Cyber Café West to close after 22 years of business in Binghamton

A beloved Binghamton haunt is shuttering its doors after 22 years in business.

Cyber Cafe West, at 176 Main St., is closing at the end of June.

The decision, owner Jeff Kahn said in an interview Wednesday afternoon, came down to money. 

"Cyber never made money," he said. "One of my problems is, I only wanted to survive. But it got worse."

The cafe's last evening will be June 28. It will remain open every day until then. 

The final night will be celebrated with a big party involving the reunion of Kahn's band Monkey's Typing, which retired about six years ago. Kahn plays the guitar, and will join the band for one final gig at the cafe. 

Surprise guests will perform as well. 

"There's going to be a lot of beer that needs drinking," Kahn said.

The cafe, a popular hangout and music venue, features a stage, a variety of seating and a game room on the second floor. According to the Facebook post, the venue has hosted 5,000 shows to date. 

The building was formerly a 1920's speakeasy called The Turf Exchange. According to a previous report in pressconnects.com / Press & Sun-Bulletin, a landscaper stumbled into the entrance to a secret passageway to the bar under the parking lot in 2007. 

Through the passageway, glass jugs, copper funnels and wooden kegs were discovered. An adjoining hidden room had been filled in.

After this was discovered, members of Binghamton University's Public Archaeology Facility explored the site and studied the findings.

"I've thought that, in some ways, I've needed to protect this space," Kahn told pressconnects.com / Press & Sun-Bulletin in 2007. "I've thought that, in some ways, this building — it's 100-something years old — in my wildest fantasies, I believe that the building has chosen me to keep it here." 

But rumors of the building's bootlegging past preceded the 2007 findings, and the venue's history prompted Kahn to purchase the building in 1997 to save it from demolition and becoming a parking lot for the Wendy's next door. 

Even in 2007, Kahn described the music programming as "a losing proposition."

Since purchasing the café, his focus has been simply on keeping the building and the business afloat. 

"I'd be happy to work for nothing, but I can't work for less than nothing," Kahn said Wednesday. 

Business has been down, he said, while expenses are up. After struggling to keep the café open for years, Kahn chose to close this year ahead of July, which he describes as the "toughest month."

"The making money, it should have been higher on my list of goals, because to survive, you have to make money," he said. 

The café has been for sale for over a year. It's currently listed on Greater Binghamton Association of Realtors website for $239,000 with John Burns Jr. as the listing agent.

While Kahn's initial hope was that the new owner would keep it as a café, he said a couple of potential buyers fell through. He's in talks to sell it to another buyer, but for a much lower price than what's listed. Once it's sold, he's not sure how the building will be utilized. 

The closing was first announced Wednesday afternoon in Facebook post written by Kahn. 

"Thanks everyone for your support all these years," the post reads.

In the hour or so after Kahn posted the news on Facebook, he received countless messages and comments recalling good times spent at shows and simply hanging out. 

"I owe the cafe more then I can ever give back. Thank you for everything you’ve done. Thank you for making me feel at home and welcomed," one person commented on the café's post. "Thank you for never turning my friends or I away no matter how odd or nerdy or loud we might be. To the bands I’ll never forget. To the people I would have never met if not for going there. The cafe changed my life."

Kahn might not have made a lot of money, but it's these memories — of people meeting and bands getting their start — that he will hang on to after the café closes its doors. 

"It matters to me," he said.

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