WORD comes that Smith’s Bar, the longtime dive with the fantastical neon signs on 8th Avenue and West 44th has gone the way of the dodo and will soon be replaced by a cannabis dispensary, in a “what else?” moment in 2024. Smith’s Bar first opened in 1954 and has served theatergoers, tourists, hookers and everyone else in the vicinity, surviving a closure scare in 2014 reported by more than one media outlet. I have only been in once, around 2005 or so. It had middling marks in Yelp (stick with the drinks, not the food).
The King and Queen of NYC signage, James and Karla Murray, report in Facebook:
The iconic Irish pub, Smith’s Bar near Times Square has permanently closed its doors after 70 years and the space is being gutted to become a retail cannabis dispensary. In September, we noticed that the bar was closed for renovation…
Although this old Irish pub closed briefly in late 2014 before a new owner (actress Hayden Pannetire’s father) took over the former dive bar and renovated it, he thankfully had kept and restored the original neon signage. Our photo of the original storefront was taken in 2004 and is one of many included in our book “Store Front NYC: Photographs of the City’s Independent Shops, Past and Present”
Here 44th Street enters the Theater District. Personally, I haven’t attended a Broadway production since 1994, when I saw Patrick Stewart’s one-man Christmas Carol. The last time I was in Smith’s was 2005, when I met Paul Lukas, formerly of Uni-Watch there; I haven’t seen him in person since. It’s amazing that because of the pandemic and various maladies the past few years, there are quite a few people I have maintained close contact with but have not actually seen in person!
I have contacted the NY Sign Museum and apprised them of the bar closure; maybe they can rescue the sign.
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11/27/24
10 comments
How convenient !A subway entrance right by the door of a bar.I could just see some guy
who is so drunk he has to go down the stairs one step at a time while holding on to the
handrail with both hands.Took him a good ten minutes to finally get to the bottom
Me in the 80s
The landlord is the NY Hotel Trades Council. The door next door figures prominently in my book, We Always Had a Union: The New York Hotel Workers’ Union, 1912-1953 (https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p088537). I have to dig through my photos, but I have pictures of the Irish bar that preceded Smiths. Basically: same joint, different name.
We now know that cannibis is generally less health-damaging than alcohol,
so this is probably one thing we should be glad to see change.
Kevin, Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for all you do all year round,
from a former Staten Islander
I have no idea what the attractiveness of mind altering drugs is, but to each…
“but to each” that’s the reason our culture has been systematically destroyed, permissiveness, pot is degenerate.
Renee: Where do you get your information? Here’s some recent information that contradicts your statement:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7084484/
Modern marijuana has been cultivated to raise its THC content which makes it a not-so-benign substance. Consider reading the US News section of the NY Post for about a week where you will see accounts of numerous acts of random violence for the sake of violence. Robbery is not a motive.
Like you, I live in AZ (no, not Tucson) so here’s some information about the state’s recent legalization. Drive safely, because not everyone else does. I hope you can avoid vehicles operated by individuals who exploit this misguided statute.
i’m surprised you didn’t name the font type.
It was part of a chain of bars; there was one on 6th Avenue—called “Smith’s Sixth”—just south of 14th Street, and one on, I think, 33rd Street across from the Statler-Hilton (once and later the Pennsylvania Hotel). Was it the last of the chain?
At least I was lucky enough to go there one time.