Final Opportunity to Experience Neary’s, an Iconic Midtown NYC Bar
Neary’s, the wonderful pub that Jimmy Neary launched at 348 E. 57th St. in 1967, closed its doors on Friday for the last time. Not surprisingly, it’s been called the end of an era. But while I’m sad to lose Neary’s fabled Irish coffee and lamb chops, I couldn’t care less about the era.
An “era” of one kind or another ends every day in New York City, but the sooner we quit bawling our eyes out for an irretrievable, inaccurately recalled past, the better off the eight million of us will be.
Eras supposedly ended when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles; when electronics stores gave way to the World Trade Center; when Studio 54 closed; when the Cross-Bronx Expressway destroyed the borough’s southern half; when music shops vanished from West 48th Street; and when Lord & Taylor gave up the ghost to WeWork.
Now, lamenting long-gone emotional landmarks is entirely appropriate as a matter of the heart. Sentimental slob that I am, I miss Nedick’s every time I pass the corner of Broadway and West 34th Street.
What isn’t appropriate is to hijack every incidental loss in service of a broader, counterfeit, nostalgia: Namely, the notion that the city once was more humane, colorful and civilized than it is today.
Oh, for the days of stickball on the street and a Greenwich Village that truly was bohemian! Or the downtown club…
…memories will do us no good facing the current-day challenges of rampant street disorder, lack of housing, and government dysfunction.
To prevail, we need to put the past behind us—and believe the best is yet to come.
