November 15, 2024 • 33 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Jimmy Neary was an Irish immigrant who boarded a ship to America in the 1950s and went on to open a namesake restaurant in Manhattan that has for more than a half century been a famed canteen in the heart of New York City. Here to tell his story is Jimmy’s daughter, Una.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And to search for the All American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app, to Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts. Jimmy Nary was an Irish immigrant who
boarded a ship to America in the nineteen fifties, and
(00:32):
he went on to open a namesake restaurant in Manhattan
that has for more than a half century been a
famed canteen in the heart of New York City. You're
to tell his story is Jimmy's daughter Una. Let's take
a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
My father was born in a small town called Tubbacuri,
County Sligo, which is in the west part of Ireland,
very rural country. He was one of six children. He
was the second youngest. His father passed away when he
was quite young, so his mother was the one that
raised the family on the farm. However, my father was
certainly not somebody who was interested in farming. He loved people,
(01:17):
he loved dealing with people, so the thoughts of my
father being out on a farm was nothing that ever
appealed to him. Obviously, he went to school, but he
only went to sixth grade. But I would always describe,
and I always do describe my father as being one
of the smartest men I know, and it wasn't from
a classroom. So my father his love was people, and
(01:41):
anytime his mom would bring him into the town a Tabacurry,
which was a small little town at a bunch of
little shops, and she would go into the local grocery store.
Part of the grocery store had a bar and a
little lounge, and Dad would just watch the bartenders behind
the bar and watch them engage in conversation and joking
and pouring drinks with the men that were in the
(02:01):
lounge while the wives were typically in the grocery store
getting the week's groceries. And my father knew literally from
a very young age, he said, that's what I want
to do.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
What's interesting about my dad? If you see pictures of
him or for people that knew my father, he was
very tiny. We jokingly called him a living leprechaun. So
my father first started out as a hackney driver, which
is also known as a cab driver in the local area.
And because my father was so tiny, he needed books
(02:33):
underneath him so he could actually see over the dashboard.
And everybody in town knew my father. He was a
tremendous storyteller, a great joke teller, and he knew that
Tubacurry was a fantastic place to grow up, but he
knew it wasn't big enough for him. He wanted to
experience something different. And this one particular day, my grandmother
(02:55):
was at home and she had a visitor from America
and her name was Annie Gallaher and she mentioned to
my grandmother, I'd love to take and they called my
father back in Ireland. His name is Seamus. Everyone calls
him Seamus Neary. She said, I'd love to take Seamus
back to America if he's interested. So my grandmother asked
my father and my father said, I would love to
go to America, and she's like, what would you do there?
(03:17):
He's like, I don't know, but I'll figure it out.
So obviously Dad didn't have much money, even though he
had these two jobs. But what he did have was
he had been given two lambs by one of his neighbors.
And my father, being a very smart man, knew that
lambs would make him money. So he had the lambs
and he borrowed one of our neighbors, that farming neighbors Rams.
(03:41):
They let the rams and the lambs get together and
each year, over a couple of year period, multiple lambs
were made and created. So Dad at this point had
raised fourteen lamb and so he decided the way he
could pay for his trip to America was by selling
his lamb. So he brought his lamb to the fair
day and got very good price for them, the equivalent
(04:01):
one hundred and ninety six dollars that was able to
pay for his fare to America. This just to give
everybody a sense, this was in nineteen fifty four. So
he came over on the USS Olympia in docked in
New York City, but he had no job. So his
first job he went to a woman named Maureen Milkay
who was very known to the Irish community. Would help
(04:24):
place you in jobs. Well, she sent him to a
warehouse and the gentleman was pretty brutal and pointed out
that my father's height, that there would be no way
he could get a job in the warehouse because he's
too tiny to do anything. My father, instead of being
upset about it, burst out laughing. Thought it was the
funniest thing, and he said, well, how about that a
(04:44):
fellow irishman, what a fabulous greeting to America had just
laughed and left. And Dad was living in the Bronx
at the time. He went into a small coffee shop
up by his apartment and he saw one of his
friends from Ireland that was sitting at the coffee shop,
and he told him the story. So this gentleman said
to him, I'll tell you where you go tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
I'll arrange it for you.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
You go to the New York Athletic Club and see
the general manager at the pool.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Sure enough, Dad goes.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
The next day, he meets the general manager at the
pool and my father said, you know, I had this
experience yesterday, so I don't know anything about pools, but
you know, do you have a job for me? And
he said, and obviously I'm not tall, so this may
not work out. And he said, hold on one second,
and then he brings out the employees that were working
at the pool, and my dad became lifelong friends with him.
(05:36):
They were all Mexican and they were all tinier than
my father. And he said, you're going to be the
largest tallest pool boy that we ever had at the
New York Athletic Club, and so sure enough Dad got
the job, and he loved it, and they just fell
in love with Dad.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
I mean, it's the experience.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Everyone meets Dad for the first time and there's just
something special about him, and Dad did that for a
period of time. So this was in nineteen fifty four
or he got drafted. That was one of the requirements
coming to America. If you got drafted, you had to serve.
So sure enough Dad got the letter announcing that he
had to serve, but he went into the US Army.
(06:12):
So he left the job obviously at the New York
Athletic Club. He only served for thirteen months. In peacetime,
he went to Fort Hood, Texas for his basic training,
and then he went to Germany where he was a
tank driver, which he was very proud of that because
back then, the way the tanks were made, you had
to be small to fit in to drive it. So
it was it was an asset for my father that
(06:33):
his height was tiny because he was driving the tanks.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
And you've been listening to Unaierie tell a heck of
a story about her father. Jimmy. One of six children,
he only had a sixth grade education. Uni said about
her dad that he was the smartest man I know.
He didn't get his education in school. She also pointed
out that he loved people, and of course, what better
business to be than the business you're about to that
(07:00):
Jimmy finds himself in. And last, but not least, I'd
love to go to America, he said to a relative.
I don't know what I'll do, but I'll figure it out.
And did he? Ever? When we come back, more of
this remarkable love story, A daughter's love of her father,
the father's love of his work, and in the end,
the country that adopted him. Here on our American Story.
(07:29):
Here are our American Stories. We bring you inspiring stories
of history, sports, business, faith and love. Stories from a
great and beautiful country that need to be told. But
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(07:50):
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keep the great American stories coming. That's our American Stories
dot Com. And we continue with our American Stories. We
(08:13):
last left off with Jimmy Neary leaving his job at
the New York Athletic Club in nineteen fifty four to
serve in the army as a tank driver. Let's return
to this story as told by Jimmy's daughter Una.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
But when he came back, he went right back to
his job at the New York Athletic Club and got
that back. And he was doing that during the day
when one of the members was a gentleman named PJ. Moriarty,
and PJ happened to be a very well known Irish
restaurant tour He had two very famous places in New
York and he just loved Dad. He loved my father's
joke telling and storytelling. So basically he told the general
(08:50):
manager at the Athletic Club he wanted my father to
work for him at night in one of his places.
So when the general manager called my father over and said,
I want to let you know p J. Murray already
wants you to work for him, And Dad said, are
you firing me? He said, no, I'm not firing you.
You're keeping your day job with us, and you're going
to work with him at night. And so Dad literally
did that. He had the two jobs. He worked in
(09:12):
the day as a pool boy in the athletic club
and then started bartending and learning the restaurant business by
working for PJ.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Murriority at night.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
And he loved both jobs. He absolutely loved it. A
funny story you might get a kick out of. So
while Dad grew up in Ireland and there was plenty
of lakes around, Dad never went in the lakes.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
He didn't know how to swim at all.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
And one day the general manager said to my father,
you know, Jimmy, you have to wash down the tables
and chairs. So Dad said, sure, no problem. So he
took the tables and chairs and threw them in the pool.
The general manager comes out and said to my father, Jimmy,
what did you do? And Dad honestly didn't know he
did anything wrong. He goes, I don't know what you mean.
You told me to wash down the tables and chairs.
He goes, not in the pool, get in there and
(09:56):
get them out. Dad goes, I'm not going in there.
I don't know how to swim.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Somebody else is going to I have to take the
chairs out of the pool.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
That was one of the famous stories of the Athletic
Club that gets told over and over over the years.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
So eventually my.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Father did leave the job at the New York Athletic
Club to work more full time at Pjmriorties. And PJ
was so good to my father. He really taught my
father the ropes, but he started really as a bartender.
But PJ was a character in his own right. So
out in the front of the restaurant, PJ would pull
up in his car, and in the trunk of his
(10:29):
car he had a fake fire hydrant. One of my
father's jobs was to put the fire hydrant in the
front of the restaurant to protect the parking spots. So
when PJ pulled up, Dad would lift up the fire
hydrant and PJ would get the spot and Dad would
throw it in the trunk of the car. So Dad
and PJ just had a fantastic relationship. And PJ, like
I said, really taught my father the ropes of the
(10:51):
restaurant business. But Dad just knew he wanted to find
an opportunity for the right place at the right time
to open up his own restaurant. But in the meantime
he had met my beautiful mom. Eileen to me was
her name, and she was from Dublin. My dad was
from Slago. My mom was from Dublin, and she came
out to America many years earlier. My mother was actually
(11:13):
dating a gentleman named Kevin Higgins who owned an Irish
bar in Queen's. But she had heard about this Seamus Neery.
Every dad had a reputation. Everybody knew this Seamus Neery,
that he was a character. Everyone had to go into
Pj's to meet him. So my mother came in for
the first time with a couple of girlfriends and relatives
cousins of hers, and she just was attracted to him
(11:34):
right from the first time she saw him. So they
would periodically go in, and then this one particular night
they were in for my mother's birthday and my cousin,
my second cousin, Madeline, said to my mom, you know,
why don't you say something. She said, well, I'm not
saying anything to Seamus. And so Madeleine said to my father,
you know, Seamus, Eileen's coming in here on her birthday
(11:56):
because she's attracted to you and she's interested in you,
and he's like, she's dating my friend Kevin Higgins.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
And she said, well, she'd rather.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Be with you, and so Dad, clueless about these things,
he said, okay, I'll ask her out. So he asked
her out and their very first date was quite memorable.
So my father loved John Wayne movies, absolutely loved John Wayne,
and my mother had no interest in John Wayne at all.
She found them boring and they would have put her
(12:22):
to sleep. So the first date, they decided they'd go
to a movie and Dad picked my mom up and
whatever the first movie house that they came upon, that
would be the movie that they would go see. Well,
it happened to be a John Wayne movie anyway. Sure enough,
shortly into the movie, Mom fell asleep, so Dad watched
the rest.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Of the movie.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
The movie ends, he wakes my mother up and he said,
come on, Eileen, I'll drop you off and you can
finish the rest.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Of your sleep at home. And that was it. He
was Donnie. He was never going to take her out again.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
And my mother was devastated because she really liked my father.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
But PJ.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Moriarty and his wife Trudy loved my mother and knew
she would be great for my dad. So one night
PJ said to my father, I want to take you
out to dinner with my wife. The three of us
go out to dinner and it was kind of odd,
but Dad said, sure, of course. So they went to
a restaurant and they're sitting there and it's a table
set for four, and then in walks my mother and
(13:17):
PJ said, you guys need to get back together.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
So it was because of PJ.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Mariarty that my parents got back together, and then the
rest was history. They got married in nineteen sixty six.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
They moved to.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
New Jersey Demors, New Jersey, where we grew up and
had four children, my brother Patrick. Then I came and
my sister Anne Maria, and my sister Eileen.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
And we returned to our American stories and the story
of Jimmy Neary as told by his daughter Una. Let's
pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
The only day were closed his Christmas Day, and on
Christmas Day we would have customers who had no family
come and spend Christmas with us.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Dad would come into New York City. We were living
in New Jersey.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Dad would come into New York City, pick them up
and bring them out to New Jersey so they weren't
alone on Christmas and they would have Christmas dinner with us.
And then after Christmas dinner was over, he would drive
them back into the city to wherever they were living
because they were part of our family.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
And in addition to the restaurant.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Being very meaningful to my father, obviously it was what
he loved. It wasn't a job, he always said, he
never worked a day in his life. But equally important
to him and my mother was their faith. We are
Irish Catholic family, and my parents would go to Mouse
every single day, and the routine, it was quite funny.
My parents' routine was very set. It was the same routine.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Every day.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
They would get up, they would get dressed, they would
go to Mass. Dad would do the readings in church
almost every morning. After they finished going to Mass, and
mom would go to breakfast, and the dad would get
in his car and go into the city and go
to the restaurant and he'd be in there from anywhere
from eleven eleven thirty until possibly midnight every day, and
the mom would get in her car from the diner
(15:11):
and go home and raise us. So mom was taking
care of us, raising the four children and doing all
of that to keep the house and us going, while
Dad was working in the restaurant. But their time together
every morning was their precious time Mass and breakfast every morning,
and it was a tradition that they carried on literally
until my mom passed away almost fifteen years ago. She
(15:34):
passed away of cancer. Actually, after my mother passed away,
they had just such a tremendous relationship that Dad's routine
changed obviously after my Mom passed away. But what he
didn't change was going to Mass every day. But before
he went to Mass every day, he would go visit
my mom at the cemetery and visit my mom every day,
then go to the cemetery, then go to breakfast, and
(15:56):
then into.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
The restaurant.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Beautiful picture of my mom and Dad, a wedding picture
of the two of them, And before he left the
house every day he would lean in and he would
kiss the picture and kiss my mom. Because I was
living in the city and I'm still living in New
York City, I wanted to always be able to keep
an eye on my dad because he was living in
the house by himself and traveling back and forth from
New York to New Jersey, and he knew this, But
(16:23):
I installed the nest camera so I could make sure
I could see him and know that everything was okay,
and it would flash on my phone, so I knew
when he would come in at night or when he
was leaving every morning, but I would watch him. He
would not only do it in the morning, he would
kiss the picture of my mom, but when he came
home at night, he stood in front of the picture
(16:43):
and he would talk to her, and I would watch
it on the camera, and it touched me in such
a way because he wanted to share the day with
her and tell her everything that she was obviously seeing
from heaven, but he wanted to share the day with
her and tell her about the people he saw in
the stories that were told. And that's how strong their
relationship was. And people customers several years after my mom
(17:08):
passed away, said Jimmy, you know, would you be interested
and interested in what he knew exactly what they meant
in what are you kidding me? He said, I had
the love of my life. I'm interested in nobody except
my eyeleen. So because my father literally was working seven
days a week, his partner that I mentioned, Brian Mulligan,
(17:31):
actually passed away in nineteen eighty five, actually on the
evening of his twin daughters graduation from high school. So obviously,
when Brian passed away, my father worked out a deal
with his wife, Melda Mulligan to buy out the business.
So beginning in nineteen eighty five, Dad owned the restaurant outright,
so while Brian was a partner, Dad was able to
(17:53):
take some time off, you know, during the week. Once
Brian passed away, Dad was there seven days a week,
literally lunch and day our seven days a week. So
we never saw my father for no other reason than
he was working the hours he worked. The four children
we were going to school early in the morning, Dad
was asleep by the time we came home from school,
obviously Dad was at work. We would be in bed,
(18:16):
Dad would come home, and this was the routine. So
we really didn't get to see Dad. And so I
said to my parents. I was twelve at the time,
and I said, I really want to spend time with Dad.
And I said, so let me work in the restaurant.
And both my parents are like, what will you do?
And we would go into the restaurant obviously to visit Dad,
but it wasn't enough for me. I wanted to spend
(18:37):
more time with him. So they said, what will you do,
and I said, well, let me work in the coroom.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
I'll check coates.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
So it was every Friday night, and I remember I
was twelve, and I was thinking, oh my god, this
is the greatest job ever. And more importantly, I got
to watch my dad. But I was watching my father,
and I was watching him deal with people and talk
to people and communicate with people. And the relationship he
had with every single customer was so special, and every
(19:04):
single person felt like they were the most special person
in the room. That's how strongly he connected with people.
And I saw the way he treated his staff. Liz Farley,
our waitress who I mentioned, who has been with us
for fifty five years, her husband had just retired and unfortunately,
in a very tragic way, passed away, and Liz decided
(19:25):
she needed to step away from neary. She couldn't do
it anymore, and she was obviously devastated. So my father
said he completely understood, and so my father a couple
months later, picked up the phone and said, Hey, Liz,
it's Jimmy. I'm checking in on you. And she said, Jimmy,
you know I'm doing okay. You know, I'm trying to
adjust to my new life. He said, great, well, listen,
nobody's covering your shift tonight, so you better get back
(19:46):
to work. And she's like, Jimmy, and he said, no,
nobody's covering the shift. They've covered it long enough. It's
time for you to get back to work. And she said, okay, Jimmy,
I'll be in. And he just knew how to help
people feel better and cope with very kind of difficult
times in their lives. And as I mentioned earlier, Liz
is still with us fifty five years later. The staff
(20:07):
adored him, they worked hard for him, they loved him.
And I said, if I could learn any of these
or be able to pick up any of these skills
that my father has that come so naturally to him,
that I knew I would do well in my career.
Whatever that would, you know, path would take me. It
didn't matter who walked in that door. You could be
(20:28):
a doorman, you could be President Clinton came in so
you could be a doorman, or you could be a
president of the United States, and you were treated with
the same love, respect and care. And that's just what
set my father apart. He didn't distinguish anybody by the title.
What they did while he was certainly impressed by lots
of customers who came in. They were customers and they
(20:50):
were family when they walked in that door. And I
learned that all from standing in the coatroom, just watching
my father interact. And it was the lesson of a lifetime,
because is nobody better than my father. One of my
father's greatest joys was the day when he bought the building.
So I had mentioned how he had a partner for many,
(21:10):
many years, Brian Mulligan, but they were renting downstairs and
obviously had a lease. But my father said to mister Senville,
the landlord, at one point, will you ever give me
a shot at the building? And mister Senville, who owned
lots of real estate in New York, said maybe one day.
And my father made it a priority to never cause
(21:31):
him one day of problems.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
So even when there were.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Issues in the restaurant, something that the building could have
been held responsible for, that just took care of it.
He was always early with his rent payment, and he
never never complained about anything.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
And you've been listening to Uninierie share the story of
her father, a New York City restauranteur and legend, and
my goodness, what a story she tells about her mother
and father, the importance of faith in their lives, that
daily mass, that daily breakfast, and when I lean past
the love of Jimmy's life, well he still had that
(22:07):
daily Mass, and still had that daily breakfast, but every
day that stop at the cemetery. Then Un has started
to talk about their experience working in that coatroom and
getting to know her dad in action. I learned so
much from working with my dad in that coat room.
He treated doorman or the president of the United States
(22:28):
the same. He treated all people the same. There was
nobody better than my father, munas said. And my goodness,
there are two kinds of dads in this world. I've
said him many times. The father whose daughter says something
like that about you, and the father whose daughter doesn't.
When we come back more of this remarkable story of
Jimmy Neary is told by his daughter Una. Here on
(22:50):
our American stories, and we continue with our American stories,
(23:21):
and with the story of Jimmy Neary as told by
his daughter Una. Let's continue where we last left.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Off in nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Above Neary's at the time was a gentleman that lived
up there and he had an art studio. It was
his apartment, but he had an art studio, and all
the customers knew. My father wanted to buy the building
if the opportunity ever presented itself to him. And a
customer is flying back from California, flying first class, sitting
beside this gentleman. They start talking. Anyway, long story short.
(23:54):
The gentleman said, yeah, you know, I'm Midtown Manhattan and
our customers said, well, where fifty seventh Street, Oh, fifty
seventh and what First he said, well, you must know
near He's my favorite restaurant in New York. And he said, yes,
I actually live above the restaurant.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
He said, you're kidding.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
He said yeah, Jimmy is a good friend of mine.
And he said, well, I just bought the building. And
he said you what and he said, yeah, I just
bought the building. So that's the end of the conversation.
The flight lands, the customer comes into nearies and he said, Jimmy,
did the guy upstairs by the building. He goes, I
don't know what you're talking about. He said, I was
on the flight and he tells him the story. Dad goes,
I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. Dad
(24:31):
calls mister Senville and never raised the question again from
the first time he raised it, which was years earlier.
He said, mister Senville, can I ask you a question?
And he said sure, Jimmy, what and he said, did
you sell the building to the guy upstairs? And mister
Senville just answered the following way. He said, did I
call you?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
And hung up.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
The next day or a couple days later, a U
Hault truck comes and the guy moves out, and Dad
thought it was the oddest thing. So there was no
tenant upstairs. A couple weeks later, the phone rings and
it's mister Senville's assistant, and his assistant never called Dad
and said mister Senville would like to talk to you,
And Dad said, okay, is everything all right? She said,
please hold, so he picks up the phone. He said,
(25:15):
mister Senville, is everything okay? He goes, this is the
call you've been waiting for. He said, I will sell
you the building for one million, three hundred and seventy
five thousand. You have two weeks to think about it
and let me know, and that was it. So Dad's
first call, instead of being to my mom, he called
(25:37):
the Bank of Ireland and he called the president of
the Bank of Ireland in New York. His name is
Bill Burke, another man from Tubba, Curry County, Sligo. So
a lot of wonderful people came out of Tubber and
he called Bill and he said, Bill, it's Jimmy nearight.
I need to borrow a million, three hundred and seventy
five thousand dollars. And Bill started laughing, is Jimmy is
it to buy that brownstone on fifty seventh Street and
(25:57):
he said it is. He said, then you've got the loan.
So then my father called my mother and he never
called her in the middle of the day, and she
said to my father, Seamus, is everything okay? He said,
sit down. She said, oh no, what did you do
this time? He said, well, I just borrowed a million,
three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars to buy the building.
And Mom started laughing. She said, well, you broke us,
(26:18):
but you made the kids wealthy. Congratulations. And Dad paid
the loan back in a few years. He saved every
penny he had with my mom and they paid the
mortgage off very quickly. But the reality of it is,
if Dad had not been given the opportunity to buy
the building and was able to do it, we would
be long gone the rent. My father couldn't have made
(26:38):
the rent payments to continue to be renting the bottom.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
It's restaurant business. It's a very tough business. And he knew.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
He just knew again only going to sixth grade. But
the smartest man I knew. He knew he'd be out
in X amount of years in the future because he
couldn't afford the rent payments. And the reason we're still
there today is because my father was able to buy
that building COVID. We were closed for fourteen months, so
there was clearly no rent coming in, but we didn't
have to worry. Unfortunately, other small businesses weren't as fortunate,
(27:09):
but it was. It was the turning point for my
dad when he was able to buy that building, and
a tremendously proud moment for him and for our family.
The words my father would say, and people heard him
say it over and over again, I love my life.
I love my life, and he meant it. And we
(27:30):
talked about this before, but money didn't matter. It was people.
It was being with people was the greatest reward. He
could ever get. And my father always said that when
customers to say, Jimmy, would you ever retire, he goes retire.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
First of all, what would I do? And secondly, not
a chance. He goes.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
The only way they're going to get me out of
here is in a wooden overcoat. And actually on his
final night, so September thirtieth, it was a Thursday night
and it was a very busy day at the restaurant
and the three gentlemen at the bar, Dad grabbed his
Irish cap, put it on his head, and he had
his little walking cane that he used when he was outside,
and he said to the three gentleman with the big
(28:10):
smile and the hand in the air, he said good
night and.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
I'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
He had a storied life, he really did, and all
went back to having strong faith, love of family, love
of country, love of people, and he exuded that it
just was everything in his presence, and anybody that knew
him and had a chance to be around him just
were blessed. After my father passed away, one of our customers,
(28:41):
Brian Anderson, came up to me at the restaurant one
day and he said, I have a question for you,
what would you think about me trying to put a
petition together to have fifty seventh and first co named
Jimmy neary Way. I literally immediately filled up with tears
and I said absolutely, it would be amazing, and it
was approved. So now fifty seventh the first, hopefully on
(29:04):
September fourteenth, which is my dad's birthday, it will be
the unveiling of the street sign and it will be
called Jimmy Neeri.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Why so, we had.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
A lot of traditions and I'm still caring most of
them forward since my father passed away. But whether it
was a very happy occasion, like a special day of
the year such as Saint Patrick's Day or the fourth
of July, or Memorial Day or even Labor Day, special
days that brought happiness, or even in very sad days
(29:34):
like September eleventh. My father was so proud of this country.
It was no he loved Ireland, he loved his history,
his you know, coming from Ireland and being raised in Ireland.
But he was so proud of America. And our tradition
was singing God Bless America. And again it would be
in the happiest times or in the sad times when
(29:54):
we needed to unite the country, like in September eleventh,
and every customer, without a exception, would stop whatever they
were doing and would join in song. And my father
would get up there and belt it out. You could
feel the passion of him singing, God Bless America. And
it's in the documentary of my dad singing God Bless America,
and there's one scene with his arms stretched out wide
(30:16):
because he loved America. He loved New York City. That
was his favorite song. And you would hear my father
talk about this country. If anyone had a bad word
to say about America, my father was quick to straighten
them out. He would literally say, if you don't love
this country, then you don't have to be here. But
this is the greatest country in the world. It gives
you the opportunities of a lifetime. If you work hard
(30:39):
and you do your part to give, you'll enjoy the
riches of it. And he really did. And my whole
family just watching my mother and father be so proud
of what they accomplished here in this country obviously trickles
down to all of us because we feel equally as strongly.
(31:00):
And he also not only loved this country for everything
it offered him. My father was a fierce supporter of
our military as well as law enforcement. It would be
funny we would be walking down the street, the police
officer could be on the other side of the street
and I would be pleased at let's just keep going. Nope,
and we would have to cross the street. It didn't
(31:20):
matter where we were going, if we were later or not,
and he was absolutely right to do it. But he
would literally stop whatever he was doing. If we were
on a mission to go somewhere, he would stop. You'd
go across the street or go down the block if
you saw a police officer, and he would literally say,
thank you very much, thank you for what you're doing.
You're protecting us, you're protecting this city. And actually when
(31:41):
my father passed away, we had the mass at Saint
Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. But what the New
York Police Department did was they shut down Fifth Avenue
as we came out of the cathedral for forty five minutes.
There were people lined up across the street filming this
because they could not understand who possibly was the person
that was being taken out of the cathedral. That they
(32:03):
shut down Fifth Avenue. It just doesn't happen. So then
they closed down Madison Avenue. Then they closed down fifty
seventh Street. Then the police closed down First Avenue, they
closed down the FDR, they closed down the Harlem River Drive,
they closed the upper level of the outbound of the
George Washington Bridge, escorted us across the bridge, escorted us
(32:26):
through the Palisades Parkway, and then ultimately passed our house
in Demarest, and we did a thirty second stop outside
a house where we grew up and where my dad lived,
and then brought us to the cemetery. And the police
officer who helped arrange all of that with me, I
literally said to him, I have no words of thanks.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
I don't know what to say.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
And his comment was, in the thirty years he had
been doing kind of his job, he said, except for
somebody who's lying in state, a civilian does not get
these honors, and the only person that is deserving of
it was your father.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
And a terrific job on the editing and production by
Greg Engler and a special thanks to un and Eerie
for sharing the story of her father. And you can
see the documentary on Amazon called NEERI's The Dream at
the End of the Rainbow, a beautiful story about an
Irish immigrant who turned his love of people into a
(33:22):
restaurant you must go to if you're ever around fifty
seventh Street, down by a first and second avenue in
that part of the city called Sutton Place, stop by Neery's,
and by all means, have the pork chops. It was
one of my favorites until Una suggested the lamb chops.
And I think I'll never eat anything else ever when
I go back, And of course you must have their
rice pudding. The story of Neary's Restaurant, the story of
(33:44):
Jimmy Neary, the story of so much more, but particularly
the love of a daughter or her father, all of
it here on our American stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And to search for the All American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app, to Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts. Jimmy Nary was an Irish immigrant who
boarded a ship to America in the nineteen fifties, and
(00:32):
he went on to open a namesake restaurant in Manhattan
that has for more than a half century been a
famed canteen in the heart of New York City. You're
to tell his story is Jimmy's daughter Una. Let's take
a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
My father was born in a small town called Tubbacuri,
County Sligo, which is in the west part of Ireland,
very rural country. He was one of six children. He
was the second youngest. His father passed away when he
was quite young, so his mother was the one that
raised the family on the farm. However, my father was
certainly not somebody who was interested in farming. He loved people,
(01:17):
he loved dealing with people, so the thoughts of my
father being out on a farm was nothing that ever
appealed to him. Obviously, he went to school, but he
only went to sixth grade. But I would always describe,
and I always do describe my father as being one
of the smartest men I know, and it wasn't from
a classroom. So my father his love was people, and
(01:41):
anytime his mom would bring him into the town a Tabacurry,
which was a small little town at a bunch of
little shops, and she would go into the local grocery store.
Part of the grocery store had a bar and a
little lounge, and Dad would just watch the bartenders behind
the bar and watch them engage in conversation and joking
and pouring drinks with the men that were in the
(02:01):
lounge while the wives were typically in the grocery store
getting the week's groceries. And my father knew literally from
a very young age, he said, that's what I want
to do.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
What's interesting about my dad? If you see pictures of
him or for people that knew my father, he was
very tiny. We jokingly called him a living leprechaun. So
my father first started out as a hackney driver, which
is also known as a cab driver in the local area.
And because my father was so tiny, he needed books
(02:33):
underneath him so he could actually see over the dashboard.
And everybody in town knew my father. He was a
tremendous storyteller, a great joke teller, and he knew that
Tubacurry was a fantastic place to grow up, but he
knew it wasn't big enough for him. He wanted to
experience something different. And this one particular day, my grandmother
(02:55):
was at home and she had a visitor from America
and her name was Annie Gallaher and she mentioned to
my grandmother, I'd love to take and they called my
father back in Ireland. His name is Seamus. Everyone calls
him Seamus Neary. She said, I'd love to take Seamus
back to America if he's interested. So my grandmother asked
my father and my father said, I would love to
go to America, and she's like, what would you do there?
(03:17):
He's like, I don't know, but I'll figure it out.
So obviously Dad didn't have much money, even though he
had these two jobs. But what he did have was
he had been given two lambs by one of his neighbors.
And my father, being a very smart man, knew that
lambs would make him money. So he had the lambs
and he borrowed one of our neighbors, that farming neighbors Rams.
(03:41):
They let the rams and the lambs get together and
each year, over a couple of year period, multiple lambs
were made and created. So Dad at this point had
raised fourteen lamb and so he decided the way he
could pay for his trip to America was by selling
his lamb. So he brought his lamb to the fair
day and got very good price for them, the equivalent
(04:01):
one hundred and ninety six dollars that was able to
pay for his fare to America. This just to give
everybody a sense, this was in nineteen fifty four. So
he came over on the USS Olympia in docked in
New York City, but he had no job. So his
first job he went to a woman named Maureen Milkay
who was very known to the Irish community. Would help
(04:24):
place you in jobs. Well, she sent him to a
warehouse and the gentleman was pretty brutal and pointed out
that my father's height, that there would be no way
he could get a job in the warehouse because he's
too tiny to do anything. My father, instead of being
upset about it, burst out laughing. Thought it was the
funniest thing, and he said, well, how about that a
(04:44):
fellow irishman, what a fabulous greeting to America had just
laughed and left. And Dad was living in the Bronx
at the time. He went into a small coffee shop
up by his apartment and he saw one of his
friends from Ireland that was sitting at the coffee shop,
and he told him the story. So this gentleman said
to him, I'll tell you where you go tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
I'll arrange it for you.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
You go to the New York Athletic Club and see
the general manager at the pool.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Sure enough, Dad goes.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
The next day, he meets the general manager at the
pool and my father said, you know, I had this
experience yesterday, so I don't know anything about pools, but
you know, do you have a job for me? And
he said, and obviously I'm not tall, so this may
not work out. And he said, hold on one second,
and then he brings out the employees that were working
at the pool, and my dad became lifelong friends with him.
(05:36):
They were all Mexican and they were all tinier than
my father. And he said, you're going to be the
largest tallest pool boy that we ever had at the
New York Athletic Club, and so sure enough Dad got
the job, and he loved it, and they just fell
in love with Dad.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
I mean, it's the experience.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Everyone meets Dad for the first time and there's just
something special about him, and Dad did that for a
period of time. So this was in nineteen fifty four
or he got drafted. That was one of the requirements
coming to America. If you got drafted, you had to serve.
So sure enough Dad got the letter announcing that he
had to serve, but he went into the US Army.
(06:12):
So he left the job obviously at the New York
Athletic Club. He only served for thirteen months. In peacetime,
he went to Fort Hood, Texas for his basic training,
and then he went to Germany where he was a
tank driver, which he was very proud of that because
back then, the way the tanks were made, you had
to be small to fit in to drive it. So
it was it was an asset for my father that
(06:33):
his height was tiny because he was driving the tanks.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
And you've been listening to Unaierie tell a heck of
a story about her father. Jimmy. One of six children,
he only had a sixth grade education. Uni said about
her dad that he was the smartest man I know.
He didn't get his education in school. She also pointed
out that he loved people, and of course, what better
business to be than the business you're about to that
(07:00):
Jimmy finds himself in. And last, but not least, I'd
love to go to America, he said to a relative.
I don't know what I'll do, but I'll figure it out.
And did he? Ever? When we come back, more of
this remarkable love story, A daughter's love of her father,
the father's love of his work, and in the end,
the country that adopted him. Here on our American Story.
(07:29):
Here are our American Stories. We bring you inspiring stories
of history, sports, business, faith and love. Stories from a
great and beautiful country that need to be told. But
we can't do it without you. Our stories are free
to listen to, but they're not free to make. If
you love our stories in America like we do, please
go to our American Stories dot com and click the
(07:50):
donate button. Give a little, give a lot, help us
keep the great American stories coming. That's our American Stories
dot Com. And we continue with our American Stories. We
(08:13):
last left off with Jimmy Neary leaving his job at
the New York Athletic Club in nineteen fifty four to
serve in the army as a tank driver. Let's return
to this story as told by Jimmy's daughter Una.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
But when he came back, he went right back to
his job at the New York Athletic Club and got
that back. And he was doing that during the day
when one of the members was a gentleman named PJ. Moriarty,
and PJ happened to be a very well known Irish
restaurant tour He had two very famous places in New
York and he just loved Dad. He loved my father's
joke telling and storytelling. So basically he told the general
(08:50):
manager at the Athletic Club he wanted my father to
work for him at night in one of his places.
So when the general manager called my father over and said,
I want to let you know p J. Murray already
wants you to work for him, And Dad said, are
you firing me? He said, no, I'm not firing you.
You're keeping your day job with us, and you're going
to work with him at night. And so Dad literally
did that. He had the two jobs. He worked in
(09:12):
the day as a pool boy in the athletic club
and then started bartending and learning the restaurant business by
working for PJ.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Murriority at night.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
And he loved both jobs. He absolutely loved it. A
funny story you might get a kick out of. So
while Dad grew up in Ireland and there was plenty
of lakes around, Dad never went in the lakes.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
He didn't know how to swim at all.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
And one day the general manager said to my father,
you know, Jimmy, you have to wash down the tables
and chairs. So Dad said, sure, no problem. So he
took the tables and chairs and threw them in the pool.
The general manager comes out and said to my father, Jimmy,
what did you do? And Dad honestly didn't know he
did anything wrong. He goes, I don't know what you mean.
You told me to wash down the tables and chairs.
He goes, not in the pool, get in there and
(09:56):
get them out. Dad goes, I'm not going in there.
I don't know how to swim.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Somebody else is going to I have to take the
chairs out of the pool.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
That was one of the famous stories of the Athletic
Club that gets told over and over over the years.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
So eventually my.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Father did leave the job at the New York Athletic
Club to work more full time at Pjmriorties. And PJ
was so good to my father. He really taught my
father the ropes, but he started really as a bartender.
But PJ was a character in his own right. So
out in the front of the restaurant, PJ would pull
up in his car, and in the trunk of his
(10:29):
car he had a fake fire hydrant. One of my
father's jobs was to put the fire hydrant in the
front of the restaurant to protect the parking spots. So
when PJ pulled up, Dad would lift up the fire
hydrant and PJ would get the spot and Dad would
throw it in the trunk of the car. So Dad
and PJ just had a fantastic relationship. And PJ, like
I said, really taught my father the ropes of the
(10:51):
restaurant business. But Dad just knew he wanted to find
an opportunity for the right place at the right time
to open up his own restaurant. But in the meantime
he had met my beautiful mom. Eileen to me was
her name, and she was from Dublin. My dad was
from Slago. My mom was from Dublin, and she came
out to America many years earlier. My mother was actually
(11:13):
dating a gentleman named Kevin Higgins who owned an Irish
bar in Queen's. But she had heard about this Seamus Neery.
Every dad had a reputation. Everybody knew this Seamus Neery,
that he was a character. Everyone had to go into
Pj's to meet him. So my mother came in for
the first time with a couple of girlfriends and relatives
cousins of hers, and she just was attracted to him
(11:34):
right from the first time she saw him. So they
would periodically go in, and then this one particular night
they were in for my mother's birthday and my cousin,
my second cousin, Madeline, said to my mom, you know,
why don't you say something. She said, well, I'm not
saying anything to Seamus. And so Madeleine said to my father,
you know, Seamus, Eileen's coming in here on her birthday
(11:56):
because she's attracted to you and she's interested in you,
and he's like, she's dating my friend Kevin Higgins.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
And she said, well, she'd rather.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Be with you, and so Dad, clueless about these things,
he said, okay, I'll ask her out. So he asked
her out and their very first date was quite memorable.
So my father loved John Wayne movies, absolutely loved John Wayne,
and my mother had no interest in John Wayne at all.
She found them boring and they would have put her
(12:22):
to sleep. So the first date, they decided they'd go
to a movie and Dad picked my mom up and
whatever the first movie house that they came upon, that
would be the movie that they would go see. Well,
it happened to be a John Wayne movie anyway. Sure enough,
shortly into the movie, Mom fell asleep, so Dad watched
the rest.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Of the movie.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
The movie ends, he wakes my mother up and he said,
come on, Eileen, I'll drop you off and you can
finish the rest.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Of your sleep at home. And that was it. He
was Donnie. He was never going to take her out again.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
And my mother was devastated because she really liked my father.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
But PJ.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Moriarty and his wife Trudy loved my mother and knew
she would be great for my dad. So one night
PJ said to my father, I want to take you
out to dinner with my wife. The three of us
go out to dinner and it was kind of odd,
but Dad said, sure, of course. So they went to
a restaurant and they're sitting there and it's a table
set for four, and then in walks my mother and
(13:17):
PJ said, you guys need to get back together.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
So it was because of PJ.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Mariarty that my parents got back together, and then the
rest was history. They got married in nineteen sixty six.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
They moved to.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
New Jersey Demors, New Jersey, where we grew up and
had four children, my brother Patrick. Then I came and
my sister Anne Maria, and my sister Eileen.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
And we returned to our American stories and the story
of Jimmy Neary as told by his daughter Una. Let's
pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
The only day were closed his Christmas Day, and on
Christmas Day we would have customers who had no family
come and spend Christmas with us.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Dad would come into New York City. We were living
in New Jersey.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Dad would come into New York City, pick them up
and bring them out to New Jersey so they weren't
alone on Christmas and they would have Christmas dinner with us.
And then after Christmas dinner was over, he would drive
them back into the city to wherever they were living
because they were part of our family.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
And in addition to the restaurant.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Being very meaningful to my father, obviously it was what
he loved. It wasn't a job, he always said, he
never worked a day in his life. But equally important
to him and my mother was their faith. We are
Irish Catholic family, and my parents would go to Mouse
every single day, and the routine, it was quite funny.
My parents' routine was very set. It was the same routine.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Every day.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
They would get up, they would get dressed, they would
go to Mass. Dad would do the readings in church
almost every morning. After they finished going to Mass, and
mom would go to breakfast, and the dad would get
in his car and go into the city and go
to the restaurant and he'd be in there from anywhere
from eleven eleven thirty until possibly midnight every day, and
the mom would get in her car from the diner
(15:11):
and go home and raise us. So mom was taking
care of us, raising the four children and doing all
of that to keep the house and us going, while
Dad was working in the restaurant. But their time together
every morning was their precious time Mass and breakfast every morning,
and it was a tradition that they carried on literally
until my mom passed away almost fifteen years ago. She
(15:34):
passed away of cancer. Actually, after my mother passed away,
they had just such a tremendous relationship that Dad's routine
changed obviously after my Mom passed away. But what he
didn't change was going to Mass every day. But before
he went to Mass every day, he would go visit
my mom at the cemetery and visit my mom every day,
then go to the cemetery, then go to breakfast, and
(15:56):
then into.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
The restaurant.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Beautiful picture of my mom and Dad, a wedding picture
of the two of them, And before he left the
house every day he would lean in and he would
kiss the picture and kiss my mom. Because I was
living in the city and I'm still living in New
York City, I wanted to always be able to keep
an eye on my dad because he was living in
the house by himself and traveling back and forth from
New York to New Jersey, and he knew this, But
(16:23):
I installed the nest camera so I could make sure
I could see him and know that everything was okay,
and it would flash on my phone, so I knew
when he would come in at night or when he
was leaving every morning, but I would watch him. He
would not only do it in the morning, he would
kiss the picture of my mom, but when he came
home at night, he stood in front of the picture
(16:43):
and he would talk to her, and I would watch
it on the camera, and it touched me in such
a way because he wanted to share the day with
her and tell her everything that she was obviously seeing
from heaven, but he wanted to share the day with
her and tell her about the people he saw in
the stories that were told. And that's how strong their
relationship was. And people customers several years after my mom
(17:08):
passed away, said Jimmy, you know, would you be interested
and interested in what he knew exactly what they meant
in what are you kidding me? He said, I had
the love of my life. I'm interested in nobody except
my eyeleen. So because my father literally was working seven
days a week, his partner that I mentioned, Brian Mulligan,
(17:31):
actually passed away in nineteen eighty five, actually on the
evening of his twin daughters graduation from high school. So obviously,
when Brian passed away, my father worked out a deal
with his wife, Melda Mulligan to buy out the business.
So beginning in nineteen eighty five, Dad owned the restaurant outright,
so while Brian was a partner, Dad was able to
(17:53):
take some time off, you know, during the week. Once
Brian passed away, Dad was there seven days a week,
literally lunch and day our seven days a week. So
we never saw my father for no other reason than
he was working the hours he worked. The four children
we were going to school early in the morning, Dad
was asleep by the time we came home from school,
obviously Dad was at work. We would be in bed,
(18:16):
Dad would come home, and this was the routine. So
we really didn't get to see Dad. And so I
said to my parents. I was twelve at the time,
and I said, I really want to spend time with Dad.
And I said, so let me work in the restaurant.
And both my parents are like, what will you do?
And we would go into the restaurant obviously to visit Dad,
but it wasn't enough for me. I wanted to spend
(18:37):
more time with him. So they said, what will you do,
and I said, well, let me work in the coroom.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
I'll check coates.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
So it was every Friday night, and I remember I
was twelve, and I was thinking, oh my god, this
is the greatest job ever. And more importantly, I got
to watch my dad. But I was watching my father,
and I was watching him deal with people and talk
to people and communicate with people. And the relationship he
had with every single customer was so special, and every
(19:04):
single person felt like they were the most special person
in the room. That's how strongly he connected with people.
And I saw the way he treated his staff. Liz Farley,
our waitress who I mentioned, who has been with us
for fifty five years, her husband had just retired and unfortunately,
in a very tragic way, passed away, and Liz decided
(19:25):
she needed to step away from neary. She couldn't do
it anymore, and she was obviously devastated. So my father
said he completely understood, and so my father a couple
months later, picked up the phone and said, Hey, Liz,
it's Jimmy. I'm checking in on you. And she said, Jimmy,
you know I'm doing okay. You know, I'm trying to
adjust to my new life. He said, great, well, listen,
nobody's covering your shift tonight, so you better get back
(19:46):
to work. And she's like, Jimmy, and he said, no,
nobody's covering the shift. They've covered it long enough. It's
time for you to get back to work. And she said, okay, Jimmy,
I'll be in. And he just knew how to help
people feel better and cope with very kind of difficult
times in their lives. And as I mentioned earlier, Liz
is still with us fifty five years later. The staff
(20:07):
adored him, they worked hard for him, they loved him.
And I said, if I could learn any of these
or be able to pick up any of these skills
that my father has that come so naturally to him,
that I knew I would do well in my career.
Whatever that would, you know, path would take me. It
didn't matter who walked in that door. You could be
(20:28):
a doorman, you could be President Clinton came in so
you could be a doorman, or you could be a
president of the United States, and you were treated with
the same love, respect and care. And that's just what
set my father apart. He didn't distinguish anybody by the title.
What they did while he was certainly impressed by lots
of customers who came in. They were customers and they
(20:50):
were family when they walked in that door. And I
learned that all from standing in the coatroom, just watching
my father interact. And it was the lesson of a lifetime,
because is nobody better than my father. One of my
father's greatest joys was the day when he bought the building.
So I had mentioned how he had a partner for many,
(21:10):
many years, Brian Mulligan, but they were renting downstairs and
obviously had a lease. But my father said to mister Senville,
the landlord, at one point, will you ever give me
a shot at the building? And mister Senville, who owned
lots of real estate in New York, said maybe one day.
And my father made it a priority to never cause
(21:31):
him one day of problems.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
So even when there were.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Issues in the restaurant, something that the building could have
been held responsible for, that just took care of it.
He was always early with his rent payment, and he
never never complained about anything.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
And you've been listening to Uninierie share the story of
her father, a New York City restauranteur and legend, and
my goodness, what a story she tells about her mother
and father, the importance of faith in their lives, that
daily mass, that daily breakfast, and when I lean past
the love of Jimmy's life, well he still had that
(22:07):
daily Mass, and still had that daily breakfast, but every
day that stop at the cemetery. Then Un has started
to talk about their experience working in that coatroom and
getting to know her dad in action. I learned so
much from working with my dad in that coat room.
He treated doorman or the president of the United States
(22:28):
the same. He treated all people the same. There was
nobody better than my father, munas said. And my goodness,
there are two kinds of dads in this world. I've
said him many times. The father whose daughter says something
like that about you, and the father whose daughter doesn't.
When we come back more of this remarkable story of
Jimmy Neary is told by his daughter Una. Here on
(22:50):
our American stories, and we continue with our American stories,
(23:21):
and with the story of Jimmy Neary as told by
his daughter Una. Let's continue where we last left.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Off in nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Above Neary's at the time was a gentleman that lived
up there and he had an art studio. It was
his apartment, but he had an art studio, and all
the customers knew. My father wanted to buy the building
if the opportunity ever presented itself to him. And a
customer is flying back from California, flying first class, sitting
beside this gentleman. They start talking. Anyway, long story short.
(23:54):
The gentleman said, yeah, you know, I'm Midtown Manhattan and
our customers said, well, where fifty seventh Street, Oh, fifty
seventh and what First he said, well, you must know
near He's my favorite restaurant in New York. And he said, yes,
I actually live above the restaurant.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
He said, you're kidding.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
He said yeah, Jimmy is a good friend of mine.
And he said, well, I just bought the building. And
he said you what and he said, yeah, I just
bought the building. So that's the end of the conversation.
The flight lands, the customer comes into nearies and he said, Jimmy,
did the guy upstairs by the building. He goes, I
don't know what you're talking about. He said, I was
on the flight and he tells him the story. Dad goes,
I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. Dad
(24:31):
calls mister Senville and never raised the question again from
the first time he raised it, which was years earlier.
He said, mister Senville, can I ask you a question?
And he said sure, Jimmy, what and he said, did
you sell the building to the guy upstairs? And mister
Senville just answered the following way. He said, did I
call you?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
And hung up.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
The next day or a couple days later, a U
Hault truck comes and the guy moves out, and Dad
thought it was the oddest thing. So there was no
tenant upstairs. A couple weeks later, the phone rings and
it's mister Senville's assistant, and his assistant never called Dad
and said mister Senville would like to talk to you,
And Dad said, okay, is everything all right? She said,
please hold, so he picks up the phone. He said,
(25:15):
mister Senville, is everything okay? He goes, this is the
call you've been waiting for. He said, I will sell
you the building for one million, three hundred and seventy
five thousand. You have two weeks to think about it
and let me know, and that was it. So Dad's
first call, instead of being to my mom, he called
(25:37):
the Bank of Ireland and he called the president of
the Bank of Ireland in New York. His name is
Bill Burke, another man from Tubba, Curry County, Sligo. So
a lot of wonderful people came out of Tubber and
he called Bill and he said, Bill, it's Jimmy nearight.
I need to borrow a million, three hundred and seventy
five thousand dollars. And Bill started laughing, is Jimmy is
it to buy that brownstone on fifty seventh Street and
(25:57):
he said it is. He said, then you've got the loan.
So then my father called my mother and he never
called her in the middle of the day, and she
said to my father, Seamus, is everything okay? He said,
sit down. She said, oh no, what did you do
this time? He said, well, I just borrowed a million,
three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars to buy the building.
And Mom started laughing. She said, well, you broke us,
(26:18):
but you made the kids wealthy. Congratulations. And Dad paid
the loan back in a few years. He saved every
penny he had with my mom and they paid the
mortgage off very quickly. But the reality of it is,
if Dad had not been given the opportunity to buy
the building and was able to do it, we would
be long gone the rent. My father couldn't have made
(26:38):
the rent payments to continue to be renting the bottom.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
It's restaurant business. It's a very tough business. And he knew.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
He just knew again only going to sixth grade. But
the smartest man I knew. He knew he'd be out
in X amount of years in the future because he
couldn't afford the rent payments. And the reason we're still
there today is because my father was able to buy
that building COVID. We were closed for fourteen months, so
there was clearly no rent coming in, but we didn't
have to worry. Unfortunately, other small businesses weren't as fortunate,
(27:09):
but it was. It was the turning point for my
dad when he was able to buy that building, and
a tremendously proud moment for him and for our family.
The words my father would say, and people heard him
say it over and over again, I love my life.
I love my life, and he meant it. And we
(27:30):
talked about this before, but money didn't matter. It was people.
It was being with people was the greatest reward. He
could ever get. And my father always said that when
customers to say, Jimmy, would you ever retire, he goes retire.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
First of all, what would I do? And secondly, not
a chance. He goes.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
The only way they're going to get me out of
here is in a wooden overcoat. And actually on his
final night, so September thirtieth, it was a Thursday night
and it was a very busy day at the restaurant
and the three gentlemen at the bar, Dad grabbed his
Irish cap, put it on his head, and he had
his little walking cane that he used when he was outside,
and he said to the three gentleman with the big
(28:10):
smile and the hand in the air, he said good
night and.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
I'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
He had a storied life, he really did, and all
went back to having strong faith, love of family, love
of country, love of people, and he exuded that it
just was everything in his presence, and anybody that knew
him and had a chance to be around him just
were blessed. After my father passed away, one of our customers,
(28:41):
Brian Anderson, came up to me at the restaurant one
day and he said, I have a question for you,
what would you think about me trying to put a
petition together to have fifty seventh and first co named
Jimmy neary Way. I literally immediately filled up with tears
and I said absolutely, it would be amazing, and it
was approved. So now fifty seventh the first, hopefully on
(29:04):
September fourteenth, which is my dad's birthday, it will be
the unveiling of the street sign and it will be
called Jimmy Neeri.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Why so, we had.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
A lot of traditions and I'm still caring most of
them forward since my father passed away. But whether it
was a very happy occasion, like a special day of
the year such as Saint Patrick's Day or the fourth
of July, or Memorial Day or even Labor Day, special
days that brought happiness, or even in very sad days
(29:34):
like September eleventh. My father was so proud of this country.
It was no he loved Ireland, he loved his history,
his you know, coming from Ireland and being raised in Ireland.
But he was so proud of America. And our tradition
was singing God Bless America. And again it would be
in the happiest times or in the sad times when
(29:54):
we needed to unite the country, like in September eleventh,
and every customer, without a exception, would stop whatever they
were doing and would join in song. And my father
would get up there and belt it out. You could
feel the passion of him singing, God Bless America. And
it's in the documentary of my dad singing God Bless America,
and there's one scene with his arms stretched out wide
(30:16):
because he loved America. He loved New York City. That
was his favorite song. And you would hear my father
talk about this country. If anyone had a bad word
to say about America, my father was quick to straighten
them out. He would literally say, if you don't love
this country, then you don't have to be here. But
this is the greatest country in the world. It gives
you the opportunities of a lifetime. If you work hard
(30:39):
and you do your part to give, you'll enjoy the
riches of it. And he really did. And my whole
family just watching my mother and father be so proud
of what they accomplished here in this country obviously trickles
down to all of us because we feel equally as strongly.
(31:00):
And he also not only loved this country for everything
it offered him. My father was a fierce supporter of
our military as well as law enforcement. It would be
funny we would be walking down the street, the police
officer could be on the other side of the street
and I would be pleased at let's just keep going. Nope,
and we would have to cross the street. It didn't
(31:20):
matter where we were going, if we were later or not,
and he was absolutely right to do it. But he
would literally stop whatever he was doing. If we were
on a mission to go somewhere, he would stop. You'd
go across the street or go down the block if
you saw a police officer, and he would literally say,
thank you very much, thank you for what you're doing.
You're protecting us, you're protecting this city. And actually when
(31:41):
my father passed away, we had the mass at Saint
Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. But what the New
York Police Department did was they shut down Fifth Avenue
as we came out of the cathedral for forty five minutes.
There were people lined up across the street filming this
because they could not understand who possibly was the person
that was being taken out of the cathedral. That they
(32:03):
shut down Fifth Avenue. It just doesn't happen. So then
they closed down Madison Avenue. Then they closed down fifty
seventh Street. Then the police closed down First Avenue, they
closed down the FDR, they closed down the Harlem River Drive,
they closed the upper level of the outbound of the
George Washington Bridge, escorted us across the bridge, escorted us
(32:26):
through the Palisades Parkway, and then ultimately passed our house
in Demarest, and we did a thirty second stop outside
a house where we grew up and where my dad lived,
and then brought us to the cemetery. And the police
officer who helped arrange all of that with me, I
literally said to him, I have no words of thanks.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
I don't know what to say.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
And his comment was, in the thirty years he had
been doing kind of his job, he said, except for
somebody who's lying in state, a civilian does not get
these honors, and the only person that is deserving of
it was your father.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
And a terrific job on the editing and production by
Greg Engler and a special thanks to un and Eerie
for sharing the story of her father. And you can
see the documentary on Amazon called NEERI's The Dream at
the End of the Rainbow, a beautiful story about an
Irish immigrant who turned his love of people into a
(33:22):
restaurant you must go to if you're ever around fifty
seventh Street, down by a first and second avenue in
that part of the city called Sutton Place, stop by Neery's,
and by all means, have the pork chops. It was
one of my favorites until Una suggested the lamb chops.
And I think I'll never eat anything else ever when
I go back, And of course you must have their
rice pudding. The story of Neary's Restaurant, the story of
(33:44):
Jimmy Neary, the story of so much more, but particularly
the love of a daughter or her father, all of
it here on our American stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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