Beloved Park Slope gay bar Excelsior is finally set to open its new Fifth Avenue spot next week, a year after shutting the doors to its longtime location down the street, and the owners are just as relieved as their thirsty clientele.
“Finally, finally, finally, it’s happening,” said Mark Nayden, who ran the old neighborhood hot spot with his husband Richard Kennedy for more than 15 years and has been trying to get the new digs off the ground for months.
Nayden and Kennedy scored the new location at 563 Fifth Ave. between 15th and 16th Streets in October of last year, months after they closed the bar’s original Fifth Avenue home nine blocks away because of rising rent. The pair had been hoping to resign their 15-year lease on the spot between Sixth and Seventh streets, but when the landlord decided to sell the property for $2.2 million — a price the barmen were unable to meet — they said goodbye to the well-loved real estate and seek new dwellings.
The couple had ambitions to have the new place up and running at the beginning of the year, but the opening date has been continually pushed back in the haze of much-needed construction and repairs. Nayden is now optimistic that the drinks will be flowing by Wednesday, Aug. 5.
“It’s been a longer process than we had hoped it would be, but we are incredibly excited and proud of the whole space and what we’ve created here,” he said.
Three bartenders from the original space will be happily returning to their posts, and Excelsior regulars who were devastated by the bar’s disappearance are eagerly awaiting its triumphant return to the Fifth Avenue scene.
“The buzz is still there,” said Nayden. “I think they are very much still loyal to us because they’re family, and that is something both Richard and I always loved about Excelsior and that is something I hope we can continue.”
The new and improved Excelsior will be bigger and better than its predecessor, featuring two floors, a spacious back patio, and an events space for live performances.
