EAST VILLAGE – Café Pick Me Up plans to downsize significantly and cut down more than half its space in May.
The longtime neighborhood coffee shop will give up the lease to its main café area on the corner of Avenue A and East Ninth Street and move to the narrow dining room where its kitchen is located because of a rent hike, said Rossella Palazzo, a manager who said her husband was one of the owners.
“I don’t know who can afford that much rent,” she said, declining to say how much the landlord charged. “I know it’s a nice location on the corner but it’s way too much for what they’re asking.”
The café currently occupies two adjoining spaces in two different buildings, Palazzo explained, so each side of the eatery has its own lease. The lease for the larger, corner section of Café Pick Me Up expires in May, she said.
Palazzo did not elaborate how the changes would affect the café’s operations.
Café Pick Me Up opened 20 years ago and added the dining room, as well as a dinner menu and waiter service in 2011, according to the Village Voice.
