(Photo via Google Maps)
The bad news just keeps coming in what has been a year to forget.
The bar and restaurant industry throughout the United State’s has been rocked due to forced closures thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a New York spot beloved by Bay Area fans is the latest casualty. Finnerty’s, a Bay Area sports bar located in Manhattan’s East Village, announced it’s permanent closure in a post to Twitter on Monday morning.
“We wanted to update all of our friends and fans on the status of Finnerty’s,” the post reads on Twitter. “With heavy hearts we have to announce today that we will not be reopening our doors.”
Founders and owners Owners Dieter Seelig and Brian Stapleton closed the bar back at the start of the pandemic like all NYC bars, and issues related to that plus an additional issue with the landlord has cause them to close up shop.
“Despite our best efforts, we’ve not been able to come to terms with the landlord to have a future at our current space,” Stapleton said in a video recorded in October. “We just weren’t able to get there.”
“Obviously we know that means that right now, there’s no place in New York for Bay Area fans, and believe me, that’s eating away at us,” Seelig said. “It’s not something I like to think about. I always thought there’d be a Finnerty’s in New York.”
The owners, who opened the bar in 2009, uploaded an entire YouTube video which contains their explanations and thank yous, as well as clips of some of the most memorable night’s in the bar’s history. Check it out below: