He’s not going to take a dive.
The proprietor of Jimmy’s Nook — Instances Sq.’s final remaining dive bar — is combating to maintain his father’s boxing-themed watering gap alive towards a extremely private assault from its bigwig landlord.
Adam Lee Glenn, 44, sued the Durst Group final week to stop the actual property large from evicting the West 44rd Road bar after greater than 50 years in enterprise.
The swimsuit contends Durst officers trying to promote the constructing wish to declare the lease void as a result of the bar’s namesake Jimmy Glenn died in 2020 — arguably a betrayal of the shut friendship he shared with the corporate’s former Seymour Durst.
“I kind of all the time knew that at some point — and I hoped it was distant — like progress goes to return,” Adam Glenn mentioned. “However I hoped that when it did, it could are available in the correct method and that they’d kind of have the grace and the decency to do that in a method that works for all of us.
“I really feel like they’ve taken a place that they don’t want to try this. And so, you realize, I took the place that if you happen to’re not going to do the respectable factor, then I’m going to struggle you.”
The outlet-in-the-wall was opened within the early Nineteen Seventies by Jimmy Glenn, a Corridor of Fame boxing coach who stuffed its slim partitions with memorabilia from the candy science.
He additionally fought towards the “Dangerous Outdated Days” seediness of Instances Sq., then replete with intercourse retailers, prostitutes and gangsters.
“I’m proud that I nonetheless get individuals who come, like, who used to stay within the constructing subsequent door,” Adam Glenn mentioned.
“And so they mentioned, ‘I lived in Instances Sq. within the 80s and the one motive I felt protected was as a result of I knew Jimmy was right here. The one motive this block felt okay was as a result of your loved ones watched out for us.’”
As Instances Sq. went from tawdry to touristy over the many years, Jimmy’s Nook remained an oasis for locals and vacationers alike who’re thirsty for $3 beer and a style of a bygone period.
“Jimmy’s Bar is without doubt one of the final legs that signify New York,” mentioned Clarence Sessoms III, 36, a bar common from the Bronx.
“You are taking Jimmy’s out of New York, you are taking the inspiration from New York.”
Dan Dion, 55, has been patronizing the bar for 25 years throughout his frequent visits to the town from Nashville, Tennessee.
“Everyone’s welcome right here, all people feels snug right here and on the earth of Instances Sq. that has modified a lot in 25 years, this place hasn’t modified in any respect,” he mentioned.
“It ought to have landmark standing so far as I’m even involved.”
Glenn rented from Durst till the actual property magnate’s dying in 1995, when his son Douglas Durst — one other buddy — took over, in response to the lawsuit.
Douglas Durst’s weird, burping older brother Robert Durst was infamously profiled within the 2015 HBO documentary “The Jinx,” which featured an obvious unintended confession to no less than one homicide. He was sidelined from his household’s enterprise.
“James Glenn and each Seymour and Douglas Durst spoke, at numerous instances, of their need that their respective companies be finally taken over and operated by their youngsters,” the swimsuit states.
However the lawsuit contends the landlords took benefit of an aged Glenn and his friendship with the Dursts as they hashed out a 2019 lease with phrases they’re now utilizing to kickstart an eviction.
Jimmy Glenn died from COVID-19 in 2020 and his son Adam stepped in as proprietor.
In 2023, Adam Glenn bumped into bother with the Durst landlords once they tried to terminate the lease as a result of many bar patrons, who occurred to be black males, went exterior to smoke — a transfer the lawsuit alleges was racist.
The kerfuffle handed till this 12 months, when Durst landlords informed Glenn they’d terminate the lease — arguing it was void after his dying and lengthy earlier than its said finish in 2029, in response to the lawsuit.
Jimmy Glenn would by no means have signed a lease modification that might successfully finish his household legacy, the lawsuit contends.
A Durst Group spokesperson mentioned the corporate tried to maintain the bar’s doorways open for many years due to the 2 households’ relationship.
When the corporate in the end determined to promote the constructing, it went “above and past” the lease obligations out of respect of Jimmy Glenn, the spokesperson contended.
“We informed Adam Glenn over a 12 months in the past he must vacate the constructing, we supplied him $250,000 although we weren’t required to take action, and allowed the bar to stay open longer,” the spokesperson mentioned. “These efforts haven’t been met with good religion. Now we have achieved our greatest to be good neighbors, and we remorse it has come to this. That is really the story of no good deed goes unpunished.”
Adam Glenn mentioned he anticipated he’d have to maneuver the bar sometime, though he’d hope to take action “the correct method.”
“There’ll all the time be a Jimmy’s Nook in New York and I’ll discover a perpetually residence,” he mentioned. “However within the meantime, I’m not going to cease combating to be right here.”
“We’re nonetheless a slice of previous New York. Folks are available in they usually really feel a little bit contact of, ‘Oh, that is what New York was.’ And I like giving folks an actual New York expertise.”
