Falling to Pieces

(Photo by Shanna Ravindra)

As you may have heard, Pieces -- the longtime West Village gay bar near the iconic intersection of Christopher and Gay streets -- was a lease-signing away from moving into a new location nearby when the landlord backed out on the deal, in what owner Eric Einstein says was an "unprecedented" move spurred by a campaign of hate and homophobia spearheaded by the residential tenants in the building and the superintendent. (If you're thinking the residents just don't want "a bar" there, keep in mind that the location was the Patty and Bun before this, so no new liquor licenses are being added to the block, so you don't have to be an Einstein to figure this one out.)

While there is no legal angle to get the landlord to change his mind, there is an ethical one. With Greenwich Village already a shadow of its former self, it would be sad to see yet another popular gay-owned neighborhood establishment give way to another chain store.

Click HERE to see what you can do to help keep Pieces open -- and click HERE for the full drama that led to this point.

Now how long before Julius' becomes a nail salon?