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Diner’s Journal: The Rum House Rises

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The Rum House was a shabby little piano bar off the lobby of the Edison Hotel on 47th Street west of Seventh Avenue, marvelous in its way as a place to stop in before a show for a whiskey sour. Irene Gandy, the legendary Broadway press agent, often held court in one corner. Tyros with musical-comedy in their blood sketched out bits in another. Always, tourists mooned. The bar was a tie to the Rialto of old – an adult-beverage version of the Polish Tea Room next door, where producers gathered to dream and scheme over tuna fish on rye, a scene out of Runyon, a simple place for a drink. And then, in the summer of 2010, after 37 years, it closed.

Now it rises again. Next week, the Rum House will re-open under the ownership and management of Michael Neff, Kenneth McCoy and Abdul Tabini, the owners of the bespoke cocktail bar Ward III in TriBeCa.
The piano remains, said Kate Telfeyan, a spokeswoman for the owners, as do some vestiges of the original nautical theme – including the immense circular lighting fixture over the bar itself. There are still 60 seats. There will be performances, the owners say, at least five nights a week.

But rail vodka poured over watery ice will not be available. The walls and floors and bar itself have been scraped down and polished, and three decades of nicotine stains and the burnish of flop-sweat sent out the door. Some metalwork has been added to replace wood panels on the walls, and red leather accents the space as well as covers the banquettes along the walls.

Ms. Telfeyan said the new Rum House will serve an extensive collection of whiskeys and rums, classic cocktails and some of the more esoteric concoctions available at Ward III.

Until then, here’s Karen Brown, the bar’s longtime pianist, backing up Nika for a 2008 performance of “Fever.”


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