In New Paltz, the inexorable rising tide of post-COVID rent increases has claimed another victim. This time it’s an apparently thriving local watering hole and eatery, and patrons aren’t happy about it. On September 6, the following announcement appeared on social media:
“Unfortunately, we have not been able to come to sustainable lease terms and must prepare ourselves, our staff and you all for the pending closure of Huckleberry in the near future…. In the coming weeks we’ll be cutting some hours of operation and our menu so our staff can feel free to move on to other opportunities. But our bar and space will remain open with some snacks and kitchen pop-ups planned.” On September 13, a second announcement read: “Sadly, this will be our last weekend with our full menu and specials as we transition next week to a smaller, more manageable snack menu.”
Reaction from supporters was swift, both on Huckleberry’s own Facebook page and the New Paltz Community page. “Nooooooooo!” wrote Dannette Mehalik. “You’ve been my go-to spot for impressing friends and family with how cute our town is…and just my favorite spot around, period.” Many praised the establishment as a favorite hangout for socializing with friends over drinks, with its large, comfortable outdoor conversation spaces, firepit and rear patio tucked away in an interior lot on Church Street. “Thank you for being the best backyard,” wrote Autumn Seguin.
Some cited personal milestones and happy memories associated with the place, including first dates, birthday parties, wedding rehearsal dinners, book club meetups. With its kitchen open later than most New Paltz restaurants, and a cozy upstairs room lined with couches, easily regrouped tables and a selection of board games, Huckleberry became a popular draw for casual private parties. If you were organizing a live theater or music event in town and needed a place for your troupe to gather for a post-performance meal, it was your obvious choice of venue.
“Really sad to have learned Huckleberry is closing. I spoke with someone there and was told the owner of the property essentially wanted to triple their rent,” Alexia Neonakis posted on Facebook. “I don’t know how that’s legal, but I guess it is somehow, or how an empty lot is better than a thriving business.” Several longtime residents pointed out that the building at 21 Church Street, with its oddly shaped interior lot, minimal street frontage and lack of parking space, had gone vacant for eight years or more prior to Huckleberry’s opening in December 2015.
Considerable criticism was directed at the property-owner, identified by several sources as Jack Gordon Irrevocable Trust. “It seems like such greed on the part of the owner. The fact that it can work out to their benefit to have an empty building sitting there rather than maintain an affordable rent for a long-term tenant is sad,” wrote Erica Taylor. “The slew of local closures is a shame. Hope things will turn around for commercial and residential renters to be more fair.”
A few expressions of sympathy for landowners also appeared, with high property taxes and insurance costs cited as growing concerns. Other commenters noted the widespread difficulty of attracting staff for bars and restaurants, particularly since the pandemic, and the lack of local workforce housing affordable to people who earn their livings in such establishments. In a September 11 interview with the Albany Times Union, Julie Dabbs, co-owner of Huckleberry with Billy Simkiss, cited the loss of several employees in the past two years due to cost-of-living issues. However, “the main reason” attributed to Dabbs was “a rent increase Huckleberry’s owners were quoted for a five-year extension” that would have been “ten times” its usual $250 to $300 annual increase, “plus an initial 30 percent.”
One Facebook commenter, Steve Greenfield, described such a scenario as “a soft eviction. Nobody can react in a way that keeps them in the black to a tripling of their rent. They build their business, and set their prices, on the relationship between costs and customer traffic.
This is not the landlord’s way of saying, ‘Your rent is underpriced, I want to get some of the windfall my previously underpriced rent is providing to you.’ This is ‘Get out,’ and a way to do it without having to show cause.” Others speculated that the property would soon be put up for sale to take advantage of New Paltz’s skyrocketing real estate market.
While the long-term future of 21 Church Street remains uncertain, Dabbs and Simkiss and their business partners will continue to operate their other mid-Hudson restaurant, Darlings in Tillson. And at Huckleberry, according to Dabbs, “We’ve got some fun stuff planned in the coming months. We’ll keep you all posted here for events and with any changes that are happening. In the meantime, the fires will stay lit, the drinks will be flowing, food slinging and the Huckleberries will be huckleberrying.”
The current “snack menu” specials include elote, heirloom salad, fried chicken sandwich, pulled pork tacos, pineapple bread pudding and the establishment’s famous donuts, along with its signature fancy cocktails and fine selection of local craft beers on tap. The Huckleberry website (www.huckleberrynewpaltz.com) still lists business hours as 5 p.m. to midnight Tuesday and Wednesday and noon to midnight, but it’s best to consult the Facebook page (www.facebook.com/huckleberrynewpaltz) or Instagram (www.instagram.com/p/CBsyp5lDL3_/) for updates.
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