NYCBP Blog

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.

Labels: New York, news

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.

Labels: dive bars, drinking, hell's kitchen

The Bear is back.

After hibernating for less than four months (real bears don’t hibernate that long), the iconic bear from Yogi’s has moved to his new home on Second Avenue. When Yogi’s famously closed on Oct. 5, owner Tommy McNeil refused to part with the 8-foot tall carved mascot. He stashed it in storage, and now he has a place to put it: Yogi’s 2.

The new bar, located at 1754 2nd Avenue (between 91st and 92nd), is in the former Red Rock Roadhouse space, which went tits up more than a year ago. All that is left of the former bar is the “USE” on the signage. The talk is that Tommy is in the process of getting his liquor license, and the bar could be open in time for St. Patrick’s Day.

This will be Tommy’s third bar in his empire, he of course also owns The Patriot (110 Chambers St) and The Duck (2171 Second Avenue, between 111th & 112th St.). This gives Tommy two bars that are exactly 20 blocks apart; but as any regular of his bars knows, there is no way in hell to stumble 20 blocks in a straight line from one of his establishments. However, there is a nice city bus line that goes between the two…

When opening night draws closer, we’ll have more news about the newest dive bar on the Upper East Side. It is only one block south of The Big Easy, which will make for a nice one-two punch.

Labels: news, Patriot Saloon, The Duck, Tommy McNeil, Yogi’s

Yogi's has been closed since October, the football was over, and my main computer is still being repaired, so I tried to go to sleep early Sunday night. When I awoke, I saw the following text message from our good buddy, Paul Katcher:

This is BREAKING NEWS for nycbp.com. I just spotted the huge bear from inside Yogi's in the former Red Rock Roadhouse in the Upper East Side.

There have been rumors for some time that Tommy and Chardee will be moving into this location. Now there seems to be credible evidence that such a move may happen soon.

I just hope opening weekend is not the one I plan to go visit Amarillo, Texas! 10-4.

Labels: Eddie Goldman, Paul Katcher, Yogi’s