GREENWICH VILLAGE — A music venue on Bleecker Street will close for good at the end of this month.
Choga, a Korean restaurant and jazz club at 145 Bleecker St., is shutting down because the landlord would not renew the venue's lease, and because club has failed to turn a profit for the past few years, one of the owners told DNAinfo New York.
"My co-owner friend is exhausted after seven years of making no money," said Jinho Jang, a co-owner of the restaurant.
The building's owner, Dale Lind, declined to comment.
Jang added live music to the restaurant a little less than two years ago, in an attempt to turn the failing business around, he said. He set up a little stage and bar in the back of the parlor-level space and started booking musicians.
"It helped, but not enough to make up the loss [the co-owner] already made for five years," Jang said. "[We] couldn't win [against] the bad economy."
Jang, a 25-year veteran of the music business, said he's exhausted from the experience. He may try to open another venue, he said, but not anytime soon.
"I need a break too," he said.
Feb. 28 will be Choga's last night. The final act will be Kengo Yamada, a Japanese musician with a jazz band.
A manager at Peculier Pub, a longtime Village bar in the space below Choga at 145 Bleecker St., said the bar has no plans to close.
