Monday, December 5, 2016

Finnegans Wake

VANISHING

Reader Steve wrote in awhile back to tell us of the demise of Finnegans Wake: "The corner has been sold for condos and it will be closed next July. It’s a tragedy."



So I went by for a drink. Or two.

In business since 1972 and located on First Avenue at 73rd Street, the place is just as Steve described, "a real neighborhood Irish pub filled with great locals that skew a bit older." Indeed, New York magazine says, "Those without an AARP card or a solid knowledge of the surrounding neighborhood may feel a bit out of place, but Finnegan's certainly offers a quaint alternative to the usually far-younger postgrad mob."

Perfection.



The bartender, a very friendly guy, informed me that a 33-story tower is coming. (The news originally came out in July. The Post lays the blame on the "Second Avenue Subway real estate boom"-- so say a prayer for Heidelberg and the rest of Yorkville's German soul.)

The bartender also noted that one business on the block is giving the developers a fight. Stay tuned.

(And here's an explanation of why James Joyce put no apostrophe in Finnegans Wake.)




3 comments:

Michael Leddy said...

A small thing: their signage has no apostrophe, just like Joyce’s title.

Jim Holt said...

The vestigially interesting shops/bars/restaurants on the Upper East Side are almost always located in old tenement buildings, which are inexorably being replaced by new residential high-rises with banks and Duane Reades in their (larger) retail spaces. Also, the area now is something of a "restaurant desert."

demize! said...

This is my neighborhood pub. Ive been coming here for 30 years. Im sick of this. They completely gentrified 86th st, right out of all the German places I grew up on. Now this. Had it.