Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. It's an all-call-in show today for this morning before Christmas. Now, a call-in on openings and closings in 2025 that have made you happy or sad. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Listeners, what businesses are you going to miss that closed in 2025? What opened in your neighborhood this year that made you smile or has quickly become a neighborhood staple? 212-433-WNYC. Call or text. 212-433-9692.

Funny that caller in the previous segment mentioned a common humanity experience she had at a Rite Aid. This is actually one for me. There was a Rite Aid I used to go to in my neighborhood, had a really nice pharmacist who gave me COVID vaccines and other stuff. All the Rite Aids closed. It's just a chain, one of those big chain pharmacies, but they went out of business. I miss it a little bit. I certainly miss the person and a few other people who I interacted around there.

Maybe a mundane example. Here are some others that are probably more personal than a Rite Aid. Some bars and restaurants really sparked this in people, right? Some long-standing favorites shuttered this year. Here are a few in order of how long they've been around for. Marlow & Sons, a breakfast-to-dinner staple in Williamsburg, closed after 21 years. These are from New York City. By the way, this can be for any of you from anywhere. What businesses are you going to miss that closed in 2025, or what opened in your neighborhood this year that made you smile or has quickly become a neighborhood staple? 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692.

Marlow & Sons in Williamsburg closed. Cafe Gitane, if I'm saying that right, a bastion of Nolita cool on Mott Street, closed without warning, ending more than a 30-year run, I read. The 52-year-old West Village restaurant Elephant & Castle, I've eaten there, had its last day in August. Hector's Cafe & Diner, it was featured in Taxi Driver if you go back that far, closed in July after 76 years. Hector's Cafe & Diner.

Here's a pending closure: one of the last Times Square dive bars, Jimmy's Corner, is facing eviction. If anybody wants to call in with any kind of eulogy for any of those neighborhood bars and restaurants or any other business that you are sad to see, go, you are invited, or say hello to any new ones that have come along this year. 212-433-9692. Those were some bars and restaurants. How about some stores shutting down? The New York Post reports it's the wurst, W-U-R-S-T, of times for the iconic Queen's German Butchery: the Zum Stammtisch pork store.

Macy's announced that its downtown Brooklyn store on Fulton Street and another location in Sheepshead Bay are among 66 Macy's around the country slated to close this year. Now, maybe you won't mourn a Macy's store that's not the iconic one very associated with Christmas and Thanksgiving on 34th Street. Maybe you do, because that was a neighborhood store for you, where you got some of your favorite clothing or housewares or whatever over the years. Maybe you live nearby one of those and had come to rely on it.

What stores have closed down? What rituals did you have around visiting them? Maybe you bought a last-minute Christmas gift at one of those Macy's locations and waited online for 45 minutes on some past Christmas Eve, or a pork chop for a special dinner at that butcher, or anything, anywhere else. Shout out a favorite memory at whatever business you frequented that closed this year. Maybe even you're the owner or a longtime employee, you can call in, too.

On the other side of the coin, we're inviting your calls on openings, and there are a few different ways to participate. For one, you can shout out any opening of any store or bar or restaurant that has become part of your year this year. Maybe you got a new grocery store much closer to home. Lucky. Maybe there's a new ceramic studio around the corner that you signed up for, or art gallery that you visited. Maybe a great gym opened near your office this year. No more excuses not to exercise. Whatever brought a smile for opening near you this year, shout it out. 212-433-9692.

Truth is, I wonder if we'll get many of these, because what I usually hear these days is unhappiness about locally-owned businesses being replaced by chain stores. A few newcomers to the city, though. The fashion brand known for its 1980s bomber style jackets, Members Only, opened a bar and a store on November 21st in Greenwich Village. Maybe your favorite hometown treats have finally come to New York City. An example of that, Randy's Donuts, the iconic Los Angeles shop that's been around for more than 70 years. It got its first East Coast location in Greenwich Village. I know it's just donuts, but maybe anything that works against the duncanization of everything has got to be a good thing, right?

I mentioned the Rite Aids closing. In my neighborhood, I don't know if it's a fluke, but as some of the big chain pharmacy outlets have closed, some smaller mom-and-pop-looking drugstores or pharmacies have opened. I'm not sure what that's about because I thought everything was going the other way, but I've seen that transition. Anyone else have that near you or know what it's about? Again, a call-in on openings and closings in 2025 that have made you happy or sad. Now, to some of your openings and closings in 2025 that have made you happy or sad. We're going to start with George in Astoria. You're on WNYC with a closing. George, hi.

George: Hello, Brian. Happy holidays. Thank you for taking my call.

Brian Lehrer: To you.

George: Yes. My name is George G. I'm a big band leader, and I wanted to let you and your listeners know that after 28 years, my big band is doing its final show this weekend at a club in Times Square that specializes in big band jazz called Swing 46 Jazz & Supper Club. Unfortunately, they are closing after 28 years at the end of the year, I'm sad to say.

Brian Lehrer: George, thank you very much. Without that club, is your band breaking up because you have no venue?

George: No, I'm still keeping the music alive. The club is unfortunately closing. They presented live big band jazz seven nights a week. We were the first band to play there in June of 1997. As you know, a restaurant and a jazz club is a tough business to do these days in New York City.

Brian Lehrer: Do you have a favorite--

George: My last show there-- Yes, I'm sorry.

Brian Lehrer: I was just going to ask if you have a favorite big band tune.

George: Oh, well, I'm a big Count Basie fan. I was very fortunate to be mentored by the great Count Basie.

Brian Lehrer: Wow.

George: One of my favorite tunes he's ever done is called April in Paris, which is one of his number one hits.

Brian Lehrer: Awesome, George. Thank you for calling in. Keep it up. All right, that's a closing. Here's an opening from Ken in White Plains. Ken, you're on WNYC. Hey there. Happy Christmas.

Ken: Well, happy Christmas to you, too. Thank you very much. Hey, just to bring a little bit of joy, I'm really excited that a new Baba's Pierogies store is going to be opening up in Sunset Park, just off the park. That opening is going to be in a couple of weeks, and those of us who have been schlepping over to Gowanus all the time to get our pierogies now have a more convenient location. That's exciting for our neighborhood.

Brian Lehrer: You don't have to go to Gowanus or the Ukrainian places on the Lower East Side to get your pierogies anymore in Sunset Park. Thank you very much. Tia in Cortlandt Manor, I think, has some closings and an opening. Tia, you're on WNYC. Hi.

Tia: Hi. First of all, I love you so much. Your phone number is taped to my dashboard of my car.

Brian Lehrer: Aw.

Tia: During COVID, it killed Mount Kisco, New York, the shops. It's a very upscale town and surrounding suburbs. The stores are dead. A friend of mine opened a used bookstore, and we don't have any in Westchester. Goodwill has vanished. There is not a Goodwill anywhere near us, which is very sad. I'm a big fan of independent bookstores, and I have to drive 45 minutes to get to Mount Kisco, but I do it with great love.

Brian Lehrer: A used bookstore, open now in Mount Kisco. Here's another Westchester caller. Kiana in Hastings, you're on WNYC. Hi, Kiana.

Kiana: Hi, Brian. Love your show. I'm calling because three spots that I used to really enjoy going to in the Bed-Stuy-Bushwick area all closed within the year. Lovers Rock and Bed-Vyne were both primarily-- I think one is Black-owned bars, locations that closed. Then what hurt me the most was Bunton's over in Bushwick on Broadway closed last month. That was like my after after hour spot that you could always go to when you let out the club or another bar that was open till 4:00 AM, which is like almost impossible now in the city since COVID. I'm missing all those locations.

Brian Lehrer: I identified you as from Westchester. That's where you live, I guess, but you work in Brooklyn, and so you're shouting out those businesses. Anything in common, maybe it's just COVID and lack of foot traffic, and people ordering more online, I don't know, that contributed to those closings?

Kiana: I feel like those spots were always full. I think it's the changing of the neighborhoods, primarily with the two Tompkins locations. Then I did see something in the Times that spoke about how high insurance is for like clubs and bars these days. I think that might be a reason why these spots are closing up.

Brian Lehrer: Kiana, thank you for your call, even though it's a sad one. Kind of as I predicted, we are getting mostly closings. Let's take at least one more. Celia in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Celia.

Celia: Hi. What a nice Christmas treat to be talking to you.

Brian Lehrer: Vice versa. What you got?

Celia: [chuckles] Well, I live in downtown Brooklyn, which is now called Boerum Hill, and I am mourning the loss of the New Apollo Diner on Livingston Street, which was just a great basic diner. It always had a big church crowd on Sundays, and it's now a Chick-fil-A, so that's sad. I am excited that there's a new Japanese supermarket that opened on Atlantic Avenue called Hashi Market. It's great, and they have cheap and cheerful sushi lunches, so that's good. This neighborhood is a little bit like living in midtown Manhattan right now.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Too bad about the Apollo Diner. That's such a pattern, right? A local restaurant closes, and a chain, in your case, Chick-fil-A, comes in to replace it. That is unfortunate, but at least you had an opening in there. We will close with this opening. Listener texts, "Please give a shout out to the Café Brume on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights. If you want that après-ski feel after a day in the Alps, go to the new restaurant; they have a schnapps expert and bring it over from Europe. You have not experienced life if you haven't tried carrot schnapps.

Thank you for that, and thank you for all your openings and closings. We certainly could have continued that, but your openings and closings, sparking joy, sparking sadness, here at the end of '25.

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