For 16 years, the Lakeside Lounge employed a formula that never changed: a handpicked band every night, a jukebox loaded with classic songs, a cadre of quick-witted bartenders working under strings of colored lights, and an old-time photo booth that spat out strips of pictures shot using real film.
For 16 years, the Lakeside Lounge employed a formula that never changed, which included quality house gear.
While the bar, on Avenue B in the East Village, held true to the rock ’n’ roll vision of its co-founders, Eric Ambel, a guitarist and record producer, and James Marshall, a disc jockey, the neighborhood gradually acquired a new personality. Upscale restaurants replaced drug dens, seedy gave way to hip, and hangouts for musicians and artists vanished. With rent and expenses rising relentlessly, the party at the Lakeside Lounge will end on April 30.
“The economics of the new East Village caught up with us,” said Mr. Ambel, 54.
Many music fans are mourning the passing not just of a nightspot, but of an era. “We learned how to be a band here, and so many others did, too; where are we all going to go now?” Mo Goldner, 43, asked as he leaned against the bar for a farewell toast. Mr. Goldner’s band, Spanking Charlene, has for years played a monthly gig on Lakeside’s small side-room stage.
The Lakeside Lounge opened in April 1996, taking the space previously occupied by a rehearsal studio and a Jamaican restaurant. The bar’s name was an allusion to the summer trips to Wisconsin that Mr. Ambel made with his family while growin
