ALBANY — The Bishop, a self-described “bourbon and beef bar” that opened in August 2019 on North Pearl Street as the collective dream of a partnership of four longtime bartenders, announced Tuesday that it is permanently closed.
The farewell note, posted on Facebook, says in part, “(T)he time spent sharing food, drinks and laughter will always be fondly remembered.” No reason for the closure is given beyond saying, “The time has come for us to move on.”
It was located at 90 N. Pearl St., a corner spot that immediately prior to The Bishop was home to the Albany location of The Merry Monk and before that a deli, two short-lived bars called The Assembly and Corner Bar and an annex of the former Big House brewpub.
The original owners were Dean Bilpuh Jr., Raymond Hatlee, Scott Pugsley and Evan Shults, who all had long resumés tending bar and managing at Albany places including Graney’s Stout and Cafe Hollywood, though Bilpuh departed within months and Shults said Tuesday he had not been involved “in quite some time.”
The Bishop was cherished by customers for its copper-wrapped bar, open shelves glinting with small-batch liquors, an ambitious cocktail program including Ezra Brooks bourbon cream poured over crushed ice made from local Death Wish coffee, 16 regional beers on tap, Sunday brunch with bottomless mimosas and a wood stove tucked in a discretely partitioned, wallpapered nook.
But the restaurant stumbled, too, losing the founding chef within a month of opening, experiencing further kitchen turnover and a long, pandemic-related break from late 2020 through the following spring. It crept back open, serving three days a week at first, but for about the past year it was closed only on Monday.
It was unclear Tuesday evening if the sudden closure left some customers with unredeemed gift cards and whether the owners would be making arrangements to pay them out….
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