Thursday, June 3rd, 2010—Bar 144

Day 144—Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
Jimmy's Corner
People keep asking me why I don’t have a page on facebook, well now I do! Thanks to Gidget and to “Boris” who are the co-administrators of the 365 Bars fan page. Check it out and become a fan here: 365 Bars on facebook.

Mucho thanks to Gidget and to “Boris” for doing this for me! As I’ve told you before, Gidget is the coolest DJ in the world and her show on Woody Radio is filled with fantastic music and Gidget is great on there. The chat room is a ton of fun too. Check it out here: Woody Radio, It’ll Make Your Rock Hard!

“Boris” who is co-running the page and runs the 365 Bar Shop is available for freelance artwork. He designed the bottlecap logo on the 365 products and also the 365 logo at the top of the page, if you need art for your website, CD or book cover or anything else, just contact me and I’ll pass it along to our resident artist, “Boris.”

Regular readers will remember my memorable three night stint with the Baltimore Bar Crawlers, Gene, Smoopy and Terry. While they were in town they went to 97,000 bars in three days and had 887,467 drinks between the three of them. When it comes to bar crawling, they are the real deal and I learned some valuable tips from them. They were whooping it up because Gene’s in the Air Force Reserve and was going to be deployed to Afghanistan soon. Well, I got an email from Gene yesterday and he said after some cancelled flights he was finally going to be taking off. You can’t drink over there and he sent me a picture of his last beer and here it is:
Gene, I’m honored that my website and book were part of your last sip of suds for a while. Be safe and hurry back and in October we will crawl again!

Okay, speaking of crawling, tonight we’re going to a legendary New York joint, Jimmy’s Corner. This place is a legend and it’s owned by a legend, Jimmy Glenn. If you’ve never heard of Jimmy Glenn, it just means you’re not a boxing fan. Jimmy was a boxer who retired from the sport after getting beat by Floyd Patterson and then became a manager and trainer. The bar is a tribute to his career and to the sport of boxing. And it’s also one of the last patches of Times Square that is a link to the old days when the area was seedier than the bottom of a bird cage. Sherman, set the wayback machine and let’s crawl to the past via Jimmy’s Corner.

Here we are, Jimmy's Corner deep in the heart of Times Square.

I"ve heard that Jimmy hangs out in here, so it's time to search the bar and see if I can find him.

And bingo! Here he is, the owner and legendary Jimmy Glenn. He's as nice as I read about and a great host at his wonderful bar.

The bar is a shrine to boxing and has a ton of photos of Jimmy and archival boxing photos. Check out this one of Jimmy and Muhammad Ali.

Tara, the lovely bartender serves up a bottle of Budweiser. And sorry guys, she's going to be married in ten days.

Even if you're not a boxing fan, you'll enjoy the vintage photos plastered all over the bar.

Shots and stories of Jimmy are interspersed with archival boxing photography and artwork.

Heidi and Ken were enjoying drinks in the bar and wanted to know about the 365 site, so I happily gave them a card and explained what I was doing. As you can see, they got a kick out of the idea.

It's like a museum in here, but with cheap beer, who could ask for anything more?

There's a great selection of tunes on the jukebox from jazz to Motown to Frank Sinatra and to the Fab Four. A little something for everyone.

A great poster from the legendary Ali-Frazier boxing match.

Here's a signed photo to Jimmy from famed sportscaster, Howard Cosell.

The front of the bar is narrow but it leads to a bigger back room with tables.

This group was enjoying beers and the old school ambience of Jimmy's. From left: Meryl, Justin, Grant and Oykie.

Even the tables are decked out with vintage boxing photos.

The walls also have photos of Jimmy in the bar with various patrons.

And here's the man himself, Jimmy Glenn, checking out the sports wrap-up of the evening on one of the TV's in the bar.

Diane and Ken were in town from Conneticut. Ken is president of Travelworks, Inc. and if you're looking for a great deal, check out his website at: www.travelworks.us.

It was Diane's birthday and she was letting it all hang out. Happy birthday, Diane!

My photo's a little fuzzy, but on the bar amongst other photos is Jimmy with Drew Barrymore. I'm officially jealous!

And one last great Jimmy-Ali photo. Two champions together! Goodnight everybody!

Review
Esquire magazine picked Jimmy’s Corner as one of the best bars in America for a good reason. It’s one of the best bars in America. It’s old school New York, through and through. When you enter the bar located in the heart of Times Square you’re assaulted with sparkling lights, American flags, jazz music on the jukebox and vintage boxing photos plastered throughout the bar. Even if you’re not a boxing fan, the framed and unframed photos are impressive for their historical importance alone. And Jimmy’s Corner has maintained the old time New York Times Square feel where the rest of the area has gone a little too much towards Disneyland.

The bar is a shrine to the passion in Jimmy Glenn’s life, boxing. And more often than not, you can find Jimmy sitting at the bar talking amongst the regulars or watching sports on TV. He’s approachable and is soft-spoken, a gentlemen and a pleasure to talk to. You won’t see anybody drinking a pink martini in here and just like the bar, the prices are old school Noo Yawk. You can knock back three dollar bottled beers all night long in here and four buck well drinks. They don’t bother with a happy hour in here, why should they with prices this cheap? There’s no kitchen, but free potato chips are laid out in plastic bowls on the bar. So just drink your three buck beer, enjoy the history of this place and shut up.

In an era where Times Square is slowly turning into a mall, there’s still a little slice of the old school: Jimmy’s Corner. Cheers to the bar and to Jimmy Glenn.

Jimmy's Corner
140 W. 44th St. (Near Broadway)
212-221-9510