New York City Bartenders & Patrons

New Places, Same Faces
By Eddie Goldman
Photos here.

Rest assured, dive bar lovers, boozers, rednecks, and country music aficionados. The clock may be ticking on the lease of Yogi’s, the beloved Upper West Side haven for cheap beer, cheaper women, and Willie, Waylon, and Merle, but, according to its founder and dive bar impresario, Tommy McNeil, the era of these places in New York City is far from over.

The scene was a get-together organized by the NYCBP.com crew Tuesday night, June 24, at Yogi’s. Behind the bar was the gorgeous Theresa, who also is the bartender who has been working there the longest. Tommy and his trusted partner Chardee were downstairs interviewing young women to join their legion of all-star, all-rowdy bartenders.

As the NYCBP.com gathering progressed, and I was sitting at the bar, contemplating the meaning of Miller Lite, suddenly Tommy emerged from below.

“Hi, good looking’,” he cracked to me as he ambled past, holding a shoulder full of toilet paper rolls and headed for the door with Chardee. I followed them out shortly, since I had been trying to reach Tommy by phone for a few weeks, and only had some unanswered and unreturned calls for my efforts. A good journalist knows never to count on anyone walking back in a door once they have left.

I caught up with them as they were loading up their vehicle, parked right across the street on the northeast corner of 76th Street and Broadway. Finally, in light of the persistent rumors that Yogi’s was due to close some time soon, I had a chance to ask Tommy directly what was really happening.

“The snow will be flying before we are out of here,” he promised.

If that is the case, you still have a few months to get drunk at this legendary bar, take photos, get drunk, and make some new memories there.

Next, I asked him what his plans were for opening new bars. He revealed to me that in about three weeks, he will be opening a new bar at 112th Street and Second Avenue, which is in East Harlem, or El Barrio. The name, as my ears heard it, will be The Duck.

I also asked him what type of bar this will be, and he replied, referring to Yogi’s, “The same as this.” It will be interesting to see how that format fares in that largely Latino neighborhood.

Tommy also confirmed that he is looking at opening another bar in the vicinity of Yogi’s, but that nothing has been finalized.

“You’ll know when we know,” Tommy and Chardee said in unison.

Tommy also said that he would agree to do a more extensive interview with me right before the opening of this newest bar.

Then, as he prepared to leave, Tommy said he wanted to put me to work. He handed me one of those huge batches of toilet paper and told me to give it to Theresa. I did just that, although this was kind of ironic since the men’s room toilet in Yogi’s still has no seat.

They then drove off. Back at Yogi’s, I told a few people about the news that we had just discussed. I also said that I would write up this encounter.

But there also was other business at hand. I was sitting next to a cute girl who came in holding a bouquet of flowers and with a guy wrapped around her. When the guy went to the bathroom, I asked her if she had just been married. “No,” she said with a smile, “I just got divorced.” Hence the celebrating and smooching at the bar.

Soon the NYCBP.com gathering broke up. Those girls from Colorado who came in after that and who had been sitting on the other side of me ended up leaving with the female bartender from Malachy’s who had brought them there. I eventually left, picked up some food at the Westside Market, and took the subway home, until next time, knowing that Yogi’s will still be open when it is time for me to return.

- Eddie Goldman
Music Editor, nycbp.com
No Holds Barred blog
No Holds Barred podcast
No Holds Barred on MySpace.com

Labels: bars, bartenders, Interviews, patrons, saloons, upper west side

Isn't this an awesome photo? And just makes you thirsty for a cold one on a June day? I think so...