Word comes in from Brooklyn the Borough of a new bar in Prospect Heights that is by the former owner of Siberia, Tracy Westmoreland. It is to be called Manhattans and opens at 769 Washington Ave.

“Hipsters call the city the Manhattans, the name grew out of Brooklyn,” he said over the phone two days before unveiling the new saloon. “Hopefully when enough people know the bar, when they’re making plans to go out, they’ll say, ‘Wait, are we going to the city, or are we going to Tracy’s bar?’ It’s a perfect circle.”

While the article does mention Siberia, it doesn’t mention Tracy’s bar that he owned before that, which was one of my favorites of all time: KGB. It was located in the 50th Street station on the IRT. You had to actually be in the subway station to get into the bar. It was glorious and one of the greatest dives in the city. When it went tits up, forced out by the MTA, it was alleged that Jimmy Fallon (and my pal Luke) helped Tracy move to Siberia Bar. I think he named the new place Siberia because of the Soviet connection to his old place, which legend had it was a dead drop for Russian spies.

I never fell in love with Siberia Bar, like so many others did. I preferred the much cooler and way more friendly Bellevue Bar, which was around the corner. When Jimmy Duff ran Bellevue Bar, it was heaven. It had the best vibe, best music, and most incredible bartenders. It was always a freakshow. Jimmy moved to Brooklyn five years ago and opened Duff’s, and I believe Tracy was a part-owner of the old Bellevue, which folded soon after Jimmy went across the river. Now Tracy has followed Jimmy to Brooklyn.

So now there is a “new” Siberia, located in Brooklyn. will it take off?

[UPDATE: New York Observer has an interview too]

Back in another time and era, pre-October 4, 2008, that is, many of us who had formerly lived on the Upper West Side would regularly make pilgrimages to our dearly beloved Yogi’s. Its closing by the real estate sharks made numerous headlines, and far beyond the confines of New York, judging alone by the responses I have personally received about our coverage of its demise.

On the night of its closing, numerous writers, journalists, and photographers showed up both to record this sad event, and also to have one last beer or shot, since at least some of them had puked there more than once.

While trying to navigate through the human sea of beer-worshippers who had gathered there that night, I started talking to this fellow who said he was there covering the closing for VanityFair.com. He said his name was George Gurley, and we talked.

His story, with the politically potent title of “Another Dive Bar Dies in Bloomberg’s Manhattan”, indeed captured the flavor, sounds, and scent of this bar, from the customers to the music to the bartenders to the bathrooms.

The story included a quote from me that I had wanted to celebrate my 60th birthday at Yogi’s. That joyous day was Sunday, March 22, 2009. I had a cold all week, so I postponed any celebratory drinking until my aging body said “beer and vodka” to me instead of “soup and tea.”

But I was in the neighborhood to have dinner and shop, so I wandered a few blocks to the intersection of 76th Street and Broadway, and sat down on a wooden bench in the area which separates Broadway. I had passed by the site a few times when it was all boarded up, and had also seen it recently now that the entire building has been ripped down, destroyed, incinerated, obliterated from our lives.

Now I have a photo of it, albeit an unintentionally misty one because I took it late at night with a phone camera, and not a real one.

I think the seeming haze adds a surreal quality to the photo, since all it took to destroy such a vibrant mini-community and oasis of controlled debauchery was the unquenched zeal and greed of a tiny handful of real estate, banking, and political pirates.

I’ll be back drinking again very soon, now in my 60th year. I hope to see y’all in the barrooms – unless, of course, you’re one of those types of bastards who go around looting and stealing from people like us. Our day is coming, and we’ll bury you at the foot of the big beer can mountain. You can count on that, boys.

Tommy with Megan at The Patriot.

Could Tommy McNeill have us drinking again at 457 West 17th Street, the former home of Red Rock West? Our “reliable sources” tell us that Tommy, the fleshy proprietor of The Patriot and The Duck, is about to take over the old Red Rock, which closed amid lawsuits, acrimony and much bad karma in May 2008 after a 13-year run.

This is good news for dive bar fans, as it comes on the heels of word that Tommy is busy with carpenters and electricians to ready his third bar—so far unnamed—on East 92nd and Second Avenue (which coincidently, also held the defunct Red Rock Roadhouse, which shuttered two years ago).

Tommy has been the pied piper of dive bars in Manhattan for 20 years. Without him, there would be none of the early 1990s dives that exist today: Coyote Ugly (he gave founder Liliana Lovell her start in the bar game), Hogs ‘n’ Heifers (he was the brains of the original operation) nor Doc Holliday’s (Tommy was an original investor and co-owner, and came up with the name). When he closed the original Village Idiot on First Avenue and 9th Street in 1994, and moved across town to 14th and Tenth, we rejoiced. That place closed in 2004 and his Upper West Side operation, Yogi’s, closed in October 2008. He has been running The Patriot (Chambers and Church) for five years and The Duck (West 112th and Second Ave) for less than six months. With Tommy, it is cheap beer and Johnny Cash tunes at all times. He has done more for the bottom line of Pabst Blue Ribbon and Jack Daniels in New York than any other person.

Could he pull this off in the shadow of the High Line? Of course. We saw him mobilize the bartenders from The Patriot and Yogi’s and move into The Duck in a matter of hours. He has been hiring new girls like crazy for the past several weeks. As soon as the Upper East Side bar opens—which could be in a matter of weeks—he will have his hands full getting the old Red Rock West in shape to open.

Could we see Dara of The Patriot/The Duck at the old Red Rock? We hope so!

What can we expect? When Red Rock West folded, the staff of about a dozen bartenders scattered to the four corners of the city. A couple found spots at Coyote Ugly (where they had to tone down their antics, sad to say). Others moved to the outer boroughs. In the world of Tommy, he will staff the bar with the same girls that work for him at The Patriot and The Duck. Could it open by Memorial Day for Fleet Week? We hope so.

One big change that separates Tommy’s bars from the now-defunct Red Rock is that he never needs hulking bouncers or doormen, who stood around and intimidated the customers. Tommy hires bartenders that run the bars, do the stocking, and handle all the chores at the bar. So we do not think he will even think about re-hiring any of the bouncers or support staff that worked at Red Rock (and this includes the poor soul who had to guard the motorcycles). I can think of only one male face I want to see Tommy bring back: BOB. That dude was the BBQ master, and his hog roasts were legendary. If Bob is grilling, it will be happy days on West 17th Street again.

Tommy is a smart businessman, and savvy where he picks his bars: his new Second Avenue bar is in a prime spot for the Second Avenue Subway when it opens in six years, and even better, when the High Line park opens, his new bar will be in it’s shadow. It looks like 2009 is going to be a great year for dive bar patrons!

Why ain’t this here song by Rodney Carrington on the jukeboxes of all our favorite honky tonks? Here are two versions (NSFW):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4v9ogmubTA]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgyeshD8RJY]

Did you watch the president’s speech last night? There was one topic he did not mention, in all that talk about banks, schools, the war in Afghanistan:

Alcohol sales are down.

I was shocked by that. Particularly since movie ticket sales are up. It seems to me, if the economy sucks, you’d either go to see something like Transformers 2, or else buy a 12-pack and go home and watch porn.

According to Bloomberg News:

Beer sales fell the most, 14 percent, in last year’s fourth quarter. They accounted for 61 percent of the $111.9 billion in alcohol sold to drink at home. Wine sales retreated 1.6 percent and sales of liquor slid 0.9 percent.

There is more here about the startling statistics. Let’s just hope we get over this recession soon.

Finally some good news to read today. Even though the economy is in the toilet, $16 million was spent to renovate the Beacon Theatre. This beloved concert venue, which many of us love for hosting the Allmans every spring, is back after seven months of work to bring it back to its 1920s glory. The Times has a great overview and photo gallery which says,

New end standards along the aisles of the 2,829 new rust-red seats were cast from patterns close to the originals. Furthermore, multiple levels of ceiling cove lighting were rewired, then the fixtures rebulbed, as restorers say, returning the illumination to a glory not seen for 50 years…

I’ve been here many times; the last was to see David Gray. It is a special place on the Upper West Side. Even though Yogi’s is not within stumbling distance any longer to The Beacon, there are many more watering holes nearby.

Hats off to Madison Square Garden Entertainment for bringing back this jewel to New York. Paul Simon is the first to perform in the renovated landmark.

I always hated the Hawaiian Tropic Zone as a bar, a restaurant, and a tourist trap. I went there a bunch of times with the ultimate wingman, my cousin, and it always sucked. Well now comes word in the Daily News that it is shutting down for an overhaul. This is kind of hard to believe, since it only opened in a couple years ago, and now it needs “a lengthy renovation.”

Now a sprawling two-story eating, drinking and ogling destination, the place will reopen as a one-story bistro with the same menu and scantily clad servers. While some managers will keep their jobs, most of the waitstaff will be forced to seek other work.

This is the second time in a week this dump has been on NYCBP; don’t forget the Latin bombshell who is suing the place, one of two pending lawsuits.

I have always liked the Times blog about drinking. This installment really makes it clear how the “downpour” works and dispels the myth of premium spirits. I bartended a little in a past life, and we never did this, because we never had the time or energy to sit there and pour cheap hootch into the premium bottles. (I do know of one bar that did this; I saw them do it in the basement). I love this part:

The bar staff dubbed the place “The Make-Believe Ballroom.” We obviously downpoured to keep liquor costs down, which helped the house. But it also allowed us to buy back more drinks for customers, which got us better tips. It was a fairly busy place and I worked there for three years. In all of that time only twice was the validity of a cocktail’s ingredients questioned.

Have any of you bartenders and patrons experienced this? Or have a working knowledge of a funnel-and-bottle operation in a back room of your bar or saloon? This is a great blog, and although he is talking about Elaine’s, it could just as well be an NYCBP bar.

The idiots who run the Hawaiian Tropic Zone in Times Square are alleged to have discriminated against a knockout Latin girl because she is too Latin. I mean, come on! The Daily News has the whole story about Melody Morales, who is suing the place because they told her she was too ghetto to work there. The ex-Hooters waitress, who was born in New York to parents from the D.R. and P.R., is a 35-D stunner who works at a bikini bar in Westchester (we wish we knew the name). She filed the suit after she kept applying to work at Hawaiian Tropic, and kept being turned down.

The suit says Morales went with her mother to the restaurant last March in search of a job. It claims a manager told her to get lost, saying, “I am not going to ruin my business with your Latin accent.”

Who does not love a girl who takes her mom on a job interview?

Message to Melody: I think you will be getting a ton on interview requests today.

The Times has the story today that The Holland Bar is coming back from the dead. This is such good news on so many levels. It is also a sign of the times: The bar got back into its old spot because the landlord couldn’t get anyone to rent the space with a jacked up rent.

According to Mr. Kelly, who has owned the bar since 1998, the landlord refused to renew the lease in the hopes that he could make more money converting the building for residential use or selling it off. But such plans apparently did not work out, and the landlord offered Mr. Kelly his old space back starting Jan. 1, albeit at a 20 percent increase in the rent. Now the Holland is scheduled to reopen its taps as soon as Wednesday.

This is great! And I am glad the Times finally is paying attention to dive bars. It totally missed the closing in 2008 of Yogi’s and Red Rock West.