Play the final coda for Cody’s.
The owners of a beloved Cobble Hill mom-and-pop bar served their last beer on Nov. 4 after 30 years in the neighborhood. The closing of Court Street institution Cody’s Ale House led some loyal patrons to shed some tears during the last call, according to its proprietor.
“I saw some people crying, and I was like wow,” said Bay Ridgite Kevin Cody, who owned the bar. “Sunday was a goodbye party. We gave everything away and had a nice party. People seemed to be pretty upset.”
Cody opened his namesake bar and grill in 1988 inside a landmarked building between Pacific and Amity streets that he owned, and over the years it became a go-to on Sundays to watch football games — especially for Pittsburgh Steelers fans.
But he recently signed papers to hand the building over to an out-of-stater, who plans to gut the space and likely put in retail — renovations that will first require city approval because of the building’s landmark status, he said.
“This is a landmark so they can’t do much, just going to modernize everything,” Cody said.
Cody and his wife, who helped run the joint, fell in love with the neighborhood and became friends with many of their long-time patrons, who often came in for a drink or a basket of wings every week. But after three decades in the business — and a recent cancer diagnosis — it was time to pack up, he said.
“Got to face reality sometimes; health issues take precedence,” Cody said. “It just was a signal we made the right decision.”
One loyal fan of the bar said he first stumbled into the it about five years ago, and has been coming back nearly three times a week ever since.
“The people are great, the food is great,” said Downtowner Raymond Nash. “There aren’t too many places left like that. This is one less.”
And Cody’s isn’t the only Court Street business that closed its doors this year — just a stone’s throw from the bar, at the corner of Court and Pacific streets, grocer Pacific Greens Gourmet shuttered on Nov. 1, months after beloved stationery shop Court Street Office Supply closed its brick-and-mortar store down the block in February.
But the street’s back-to-back losses are merely a sad coincidence, and not a sign of any massive development’s imminent arrival to the mom-and-pop-filled block, according to Cody.
