When a Bar Closes, Who Gets the Neon Sign?

Good morning. It’s Friday. Today we’ll look at a fight over a once familiar neon sign on the Upper East Side. We’ll also get details on a federal investigation involving Shen Yun Performing Arts, the touring dance group run by the Falun Gong religious movement.

This is about a bar fight, but not one that involves drunk customers throwing boilermakers — or haymakers — at each other. At issue is a distinctive neon sign that used to frame a dive bar on the Upper East Side, a place where the playwright Wendy Wasserstein said “it makes a lot of sense not to order wine.”

The sign spelled the name of the Subway Inn in red letters — and followed the bar, as it moved from one storefront to another, and another. Then, last month, the sign disappeared — taken, by all accounts, by the new tenant in the storefront that the Subway Inn vacated in December.

The new tenant said that the sign belonged to him because the Subway Inn had not removed it. Steve Salinas, whose family operated the Subway Inn for more than 15 years, disputed that claim and went to the police.

The Subway Inn was one of those places that drew everyone from doormen and construction workers to businesspeople and tired shoppers needing pick-me-ups. At 143 East 60th Street, the home of the Subway Inn for 70 years, one entrance to the 59th Street subway station was steps from the door, and Bloomingdale’s was right across the street. When the bar opened in the 1930s, the Third Avenue El clattered at the other end of the block.

The writer Robert Simonson called the Subway Inn “an endearing dump of a saloon” that had become “something of a cultural rebuke” to its surroundings. Wasserstein, who died in 2006, said that the bar’s ambience came from customers “who look like they’re something out of Eugene O’Neill’s ‘The Iceman Cometh.’”

The original owner, Charlie Ackerman, was in his 90s when he died in 2007. Marcello Salinas, who had started as a porter, became the owner, and he left the bar to his wife, Patricia, and their son Steve when he died in 2016.

By then, the Subway Inn had relocated to 60th Street and Second Avenue, next to the Queensboro Bridge. In 2022, after the landlord moved to demolish the building, the Subway Inn moved a few doors up Second Avenue, to No. 1154. But “things have never quite been the same,” the Salinases said when they announced that they were closing the bar in December.

“The excitement and momentum that we had anticipated just never materialized,” they wrote. “It became apparent that the landscape had changed irreversibly.”

“We’ve seen a shift in the way people live, work and spend their time,” they wrote. “The rhythms of the city that once sustained places like Subway Inn no longer feel the same. The vibrant nightlife and bustling atmosphere we relied on have gradually given way to quieter, more introspective times.” The result, they wrote, was that “our ability to keep up with operational costs and overheads became unsustainable.”

Steve Salinas said that the landlord had found a new tenant — Gerry Doyle, who runs Kelly’s, a sports bar on the Lower East Side.

Salinas said that the deal had called for him to leave behind the restaurant equipment. But he said that the deal did not cover the sign, so he had made arrangements to have it removed and stored. He said that the person who had maintained it for him could not tackle the job until after Jan. 1. Salinas said he had figured that would be fine: Doyle had not obtained a liquor license and could not open without one.

When the man who had looked after the sign for Salinas arrived at the bar, there was no sign to remove. Salinas said he had telephoned the building superintendent, who told him, “Gerry took it down,” referring to Doyle. Salinas then called Doyle, who maintained that the sign now belonged to him.

“He hadn’t taken it down,” Doyle said on Wednesday. “He has no legal right to it. He’s trying to say it’s his. It’s not. When you leave stuff behind, you give up ownership of it.”

“I can’t open my business with somebody else’s sign above,” he said.

Salinas said he had filed a police report saying the sign was removed without permission. The police confirmed that the report had been filed and said that the matter was under investigation.

Doyle said that the sign was in Brooklyn and that he had paid $5,000 to have it taken away. “It’s out of my hands,” he said.

Weather

Expect sunny skies and moderate wind with a high around 40 degrees. The evening will be partly cloudy with temperatures dropping to around 27 degrees.

ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING

In effect until Feb. 12 (Lincoln’s Birthday).

The latest Metro news

Shen Yun Performing Arts, the touring dance group run by the Falun Gong religious movement, is under federal investigation for possible visa fraud, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Agents conducting the investigation have also sought information about Shen Yun’s financial and labor practices, including whether performers were directed to smuggle cash into the United States when returning from tours overseas, according to people with knowledge of the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

My colleagues Michael Rothfeld and Nicole Hong write that the full scope of the inquiry is not clear, and it may not result in any charges. The investigation is being overseen by the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department, as well as by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

But the investigation is taking place during a period of intense scrutiny for Shen Yun. Last year, a New York Times investigation revealed that the group paid its young performers little or nothing to work long hours and keep grueling schedules.

Ying Chen, a representative of Shen Yun, said that the group had yet to hear from federal authorities but would “cooperate fully” if contacted. Spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan all declined to comment.

The inquiry, which has been in progress since at least 2023, has also focused in part on whether Shen Yun’s leaders arranged romantic relationships for the group’s performers, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Times reported in August that Shen Yun’s leaders have tried to set up foreign students with American citizens in relationships that some former performers believed were for visa purposes.

Male and female performers in Shen Yun were not supposed to speak to one another unless necessary for work, and dating required permission from Shen Yun’s leaders, according to interviews with former performers.

Chen, in her statement, wrote that “all marriages within our community are genuine.”

METROPOLITAN diary

Good Sign

Dear Diary:

My son had just turned 16 and was eager to get his learner’s permit. So after school one day, we headed to the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Coney Island.