‘The Magician’ Aims to Expand into Base of Adjacent Essex Crossing Development

For its next trick, The Magician plans to expand its footprint on Rivington Street. The proposal surfaces some seventeen years after the nightspot first opened doors.

The bar is currently listed on the Community Board 3 agenda next month for an alteration to its liquor license that permits annexation of an in-the-works adjacent space. Indeed, the added floor area – approximately 600 square-feet – is actually inside the unbuilt one-story appendage of the new Essex Crossing building at Site 8 (affordable housing for seniors).

If approved, the expansion would not only increase the overall size, but provide The Magician greater visibility as a corner establishment.

The Magician debuted at 118 Rivington Street in 2002 and boasts minor mythical status among the once-prolific bloggerati (aka neighborhood bloggers) in the aughts.

It still hosts one of the better happy hour deals in the neighborhood.

And on a related note, indie band The Tontons wrote a song back in 2014 inspired by the bar, dubbed “Magic Hour.”

Apparently, Tontons frontman Asli Omar watched his relationship crumble to conclusion at this Rivington Street Bar. It was only after the song was written that he realized the name of the bar. He told Rolling Stone at the time that the catchy tune “basically describes the final week of my relationship which kind of reached a head at this particular bar.”