NYCBP Blog

On October 4 Yogi's will join the list of shuttered city bars and saloons. It will be quiet at the spot, 2156 Broadway, at 76th Street, for the first time in many years.

This has been a bad year for dive bars. We have lost Red Rock West, Scruffy Duffy’s, Collins Bar, Kevin St. James, and Time Out. Now comes word that the most beloved dive on the Upper West Side is closing up. The building was sold and will be torn down.

Yogi's has been in the Tom McNeil empire for 10 years. Prior to that, the space was the Bear Bar. For decades before that, it was an Irish pub. As Yogi's, it has been an oasis for country music lovers and fans of cheap bar and rowdy barmaids since Clinton was in office. It always delivered the goods: low-price drinks and raucous times. It has several hallmarks: disgusting restrooms, peanut shells on the floor, broken chairs, and sticky surfaces.

But Yogi's always made the list of great NYCBP bars for it's bartenders. Over the years there have been dozens, maybe hundreds, of women to work behind the bar. Some lasted just one night, other clocked in for years. Who was a regular customer of Jenn? Chaundra? Steph? Myriam? Patience? Theresa? Teresa? Lisa Marie? And so many more…

Tom still has The Patriot, and rumors are that he's opening The Duck in Spanish Harlem soon. But for the next week, make a final stop to Yogi’s and pay your respects.

Labels: bartenders, dive bars, patrons, upper west side, Yogi's