Stretching Your Dollar: Neir's Tavern Remains One of NYC's Oldest Bars

<div class="block">As we observe Black owned business month, Cheddar News is highlighting Neir&#39;s Tavern. Opening in 1829, it remains one of New York City&#39;s longest standing bars. Owner Loy Gordon spoke to Cheddar News senior reporter Michelle Castillo about the history of the tavern, saving it from the brink of closure and its role in the iconic &#39;Goodfellas&#39; film.</div>

Stretching Your Dollar

August marks black owned business month time to celebrate and support the significant contributions of black entrepreneurs in our community. To mark the occasion. Our senior reporter for Cheddar News Michelle Castillo went to one of New York's oldest bars to speak with the owner. Take a look. I'm here at nearest tavern as you pointed out one of the oldest bars here in New York City and I'm here with owner Lloyd Gordon. So thank you so much for joining us. So your slogan for this bar is the most famous bar you've ever heard of? Why did you pick that slogan? Oh, because um when I got here, no one knew what nearest tavern was because, you know, it was still the oldest bar, one of the oldest bar in the country and oldest in New York City, but no one ever knew about it. And it had all of this history. I mean, in fact, it was established back in 18 29 because of this race track, this whole Union Force race track. I mean, they said so many people would come here that the city of New York was empty, there would be so, so a guy decided, hey, I'm a businessman. I'm gonna actually open a bar to take advantage of race track. So that happened and we just soldiered on throughout the century and actually the family took it over and then we had, we had all of these incredible things about some of that history. I love that you have some of the original pieces like near hall here. And speaking of May West, she performed here. What do you know about that? And there's a photo of her right there. Yeah, May West was an icon for women's movement and just everything that represents women empowerment. Before Anna Nicole, before Kim Kardashian, there was May West and I'm so glad that she got her start right here in that ballroom that we used to have silent films. The first silent film used to happen right back there. And so May West that lived a few blocks away is one of our centerpieces because he represents strength, unity and just everything that we really preach about community. Now these green walls look familiar. It's probably because they were featured in a very popular movie. Good fellow. So tell me a little bit more about the good fella's history here. You have a lot of memorabilia around the place as well. This good fellow movie has been a game changer for us. The movie was filmed in 8, 1989 and most of the movie, about 14% of the movie was filmed right here. And that green wall like you talk about was all over that movie. And so Robert De Niro Joe Pesci, unfortunately, we had really ordered that pass. They all were here. And of course, that door over there is where they were deciding to kill Maury, the wig guy. And that door is still here today. They could do good fella Park Two right here and nothing would change. And that door is original from 18 29. Have I heard? Absolutely. It's a pocket door. In fact, they have some things on it that people said if you take it off, you could probably sell it for thousands of dollars. So there's a lot of historic things that's still intact here. And I'm so glad that we're preserving it. Uh, and we hopefully continue to reach the 200 anniversary that we're hoping to reach in 2029. Well, it's black owned business and you're the owner of nearest tavern. So, how did that come about? Yeah, I mean, unfortunately, you know, I wasn't into the restaurant business that, but when you see things in your community, you're losing and, and, and you want to contribute, especially as a Jamaican immigrant, I wanted to give back to the country. And what if I could actually save one of America's oldest tavern, the country that actually gave me an opportunity to strive and to really do so many things that I wouldn't have done if I was still on the island of Jamaica.