Rudy's Bar, Hell's Kitchen Staple, Reopens After Yearlong Closure

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — When Rudy's Bar & Grill was ordered to close on March 16, 2020, along with every other establishment in the city, it was the first time in 110 years that the Hell's Kitchen dive was shutting its doors.

"This place had been open 365 days a year since 1910," said Danny DePamphilis, the bar's general manager.

Expecting the crisis would only last a few months, DePamphilis kept the doors closed into the spring and summer — and then past the fall, winter and another spring, as health restrictions continued to limit indoor capacity.

"If I opened with social distancing, I could put maybe four people at the bar, six feet apart," DePamphilis explained. "It was ridiculous to even think about."

It was a luxury most bars could not afford. But Rudy's was lucky in several respects: the owner, 93-year-old Jack Ertl, also owns its five-story building on Ninth Avenue near West 44th Street, so rent was of no concern.

Plus, DePamphilis — who started as a bartender in 1990 before taking over as manager in 2005 — had planned for a crisis much like this one.

"In life, if you prepare for disasters, you can sometimes weather them," he said. "We didn’t owe anybody any money — we had money in the bank. We kind of planned for a rainy day, that’s how I ran the business."

"It's surreal"

Now, with restrictions finally lifted, Rudy's is preparing to swing open its wooden doors again at noon on Sunday, Aug. 1. (The bar's normal 8 a.m. opening has been pushed back for the time being.)

"It's surreal," DePamphilis told Patch, shortly after welcoming the bar's first beer delivery in 16 months: a shipment of 27 kegs.

He used the downtime to make much-needed upgrades in the century-old saloon: Rudy's ceiling, bathrooms and air-conditioning system have all been upgraded, and DePamphilis had a high-tech air filtration system installed to protect against COVID-19.

The anticipation in Hell's Kitchen is palpable: DePamphilis cannot walk down the street without being grilled about when Rudy's will reopen, he said. When he announced the Aug. 1 reopening on the bar's Facebook page in June, it drew 300 likes within minutes.

Come Sunday, DePamphilis expects Rudy's barstools to be filled with the usual slew of regulars: postal workers, firemen, truck drivers, retirees, night-shift reporters and people who live down the block. (The bar's trademark six-foot pig statue will also be back on the sidewalk.)

It's made more significant by the knowledge that so many other businesses will never reopen after last year's shutdown.

"We’re counting our blessings," DePamphilis said. "Because a lot of people didn’t make it."

For more Hell's Kitchen news, subscribe to the email newsletter from Patch.