Southpaw To Close, Will Be Replaced by Kids Club

Big news arrived in my inbox today from Doug DeFalco, resident promoter and booker for Park Slope venue Southpaw. He writes:

It is with an extremely weighted heart that I inform you that, after ten years, Southpaw will be closing its doors in late February. It seems like yesterday we were all writing our names in the cement and knocking down walls in that old vacant 99 cent store. Time flew by in a blink it seems. In the time that it took to blink Brooklyn got a ton of musical gifts that we were more than happy to provide.

The club opened on 5th Avenue in Park Slope in 2001 and has been thought of as a catalyst for many other venues to open around Brooklyn, including the Bell House in nearby Gowanus and Wiliiamsburg’s Knitting Factory. Full disclosure, this website has hosted many parties and events at Southpaw, including our soiree featuring Patti Smith, Outernational (live video from SP below) and Shilpa Ray with FortnightJournal.com in 2010.

“It’s kinda crazy,” owner Matt Roff told me via text, “But a good biz decision.”

Roff and co-owner Mikey Palms, of The Rub party and East Village Radio fame, will close Southpaw’s doors at the end of February and move their musical operations to their northside venue Public Assembly.

“Mikey Palms will be around PA more as a result,” said Ben Sisto, Public Assembly’s chief booker and promoter, via email. “I’m pretty stoked to have his years of input and contacts benefitting PA. Southpaw is, I think, ending at the right time and on a good note. That place will be remembered as a serious part of BK history!”

In March, the owners will begin subletting Southpaw’s space to an organization called New York Kids Club. Their website describes them as “New York’s premier children enrichment center renowned for creative and innovative kids classes, day camps, birthday celebrations, and special events!”

“it’s a different type of establishment but one that benefits the community in a positive way,” added Sisto, on the big change up.

“I might make some money now,” added Roff.

As it turns out, like many of their neighbors in the posh Slope area, Roff and Palms, two native New York City kids, have grown up.

“Ten years in the Slope, time to move on,” Palms said via gchat. “I am getting married and I have a baby on the way.” (Maybe s/he’ll skip the line and get into the kids club free?)

A staff member at the venue also noted, “Southpaw has been fun but I’m 40 and I’d kinda like to do something a bit more grown up.”

As for the rumors that the native duo would participate in a reality show based on their dramatic daily lives as club and restaurant owners, it’s also no longer in the works. “I never wanted it,” Roff said.

Adding, “I’m moving to Madison Avenue.”