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