Longtime owner Mike Diliberto now confirms with us that he won’t be reopening the Cedar. “As much as I know it’s going to be missed,” he says, “I think putting a bar beneath a condominium doesn’t do much for the value.” Diliberto, whose father, Sam, bought the Cedar in 1955 when it was at 24 University (it first opened on Cedar Street in 1866 and moved three times), says he’ll miss being a tavernkeeper: “It was the old Village. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun. You see the inside of a lot of people when you operate a tavern” (some of his better-known regulars: Chris Noth, F. Murray Abraham, and Jason Patrick). Still, he has no plans to get back in the game, if only by licensing the tavern’s name.
“There’s nothing serious happening just yet,” he tells us. “There’ve been no serious offers.” Even if he were to reopen the place, it’d have to be without its beautiful turn-of-the-century bar. Diliberto held on to some artwork, but sold the bar for an amount he won’t divulge, to an Austin, Texas, team that plans to install it in a new venue. So were the condos worth it? “It’s been a lot of work,” he tells us, “but the condominiums are really beautiful. I’d like to live there!”
