Jimmy’s Corner is part of a series of tidbits from the chapters of my book Bars, Taverns and Dives New Yorkers Love, published by Rizzoli. You can order it from Powell’s, Amazon, Rizzoli, and Barnes & Noble. Signed prints of all the bars in the book are available here.
“If you’re easygoing and enjoy a good cheap drink in a fun, laid-back bar, then you’ll be happy at Jimmy’s,” says Adam Glenn, son of Jimmy and current tender of this fabled Times Square stalwart, Jimmy’s Corner.
Once you find a spot to settle in, you will be happy indeed. The place is a rough sort of joyous, a riot of things and color and people. Neon glows in the window. Christmas lights that never come down shine above the wall behind the bar. Look up and see several U.S. flags, dollar bills tacked up here and there, a set of Ringside brand gloves, and old posters and photos of boxers all over the place. Roberto Durán, Leon Spinks, Oscar De La Hoya, Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hitman Hearns, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, and of course, The Greatest—Muhammad Ali. There he is, all smiling and genial with Jimmy. There he is again, giving Jimmy the old “pop on the chin” pose with his mighty right. You might not see Jimmy around the bar in the flesh as much these days, with Adam and the rest of the staff now running the bar, but he’s there in a hundred pictures, posing with friends, fans, and fighters. He’s up on the walls, he’s behind the bar, and look down. He’s on the bar, too, in a collage of photos like layers of peeling wallpaper in the living room of an old New York brownstone—pictures going back to 1971, if you look carefully. Jimmy’s work, that collage, like Jimmy’s Corner. Layers and layers of people and memories and good times, soaked in whiskey and beer and tons of love.
“We’re a place that’s comfortable being what we are,” says Adam, “And never try to pretend to be something else, and I think that’s rare.” Hear, hear. [Toast: Clink.] Another Bud Light, please.
When to Visit Jimmy’s Corner:
Get the full experience: go to Jimmy’s at 5 p.m. on a weekday and plan to hang around a bit. The place fills up in a big way right after work, and it gets crowded, “a turn off to some people,” Adam admits, “because the place is so small.” Suits, blue collars, creatives. Young, old, rich, poor, everyone goes to Jimmy’s. Then, around 7 p.m., the crowd starts to thin out, the place quiets down a little, and you will get a seat and move on to the talking and jukebox-feeding portion of your evening.
Next up:
J.G. Melon, the place it seems that everyone wants to be (including, once, the lovely Princess Grace of Monaco) for The Burger, and another chapter of my book Bars, Taverns and Dives New Yorkers Love, which you can order right here. Limited-edition signed prints of the bars are available here