Word that days are numbered for Jimmy’s Corner was hardly surprising but it generated an instant outpouring of affection adn outrage when the headlines hit the Post and the Times.
Since 1972, the beat-up and beloved bar has loitered with intent on West 44th Street, just off Times Square, with its plain blue canopy and the walls of its railway carriage interior festooned with photographs and gold carat boxing memorabilia accumulated by its owner, the late Jimmy glenn.
The interior has changed little in 50 years- a long bar, a duke box and a few seats up the back. Famously, the prices have changed little either- in a city where affordability has become a key issue, Jimmy’s still serves up $3 beers and whiskeys, has never served food and the one written rule is that nobody talks politics.
Jimmy Glenn was a South Carolinian boxer turned trainer who worked and knew many of the greats, met his Polish wife Sweitlana in the bar which they renamed, and ran for 50 years.
It was and is habituated by after-workers, theater people, newspaper people and occasional celebrities paying homage to Jimmy – frank Sinatra, Michael Jordan were among those who called in.Jordan must have had to stoop to get through the narrow front door.
This week, Jimmy and Sweitlana’s son adam revealed that the Durst company which owns the building at 140 W44th is to serve an eviction notice, although the lease runs another five years.Jimmy Glenn died of Covid in 2020.
In many ways, it’s a story as old as the city: real estate and disappeared bars and restaurants. Plenty of feted high-end places have been erased by building sales or hijacked rent over the decades also.
If you walk up Broadway 10 blocks and turn right at West 51st and keep walking you’ll eventually come to 51 West 1st, location of the original toots Shor’s resturant which was, in the late 1940s and 1950s, the place for the bright lights people, from the Di Maggio yankees to Bing Crosby to Marilyn Monroe to a young attorney named nixon.
The food was notoriously poor – famously,during a power cut which left the patrons in darkness,someone quipped: “They finally electrocuted the chef.” And if you weren’t in Toots inner circle, you waited in line, as Louis B Mayer was once forced to do.
Shor had high-society America in the palm of his hand. He features in the famous opening segment of Underworld, the 1997 novel by Don DeLillo. But he sold his property to William Zeckendorf, one of the city’s more prominent developers, tried
Iconic New York Boxing Bar, Jimmy’s Corner, Faces Closure Amid Rising Rents
Jimmy’s Corner, a beloved and historic boxing bar in Manhattan, is fighting to remain open as it faces potential closure due to a dispute with its landlord, the Durst Institution. The bar, known for its authentic atmosphere and deep roots in the boxing community, is a symbol of old New York increasingly threatened by rising rents and growth.
The bar, located at 629 9th Avenue, has been a fixture in the city for decades, attracting a diverse clientele including boxing enthusiasts, locals, and tourists. It’s a place where patrons can chat with regulars like Debbie Derkoski, Karen Anderson, and Pat Smith, as captured in a recent photograph by Natalie Keyssar for The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/16/nyregion/jimmys-corner-boxing-bar-closure.html.
News of the potential closure echoes concerns raised by writer Kevin Baker in a 2018 essay for Harper’s Magazine. Baker warned of the “systematic, wholesale change of New York into a reserve of the obscenely wealthy and the barely here,” arguing the city was becoming “remarkably…boring” as it lost its unique character and opportunities https://harpers.org/archive/2018/04/the-death-of-new-york/.
Jimmy’s Corner represents the kind of authentic, lived-in establishment Baker feared losing.More than just a bar adorned with boxing memorabilia, it embodies a spirit of community and history.
Adam Glenn, a Harvard-educated lawyer who left his profession to manage the bar inherited from his family, is currently pursuing legal action against the Durst Organization. He hopes to prevent the bar’s closure and preserve a vital piece of New York City’s cultural landscape. As Glenn prepares for a legal battle, supporters are rallying to save this iconic establishment.
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