behind him when he walked down the street.
The colorful dive bar, once popular among squatters, was one of the first gin mills to pioneer the Lower East Side, which has since transformed into a theme park for boozehounds.
Max Fish and its neighbor, the restaurant Pink Pony, became popular ’90s hangouts for downtown personalities like Johnny Depp, Courtney Love, the late artist Dash Snow and film director Jim Jarmusch. The two Ludlow Street outposts were alcohol-slinging icons.
As the neighborhood became gentrified — a Steve Madden shoe store and the posh Rivington Hotel have helped bring a commercial sheen to the artsy quarter — Max Fish and Pink Pony remained popular.
But last week, the two Ludlow Street colonizers announced they will shutter Jan. 30 because of a steep rent increase. And nearby, Mars Bar, at First Street and Second Avenue in the East Village, is also set to close as plans to redevelop the site into a mixed-income condo move forward.
Mars Bar — a dingy saloon famous for cheap brew, punk rock and its lack of toilet paper — could reopen in two years but would have to negotiate a market-rate rent with the developer. The community board is scheduled to vote on the proposal later this month.
“The Lower East Side felt like it was over a while ago, but [Max Fish] is a very symbolic closing,” said author Richard Price, who used the neighborhood as a backdrop to his best seller “Lush Life.”
“There are no neighborhoods in Manhattan anymore. South of Harlem, it feels like a bunch of districts where rich people can crash.”
Rimkus told The Post she reached an impasse with her landlord, who said he was jacking up her rent to $150 per square foot, or $20,000 a month, when her five-year lease expires. She would not say what she currently pays.
“I’m in no way able to pay that kind of money,” she said. “I’m devastated. I don’t really see us anywhere else. This is where we started.”
Rimkus said the landlord agreed to extend the lease for one year at the same rate — in exchange for taking ownership of the bar’s name and contents in 2012.
“That deal wasn’t in any way workable for me,” said Rimkus, who is currently scouting new locations.
Pink Pony leases its space from Rimkus and will also be forced to shutter at the end of next month, she said.
Artists and musicians are already crying in their beers.
“I was at the opening night of Max Fish,” said artist Aaron Rose, former owner of Ludlow Street’s Alleged Gallery. “Every young artist in New York has had a few drinks there. Every band on tour ended up there. It’s the death of a certain era of Manhattan.”
Even with legendary dives giving way to sleek condos, some artists said the neighborhood hasn’t lost its cred.
“The Lower East Side will always have some kind of edge until they manage to kick out the Latino community,” said Rose. “A lot of people get pissed off that it’s not what it used to be, but it’s still better than SoHo.”