PHOTOS BY TODD MAISEL
Jeremy’s Ale Houses on Front Street at South Street Seaport serves up food and drink to the public, thankfully on a
sunny day.
Manhattan bar may go dry for good
if indoor dining isn’t permitted soon
BY TODD MAISEL
Jeremy Olin remembers when he was a
young beer hustler at the Fulton Fish
Market in the 70s, selling brews to the
workers. He befriended Carmine Russo, a
mob boss at the South Street Seaport; when
the beer vendor muscle came to collect a
debt from him (or else), Russo offered to
pay the debt.
Olin said the beer vendors quickly returned
the money when they found out who
his mysterious defender was; they never
threatened him again.
While mobster intervention isn’t the
answer to the ale house’s current woes,
Olin said the institution needs someone to
step up and save them.
Located on Front Street in South Street
Seaport, the venerable Jeremy’s Ale House
has been suffering during the COVID-19
pandemic. In good times, the bar has more
than 100 people a night, enjoying music
and socializing under the scores of multicolored
bras hanging from the ceiling.
But the good times may end for good
after Oct. 31, Olin warned, if the city
continues its prohibition on indoor dining
and drinking.
Olin said Jeremy’s, and other pub he
owns, are barely making ends meet, with
about 50% of normal revenues. Closing for
the holidays and months at a time yet again
will mean the end for Jeremy’s along with
most other bars and eateries in New York.
He fears only the chain restaurants with
the resources to weather the pandemic
storm might be the only ones left if indoor
dining remains off-limits much longer.
His son, Lee, is most critical of the city
for leaning on them in the midst of their
fi nancial crisis — threatening Jeremy’s
with fi nes when people approach on foot
to talk to patrons sitting outdoors on the
cobblestone street that once teemed with
fi sh and clam hucksters toiling in the summer
heat, hauling chunks of ice to keep
their wares cool.
The Olins have put their heart and soul
into Jeremy’s, a staple in South Street for
more than three decades, moving from
Bridge and Front Streets more than two
decades ago. They also have another bar
in Freeport run by Jeremy’s son, Jason, also
struggling with the pandemic.
Staying in business has been a struggle
for the Olins as crisis after crisis has befallen
them and many others in the city. He
says every 10 years they faced adversity —
the fi rst being the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks on the World Trade Center.
The collapse of the Twin Towers killed
many of his friends and customers and
spread toxic dust around the neighborhood.
Access to Lower Manhattan was restricted
for weeks thereafter. Jeremy’s Ale House
features a fl ag with the more than 2000
names of those who have died hangs from
his railing.
Then, in 2012 Hurricane Sandy swept
through Manhattan. The water was up
to the top of the bar in the Front Street
bar, its location already raised nearly four
feet above the street level. But they were
determined to reopen, and in weeks, they
were back in operation with generators,
extension cords, and after having dumped
damaged fi xtures and equipment.
Nothing compares, however, to the prolonged
damage caused by the COVID-19
pandemic.
“This situation is entirely different,
we can’t be open because we can only do
outside – I have to yell at people all the time
so we become the bad guys,” Jeremy Olin
said. “I will wear a mask, if someone insists
not wearing a mask, we have to ask them
to leave. We can’t have people stand in the
street because they will close us — yet we
can’t now have as many customers. We get
a $10,000 fi ne if we don’t enforce the rules
– violations can put us out of business.”
His son believes the rules have gone too
far.
“It’s all political BS, you can fl y on a
plane and breath that air, you can go to the
gym, you can go to school. Even though you
have a mask on in the plane, they recycle
the air, you still breathe everyone else’s air,”
Lee Olin said.
Jeremy said the Payroll Protection Program
funds and EIDL loans were helpful
to stay in operation and to keep people
employed during the worst times. He also
took a $70,000 line of credit. His landlord
has also been helpful giving him a break on
the rent in the worst of times.
But he said a failure to have indoor dining
after Oct. 31 will mean the end. His
son, who’s put his life, into the business
agrees.
“This is just not a sustainable plan and
if this virus is going to stay with us forever,
then you have to just open up and live life
the way it is,” Lee Olin, Jeremy’s son,
sighed. “You can’t just keep things closed,
keep masks on for all eternity. If this is going
to be the new norm, then we have to cut
it out and say, ‘Go back to the old norm.’
It has to be temporary — it can no longer
exist the way the leaders are doing it.”
Jeremy Olin stands at his outside eating and drinking area.
4 September 3, 2020 Schneps Media