One of Greenpoint’s best cocktail bars, Ramona (113 Franklin St.), is closing at the end of December after ten years in the neighborhood.
The announcement was made on Ramona’s Instagram page. It read, “Itʼs with a heavy heart that we have to unfortunately announce the closing of Ramona. Weʼve loved being your neighborhood bar over the last ten years…Many memories, friendships and life events will far surpass us being open but we have all of you to thank for making it worthwhile.”
The post continued with, “Our ten-year lease is coming to a close at the end of the year and due to leasing situations beyond our control, we are unable to renew ours. If we could, we absolutely would.”
Greenpointers confirmed the sad news with Ramona’s manager, Margaret Fitzgerald. “We’re devastated to be closing, but our ten-year lease is up come January and the new leasing situation is beyond our control rent-wise,” Fitzgerald said.
The only bright spot is that Fitzgerald told Greenpointers that the cocktail bar plans on serving customers “through New Year’s Eve,” so locals will have a chance to enjoy Ramona’s delicious drinks for another few weeks.
Ramona is known for its fantastic cocktail creations, including popular frozen concoctions like the Painkiller. During the pandemic, the bar was one of the first to offer takeout cocktails, which were just as creative and enjoyable as all of Ramona’s drinks and incredibly popular with the local residents.
This painful news calls for one last Ramona Painkiller before they close at the end of the year.
They had one of the best wine happy hours. Sad to see it go. I don’t understand these landlords, they rather see their place stay empty for yrs. then to offer a reasonable rent.
I don’t get it.