In its 87 years, the Subway Inn – a beloved bar in Midtown East – has had untold last calls.
But on Dec. 28, the family-owned establishment’s last call will also be its final one.
“The time has come again, and it is with a heavy heart that we write to announce the closure of the Subway Inn,” owner Steven Salinas wrote on Facebook on Monday.
“The time has come again, and it is with a heavy heart that we write to announce the closure of the Subway Inn,” owner Steven Salinas wrote on Facebook on Monday.
Courtesy Daniel Root, author of “New York Bars At Dawn”
Salinas’ late father, Marcello Salinas, worked his way from bar porter to owner over the course of 40 years, and left the establishment to Steven and his wife Patricia after he died in 2016.
“The memories we’ve shared, the community we’ve built, and the support we’ve received from each and every one of you have made this journey unforgettable, but unfortunately, the realities we face today have led us to this conclusion,” the post continued.
The Subway Inn first opened at 143 East 60th St. in 1937, and its original incarnation is remembered as a nostalgic emblem of old New York, the kind of “place where Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio would stop by for a nightcap,” as the Village Voice put it in a 2014 report when the death knell first tolled for the bar.
That initial home eventually did die, and did so in a very New York fashion: A multinational real estate group bought a swath of adjacent buildings, forced out the Subway Inn, demolished the structures and planned to replace them with an Empire State Building-sized tower. But it failed to do so, and the site is still an empty pit.
A photo of Subway Inn in the 1940s.
143 East 60 Street, from the 1940s Tax Department photographs collection, Courtesy of the Municipal Archives.
The Subway Inn quickly found a new home barely two blocks away, and reinstalled its iconic neon sign. And in 2022, it moved again — this time to its current address at 1154 Second Ave.
A representative at the time promised “everything will remain the same.” Although the bar remained unchanged, New York City did not.
“Things have never quite been the same,” Salinas wrote on Facebook. “Our dreams of revitalizing this beloved neighborhood bar ran headfirst into a wall of unexpected challenges.”
He said that among his biggest hurdles were dealing with red tape from the state Liquor Authority and the fact that patrons were slow to return.
His post ended on a more hopeful note, in which he promised to do everything possible to open another Subway Inn.
“We are not giving up hope entirely,” he wrote. “We are actively searching for a new location to call home. We still believe in the spirit of Subway Inn and the deep connection we have to this community.”