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Several Sophie's regulars have passed along word that Howard O'Brien, a longtime bartender at the East Fifth Street bar, passed away early Saturday morning. Howard, who was 56, had been battling cancer. He had worked at Sophie's since 1986.
As one regular described him, he was "wonderfully reserved, incredibly erudite, peculiarly comic, full of bardic tradition and a straight talking, no nonsense scholar and gentleman in the right way." Indeed.
Meanwhile, there is a memorial service for Howard on Friday:
11 a.m. in the Lower Church of St. Francis of Assisi
135 W. 31st St. (between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue)
(212) 736-8500
Friends will be meeting at Sophie's afterwords, roughly around 12:30.
[Photo by Thomas Donal Ward via Facebook]