Where was Slugs located in NYC?

[Jazz012]

Originally Posted by Valerie

i am very sorry to disappoint you, Jazz012, but unfortunately i have no information or memory of Mr. Bolden. please accept my condolences and i hope that someone else can help you with this request.

Thank you so much for your response Valerie.

[Joan]

I well remember Slug's Saloon, Third Street between B&C in the(Far) East Village. In 1965-66 it was one of my regular hang outs. My boyfriend at the time and I were great jazz lovers and lived on 11th Street between B&C. We would go to Slug's most nights to hear the jazz greats of the time...Charles Mingus, Art Blakey, Billy Higgins, Sun Ra, Charles LLoyd, Cecil Mc Bee, Herbie Hancock, Bobby Timmons, Lee Morgan,.. etc. to name only a few. Any night the door might open and in would walk Miles or Coltrane to check out the sounds. It was a friendly, relaxed club with sawdust on the floors, brick walls. I recall that one of our friends, James Jackson, carved the wooden Slug's sign outside the club. The East Village (the Lower East Side is south of Houston Street) at that time was always a poor Jewish, Ukranian, Puerto Rican neighborhood but these mid-Sixties were also the days of Flower Power and the streets at night west of Avenue B were always filled with people. However Avenues C&D were dark and isolated at night and kind of scary. I see that no one on this board has mentioned the "greatest little secret" at that time. It was a neighborhood bar diagonally across from Slug's, The Old Reliable. (The poet, Marilyn Hacker, has written a poem about it.) it was a great bar with a dance floor in the back room. Some of the best dancers would show up and some nights you would think the floor would rise the dance energy was so high. The "OR" had FREE "fat"french fries served every half hour, delicious beef stew (when people ate meat) for 50 cents, drinks were 50 cents, the juke box played 8 songs for 25 cents, but if you bumped it just right it would play for "free." These days will always be some of my fondest memories. Life, music, art, writing, style was unparalled. Today it seems that this sort of innovative talent is, sadly, gone forever. I will always remember those winter nights, coming home from Slug's, trudging up Avenue B against the freezing wind, stopping at The Annex between 10th-11th Sts., then home to our cozy and warm one bedroom apartment - which was $65.00 a month. I'm so very glad I was one of the lucky ones who experienced these days.

[engelbach]

Originally Posted by Joan

I well remember Slug's Saloon, Third Street between B&C in the(Far) East Village. In 1965-66 it was one of my regular hang outs. My boyfriend at the time and I were great jazz lovers and lived on 11th Street between B&C. We would go to Slug's most nights to hear the jazz greats of the time...Charles Mingus, Art Blakey, Billy Higgins, Sun Ra, Charles LLoyd, Cecil Mc Bee, Herbie Hancock, Bobby Timmons, Lee Morgan,.. etc. to name only a few. Any night the door might open and in would walk Miles or Coltrane to check out the sounds. It was a friendly, relaxed club with sawdust on the floors, brick walls. I recall that one of our friends, James Jackson, carved the wooden Slug's sign outside the club. The East Village (the Lower East Side is south of Houston Street) at that time was always a poor Jewish, Ukranian, Puerto Rican neighborhood but these mid-Sixties were also the days of Flower Power and the streets at night west of Avenue B were always filled with people. However Avenues C&D were dark and isolated at night and kind of scary. I see that no one on this board has mentioned the "greatest little secret" at that time. It was a neighborhood bar diagonally across from Slug's, The Old Reliable. (The poet, Marilyn Hacker, has written a poem about it.) it was a great bar with a dance floor in the back room. Some of the best dancers would show up and some nights you would think the floor would rise the dance energy was so high. The "OR" had FREE "fat"french fries served every half hour, delicious beef stew (when people ate meat) for 50 cents, drinks were 50 cents, the juke box played 8 songs for 25 cents, but if you bumped it just right it would play for "free." These days will always be some of my fondest memories. Life, music, art, writing, style was unparalled. Today it seems that this sort of innovative talent is, sadly, gone forever. I will always remember those winter nights, coming home from Slug's, trudging up Avenue B against the freezing wind, stopping at The Annex between 10th-11th Sts., then home to our cozy and warm one bedroom apartment - which was $65.00 a month. I'm so very glad I was one of the lucky ones who experienced these days.

We were probably neighbors.

However, although the Lower East Side was technically farther south, we called our area that, not "East Village." That name came into vogue in the late sixties, with the real estate marketers, by which time I had moved to SoHo.

Thanks for mentioning the Old Reliable. I had forgot about it, but I spent much more time there than I did at Slug's.

[Valerie]

Originally Posted by Joan

I well remember Slug's Saloon, Third Street between B&C in the(Far) East Village. In 1965-66 it was one of my regular hang outs. My boyfriend at the time and I were great jazz lovers and lived on 11th Street between B&C. We would go to Slug's most nights to hear the jazz greats of the time...Charles Mingus, Art Blakey, Billy Higgins, Sun Ra, Charles LLoyd, Cecil Mc Bee, Herbie Hancock, Bobby Timmons, Lee Morgan,.. etc. to name only a few. Any night the door might open and in would walk Miles or Coltrane to check out the sounds. It was a friendly, relaxed club with sawdust on the floors, brick walls. I recall that one of our friends, James Jackson, carved the wooden Slug's sign outside the club. The East Village (the Lower East Side is south of Houston Street) at that time was always a poor Jewish, Ukranian, Puerto Rican neighborhood but these mid-Sixties were also the days of Flower Power and the streets at night west of Avenue B were always filled with people. However Avenues C&D were dark and isolated at night and kind of scary. I see that no one on this board has mentioned the "greatest little secret" at that time. It was a neighborhood bar diagonally across from Slug's, The Old Reliable. (The poet, Marilyn Hacker, has written a poem about it.) it was a great bar with a dance floor in the back room. Some of the best dancers would show up and some nights you would think the floor would rise the dance energy was so high. The "OR" had FREE "fat"french fries served every half hour, delicious beef stew (when people ate meat) for 50 cents, drinks were 50 cents, the juke box played 8 songs for 25 cents, but if you bumped it just right it would play for "free." These days will always be some of my fondest memories. Life, music, art, writing, style was unparalled. Today it seems that this sort of innovative talent is, sadly, gone forever. I will always remember those winter nights, coming home from Slug's, trudging up Avenue B against the freezing wind, stopping at The Annex between 10th-11th Sts., then home to our cozy and warm one bedroom apartment - which was $65.00 a month. I'm so very glad I was one of the lucky ones who experienced these days.

thanks so much for sharing your memories, Joan. loved reading them. needless to say, i could relate strongly to most of them but i think i was only in the OR once. i'm trying to jog my old memory about The Annex. sounds very familiar. my apt. couldn't even be called a one-bedroom: 5th floor walkup on 6th St. betw. 1st & 2nd Aves. for $53.50/mo.!!! LOL!

[Joan]

Engelbach: Thanks for writing. Gee, I remember us leaving Washington Square Park in 1961-62 to walk over to the "East Village.." for pig ears at the Spanish restaurant. I guess everyone came to neighborhood names at different times. I used to live on Rivington Street and, being south of Houston St., we knew that was the Lower East Side...pickles in barrels...everything closed on Saturday except Christian owned establishments. In those days, I'd come home at 1:00 -2:00 a.m...men would be out playing checkers and dominos on milk boxes...I never felt threatened. It was different world than the one we inhabit today. Joan

[Valerie]

Originally Posted by Joan

Gee, I remember us leaving Washington Square Park in 1961-62 to walk over to the "East Village.." for pig ears at the Spanish restaurant. I guess everyone came to neighborhood names at different times.

yes, that's when i lived there also: early 61. we knew it as the East Village as well.

Joan: where exactly was The Annex. is that one of the places that Mingus hung out? i remember another bar with sawdust on the floor he used to go but i think it was closer to 8th on the West Side.

[shiatoru]

Inside of Slugs'.....


Outside:

[Aarfeld]

Slugs was located at 242 East Third Street, near Avenue B, on the south side of the street. If you place the address into a Google map search you can see what the property looks like today.

[Music997]

It was a great place and it was legendary.

Many people do remember it. It was on East 3rd Street.

I like those pictures above.

[Valerie]

it was a meaningful place to me: i met my husband-to-be there!!! LOL

[Aarfeld]

Slugs was located at 242 East Third Street, between avenues B and C in the East Village. Today it is home to Rossy's Bakery, with the U.S. Post Office, Tompkin Square Station, next door.