SOLSC: The West End Redux

             The West End, famed as a hangout by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and other beat generation pas, is no longer. When my Jack first came to New York, still in his drinking days, and came to this bar, he fell in love with it. He was on a first-name basis with several of its bartenders and owners. One of the reasons we moved to the apartment where I still live was its proximity to the West End.

          One record-breaking hot day in July back in the 1960s, Jack and our friend Gerald wanted to walk to the West End. We lived at 85th Street then, and the West End was at 114th. It was 104 degrees. We did it, but I thought I would die. If Jack were still alive, I could ask him if we stopped at any watering holes along the way, to get cool inside as well as skinside.

            Back to the West End. It opened in 1911 and became a popular place for students. Video arcade games came in the 1970s. A new owner took over a neighboring space, where there was sometimes jazz, and poetry readings on Sunday; the owner once said to Jack, “Boy, those poets can drink.”

            In 2006, it was sold to a chain of restaurants; it became Havana Central at the West End, but that lasted only eight years. Its next owner was a local brewery, Bernheim & Schwartz, which dropped the West End name entirely. Since last year it’s been closed, with a sign advertising that it’s available for private parties.

            Meanwhile, other local drinkeries have latched onto the Name. A bar/music/comedy club at 107th and Broadway calls itself the West End Lounge, while a bigger bar, on Broadway south of 106th Street takes the name West End Hall. Whether Columbia or Barnard students or the next beat generation will hang out there, Jack will never know.

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I’m participating in the 11th annual Slice of Life Challenge over at Two Writing Teachers. This is day 26 of the 31-day challenge.  It’s not too late to make space for daily writing in a community that is encouraging, enthusiastic, and eager to read what you have to slice about.  Join in!

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