McHale's Redux?

When McHale's beautiful bar shuttered in 2006, its building razed and replaced with a dead tower of glass, many in the city wept. We heard stories that McHale's might reopen one day in another location, but that fate did not come to pass.

Now a tipster is telling us something very curious.


2006

Peter writes in: "This past Friday I was walking with friends in Midtown and we stopped by the gin mill on West 50th St that has the old McHale's 'BAR' sign. The lady standing in front told us that 'McHale's is re-opening on 51st St.' We immediately walked over to investigate.

There is a bar under construction on the north side of 51st St between Broadway and 8th Ave, real modern looking, no sign up. We yelled in to what appeared to be the owner or at least manager who was going over blueprints or something. We asked 'is this place McHale's?' and he said yes. We cried that 'how can you name a place after a former business?' and he said 'why can’t I?' then backed off when he heard our outrage and came up with what I think is a story. He said 'I bought the name' and when we asked about 'Jimmy' he said he’d be there once a week and that they hired the old chef from McHale's.

Personally, I think the guy is full of crap."

We're not sure what to think. When Jimmy McHale closed the bar, the Times reported that he "still hopes to revive the place and is scouting out locations." Could this be it? Or is the story, as the tipster says, full of crap?

If anyone knows Mr. McHale, or has any further info, please let us know.