Dollar Bill-Strewn 69 Bayard Restaurant Is Closing This Weekend
Feb. 25, 2016, 10:30 a.m.
A favorite for many late night revelers and chicken wing lovers, the restaurant will be familiar to most for its unique decor, namely the thousands of dollar bills lining its walls.
A favorite for many late night revelers and chicken wing lovers, 69 Bayard Restaurant will be familiar to most for its unique decor, namely the (hundreds? thousands?) of dollar bills lining its walls and ceiling. The bills bear the names of patrons past and present but there'll be no more in the future, as the restaurant will reportedly close this weekend. Chinatown activist Karlin Chan revealed to The Lo-Down that the cheap eats standby would serve its last meal either Saturday or Sunday this weekend, though the restaurant's neighbor, Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, indicates it will be Sunday.
Ownership hasn't been forthcoming about why the restaurant will shutter, but apparently the restaurant has changed hands several times in the past decades, so the hope is it will reopen under new ownership.
For now, fans have taken to social media to eulogize the restaurant. "This place had character. It's [sic] staff was typical Chinatown and always made me smile and any person who's eaten there at 2 a.m. on a summer Friday knows how much this place will be missed," one man wrote on Yelp. "RIP and thanks for giving me some of the greatest (and maybe fuzziest) nights of my life. Bayard Street will never be the same."
