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Rum House Reopening in Edison Hotel Under New Ownership
By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 4, 2011
Modified Jan 4, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 4, 2011
Modified Jan 4, 2011
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There were some long faces in September when the Rum House, an affordable, old school Theater District piano bar located in The Edison Hotel, closed. After 37 years in businesses, the original owner's grandson was still working the bar, and Vanishing New York visited before it closed, describing it as "dark and dingy... brown all over, in that way that bars used to be brown, as if the air itself had turned the color of tea." One bartender told Fork in the Road the hotel was not willing to renew the Rum House's lease, predicting they wanted to turn it into "a fancier wine bar or something. There are rumors that they're going to gut the place and make it shiny, and update it and brighten it up." Now it turns out the rumors are true, but the new Rum Room might not be a travesty
Diner's Journal reports that the new proprietors, who operate the cocktail lounge Ward III, will offer an "extensive collection" of whiskey and rum, plus classic and specialty cocktails. And the interior design will preserve some of the original nautical theme, "including the immense circular lighting fixture over the bar itself." Even better, there will still be live performance at least five nights a week at the new Rum House, which doubled as a piano bar until last May, when the owners were forced to dismiss longtime house pianist Karen Brown.
Tagged
the edison hotel
the rum house
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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