Go west, Memory Motel. This past weekend, The End’s iconic sip-n-sleep spot launched a 69-day pop-up in the East Village to keep their party going all winter long.
“[The] Memory Motel brand has been building, since 1943, a lot of fun memories and it’s always evolving to have its finger on the pulse of pop culture,” says co-owner Brian Kenny, who purchased the Memory with his brother, J. Patrick Kenny, in 2012.
The pop-up of the infamous Montauk bed-and bar-fest — made famous in the eponymous song written by the Rolling Stones after staying there in the ’70s and added to their bicentennial album, Black and Blue — launched on Friday, October 27, is located at 103 Third Avenue at 13th Street, and is a partnership with entertainment group Common Ground, who also own a popular Meatpacking District bar of the same name on Gansevoort Street.
The temporary Memory will be open Thursday to Monday (although exact hours of operation were not available at this writing).
Expect happy hour specials and piles of your typical bar fare — nachos, burgers, and the like to support their roster of boozy, garnish-less concoctions, that switch to plastic cups after 9 p.m. (presumably because no one’s hand-eye coordination improves into the late hours of imbibing). Thursdays expect both Trivia Night as well as screenings of Thursday Night Football, and they’ll be offering a $100 bar food tower, complete with chicken fingers, wings, quesadillas and mozzarella sticks. Weekends will offer Hot Sauce Sundays (they have over a 100 bottles on hand).
Also, along the side of the East Village building, a mural of the Memory has been painted by artist Bad Rabbit and Ecko.
For years, the Memory’s dive bar reputation as a bit of a rough-and-tumble watering hole was well earned. And, indeed, even after the Kenny brothers took it over and Montauk’s popularity grew, it wasn’t uncommon for the local constabulary to be called to the scene of various alcohol-fueled kerfuffles. Still, for locals, it’s remained, if in memory only, a bit of rite of passage.
“The Memory Motel team and Common Ground team met when Common Ground came to Montauk in 2023,” says Kenny. “[We] became great friends and decided to start a pop-up together.” Common Ground dabbled briefly in Montauk nightlife back in 2021, when they partnered with Rick Gibbs of Rick’s Crabby Cowboy to create a club-like atmosphere in the evenings at the family-friendly restaurant, which succumbed to a fire this past spring before it’s new owners could open their doors.
The East Village Memory Motel outpost will remain open until December 31st; check for details about their final New Year’s Eve party here. For fans of the dive bar looking for endless summer vibes, it’s good news.
“We love the organic DNA, rock-and-roll culture of the Memory Motel,” says Kenny. “The rich history is amazing. It’s a true brand that appeals to all age groups.”