No More Monkeying Around: Monkeytown Closing

After January 24th, Monkeytown will be no more. The Williamsburg restaurant and live performance space known for its exotic dinners, unusual film nights and intimate, experimental multimedia performances is shutting down for good, though involuntarily. “We’re closing because of a dispute between us and our landlords,” said the bar’s owner Montgomery Knott, 40, in an interview conducted over the phone (because of the pending legal situation, Knott was reticent to delve into further detail.)

Whether it’s navigating noise complaints or dealing with overzealous developers, the battle between nightlife and landlord has become an unfortunately common occurrence in Williamsburg. Instances like the closing of Monkeytown seem to serve as symbols of the neighborhood’s seemingly endless battle between old and new residents. Last year, Mexican restaurant Bonita also closed. One of the reasons for the close? According to Brooklyn Based, “a contentious relationship with the landlord.”

“We’re definitely a victim of the overdevelopment of Williamsburg,” said Knott, of the new condominiums that are being built by the landlords of Monkeytown’s building. “I’ve probably been in court close to two dozen times in the last eight months. They just played a game of attrition with us. And they won. They’re basically forcing us out of business.”

It’s sad news for fans of the adventurous venue, which has been a staple for all sorts of fun and artistic oddities on the Williamsburg scene since 2003. Featuring a menu that reads, as one Yelp reviewer described it, “like a map of the zoo,” Monkeytown has been home to anything from Herzog screenings to exotic six-course dinners, to sold-out performances from Xiu Xiu and The XX, to “Porn Week,” a series of film nights in which selections of art inspired by porn was juxtaposed against porn inspired by art. Where else can you go for even one of those things? One recent five-course meal, entitled “Swamp Dinner,” consisted of snails, rattlesnake, turtle salad, alligator a l’indienne, with “turtle cake” as the thematic dessert item. Even the bathrooms at Monkeytown are a source of stimulation and novelty: one is liable to hear anything from old Rodney Dangerfield routines (“My wife wants sex in the back of the car—and she wants me to drive”) to instructions for urinary self-examination (“Do you feel a burning sensation when you urinate?)

Despite Gothamist’s report last month of a potential legal delay—as well as a performance by Yoko Ono—that could help save the venue, that pinprick of hope seems to be extinguished. Currently, Knott doesn’t have any plans to open a new venue. “I don’t think I’ll be doing anything in Williamsburg right away,” he said. “My plans are to go away for a month and then come back and get a job.”

Last chances to say goodbye to Monkeytown include a slew of special performances, such as the following: “Woods Family Creeps” on Jan. 18, in which Brooklyn quartet Woods “explore their jammier, improvisational leanings in an intimate setting with visuals”; “Brooklyn Revue” on Jan. 23, a variety ranging from “pop to noise to slow/core/metal to comedy” curated by local singer/songwriter Sharon Van Etten; and Jan. 24’s closing night featuring Amolvacy, Neel Murgai Ensemble, Shelley Burgon and Maria Chavez, a lineup that is described as “primitive post punk folk smash / freerock improv trio + raga chamber jazz + harp and processed turntables.”