Another bikini bar on the endangered list?

The other day, the Times took a look at the lonely stretch of EV Grieve favorite Nassau Street in the Financial District... specifically, the article focuses on the Nassau Bar, as the headline suggests: "On Nassau Street, the Present Closes In on a Bikini-Clad Past." As reporter Michael Wilson aptly notes, the whole street — long torn up by construction — seems to be frozen in time.



And inside the Nassau Bar?

"...beginning at 11 a.m., six days a week with Sundays off, women in bikinis sling shots and $3 cans of Miller Lite the same way they did in the city’s bad old days. “The only thing we change around here is the light bulbs,” said Robert Capone, 44, a manager at Nassau Bar.


[Photo of Tiffany at Nassau Bar via A Guy Walks into 365 Bars...]

There's talk of a luxury hotel at 5 Beekman Street... and, of course, the Beekman Tower around the corner...where studio rentals will start at $3,000. The article notes the post-Sept. 11 retail slump on Nassau Street... and suggests that people who move into gleaming new homes wouldn't want to visit a bikini bar. To the article:

If the new neighbors would seem to leave the bar in the cross hairs of gentrification, its owner, Michael Reagan, 41, of Staten Island, is unfazed. What’s not to love about a bikini bar?

“I’m always interested in getting people’s second impression of the place,” he said. “You’ll have a guy walk in with his girlfriend and they look all uptight, but they already ordered and they don’t want to leave. And then an hour or two later, they’re saying, ‘Oh, this isn’t at all what I thought it would be.’ ” He added: “Once people get over the initial hurdle of the basic uniform of the bartender, it appeals to everybody.”

Mr. Reagan bought Nassau Bar about three years ago and did not change a thing. Not even Mario Cosimano, the 47-year-old porter who works 12 hours a day. Mr. Reagan says the bar’s current lease expires in 2018. Asked if he imagined a buyer coming along in the meantime to turn his dive bar into a bistro — Le Nassau? — with words like “artisanal” on the menu, he said simply, “No.”

Read Marty's visit to the Nassau Bar here. [Photo above via A Guy Walks into 365 Bars...]

Recent NYC bikini bar casualties:

Hook and Ladder II ...

Deno's Party House ...

Deno's Bikini Bar ...

Navy Yard Cocktail Lounge ...