PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Passersby read the sad news about The Half King in a sign posted near its front door.
Chelsea’s Half King bar closing at end of January
BY SYDNEY PEREIRA
After nearly two decades in Chelsea,
The Half King pub announced
it will close in a little
more than a month from now.
In a message on the place’s Web site,
the pub owners blamed fi nances for its
closure.
“We have had 18 wonderful years
in this neighborhood but times have
changed and we can no longer avoid
fi nancial reality,” the owners, Scott
Anderson, Nannette Burstein and Sebastian
Junger, wrote. “It is with very
heavy hearts that we bid you all goodbye.”
The owners wrote that they would be
at the pub most evenings in January in
its fi nal weeks.
ARTNews fi rst reported the pub’s
planned closure, noting another Chelsea
restaurant, Red Cat, is also closing
by the end of the year. Farther Downtown
in the Village, Cornelia St. Cafe
will shutter on Jan. 2 due to rising
rents.
After years of working as reporters
in war zones, Anderson and Junger
realized few venues were available for
photojournalists to display their works.
Anderson, Junger and fi lmmaker Burstein
joined to open the pub in 2000 in a
spot in the shadow of the High Line on
W. 23rd St.
The co-owners originally had low expectations
— they just hoped to make
back the money they had invested. Before
long, the co-owners had little to do
with the daily operations of the restaurant.
The bar went on to become a staple
in Chelsea, as a “meeting spot” for photojournalists
and writers to share their
works.
Anderson told The Villager in 2016
that the bar “allows the photographers
to show their work largely among their
peers, and is a great opportunity for
photojournalists to get together and see
what others are doing.”
In the aftermath of 9/11, The Half
King became a pit stop for recovery
workers — fi refi ghters and construction
workers — on their way home
from Ground Zero along the West Side
Highway.
“This is way beyond what we had
hoped,” Junger told The Villager in
2004.
PHOTO COURTESY THE HALF KING
From left, Half King founders Sebastian Junger, Nanette Burstein and
Scott Anderson.
6 December 27, 2018 TVG Schneps Media