Ping-pong bar co-founded by Susan Sarandon to replace NYC comedy club Carolines
New York City’s beloved comedy institution Carolines on Broadway is going from serving up laughs to serving up paddles — with the recently shuttered venue set to become a table tennis bar.
The comedy club closed its curtains for good on New Year’s Eve after a legendary four-decade run, as it now transforms into Spin NYC Times Square — the ping-pong joint co-founded by actress Susan Sarandon.
Spin NYC, which bills itself as the “iconic” ping-pong social club, already boasts a 14,000-square foot space in Flatiron, which charges upwards of $59 per hour per table.
The retro franchise also has locations in another seven cities.
Gregory Godfrey, VP of Brand & Culture at SPIN Global, told The Post Tuesday that while the deal isn’t “100% official yet,” the company is “super excited” about the 10,000-square foot space that oozes that “underground feeling.”
“We’re looking to open in midtown this year at some point,” he said.
But the Big Apple’s famous comedians aren’t laughing.
“How can they desecrate a sacred comedy space to accommodate a 90’s suburban basement sport? I love ping-pong, but c’mon,” kvetched comedian Talia Reese, who’s performed at the hallowed club some dozen times over the years.
“Do people really pay to play ping-pong?”
Eric Neumann, another regular headliner at Carolines, told The Post it is a “letdown.”
“Carolines is a huge space — are there that many people obsessed with ping-pong?” he asked.
“It feels like a letdown, but anything would feel like a letdown after Carolines closed. It was an institution, and we take that for granted.”
The famed institution’s founder, Caroline Hirsch, previously told The Post that the decision to shut the doors was “heart-stabbing,” albeit necessary.
“Ticket sales have been 70% of what they once were,” she said, noting that she only opened the club five days a week instead of seven in latter days.
“Tourism is still off. It’s a give and take… Some weeks we’re making a lot of money, some weeks we’re not.”
So when the venue’s 10-year lease at 750 Seventh Avenue was due for a rent “reset” at the end of 2022, the landlord “felt they can get a lot more for the space,” Hirsch, 71, said.
The NYC comedy matriarch launched the original Carolines as a cabaret in Soho in 1981. The club relocated to Times Square in 1992.
While the new lease hasn’t officially been signed yet, Spin NYC applied for a liquor license on January 5, according to the NYS Liquor Authority Mapping Project. The status is pending.
Carolines’ director of publicity, Greg Charles, posted a bittersweet sendoff on social media Thursday, revealing a stripped-down subterranean stage.
“To quote the great Sam Malone: ‘I’m the luckiest sonofabitch on earth,'” he wrote.
“And now it’s ping-pong. I bet it won’t even last,” Neumann predicted, before quipping, “It can get even crappier – like beer pong.”
Hirsch declined to comment.
