Beloved NYC bar, Subway Inn, closes its doors after decades of business

UPPER EAST SIDE (WABC) — This weekend is last call for an iconic bar on the Upper East Side.

The Subway Inn is closing its doors on Saturday.

The bar has been around for decades, but has had a rough couple years, having to move while trying to rebuild its business.

Three addresses and nearly 90 years later, this sliver of New York City history is leaving Manhattan.

“The business owner trend is, everyone’s closing in the neighborhood,” Subway Inn owner Steven Salinas said.

The Subway Inn was resilient in the last decade.

It survived an eviction on short notice in 2014 from its original location near Bloomingdales.

“It was right by the subway. That was the special thing about it. Everybody could come in have a drink, come off work,” longtime patrol Lerone Wilson said.

Its community of regulars helped save it then and followed the bar, it’s original neon sign, and the Salinas family who’d had taken it over, to a new location in the neighborhood.

“Everyone came out, everyone supported the cause,” Salinas said.

They would follow, again to this location by the Queensboro Bridge about two years ago, after the bar battled through the pandemic. Now there are other economic challenges.

Salinas says it’s hard to for small businesses to survive that don’t own their buildings and here on the east side at least the younger generation is more about a healthy lifestyle that doesn’t include regular hangs at dive bars.

Back in the day it would be packed on Saint Patrick’s Day.

“But the new St Patrick’s Day right now is marathon Sunday. What is the most drank beer? Michelob Ultra and N/As, nonalcoholic beer. What?” Salinas said.

It was a very different vibe when Salinas’ late father Marcelo first started working at the original location in 1970.

“He got a job to work at the Subway Inn as the porter and then worked his way up over the years ultimately becoming the owner of the Subway Inn,” Salinas said.

And Mom Patricia made the food for decades.

Part of the lore of the bar was that it was Marylin Monroe’s regular haunt when she was filming seven year itch.

Lerone Wilson has been coming for 35 years and says its places like this that need to be kept around.

“That’s what New York is about. We want that history. We want that integrity of someone building that business to be here that long,” Wilson said.

When the iconic sign comes down, it will be placed into storage.

The Salinas family is hoping to hang it up on a new location, possibly in Brooklyn or Queens.

The goal is three months from now they say they’re hoping this isn’t goodbye but see ya later.

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