Neary’s 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.
Neary’s Timeless Charm
We first visited Neary’s with another couple, 40 years our senior and longtime regulars. When we arrived, they were already settled into their favorite banquette seats, sipping their pre-dinner cocktails. Jimmy Neary himself greeted us warmly after we sat down with an “any friend of theirs is a friend of mine” graciousness, a lovely welcome for first-timers.
We enjoyed an unhurried round of drinks before dinner, and our friend Al (north of 90 years old, great sense of humor) gestured toward the folks at the bar. “See that, John?” he said. “That’s an old-guy pickup bar! All those guys in their 70s and 80s are working those young women in their 60s. Some of ‘em will get ‘em, too!” Sure, he was joking, but maybe only a little. Neary’s has a lively, grown-up bar scene, anchored by its regulars (many who relocated after their venerable Upper East Side home base Elaine’s closed in 2011) and a veteran team of bartenders, all fine hosts in their own right.
The tone of Neary’s—warm charm and easy urbanity—is set by Neary himself, along with his daughter Una, a partner at Goldman Sachs, who works most weekends. A native of County Sligo, Ireland, Neary came to the U.S. in 1954 and worked in food service almost from the start. Almost. He was told on his first job interview, in a warehouse, that he was “too effin’ small” for that gig. After a two-year stint in the U.S. Army and several jobs in food and bar service, he and partner Brian Mulligan in 1967 leased the ground floor of 358 East 57th, and turned a problematic location (three restaurants and two diners failed there in the six years preceding Neary’s) into a tasteful New York institution. The vision was a stylish pub, a few steps up from shot-and-a-beer joints. “We put in the carpeting on the very first day,” says Neary, “And always had a dress code.” The rest, as they say, is history.
Next up:
Mugs Alehouse of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, an OG craft beer bar, beloved since it opened back in 1992, 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.