As a great NYC hardcore (in a sense) band once said, “You don’t have to try so very hard/lf you live in this world/You’re feelin’ the change of the guard." And so, with tears in our eyes but hope in our hearts, we witness the passing of the Born to Booze torch, from Kirk Podell to Jonathan Toubin. Our new cocktail cub may be familiar to the louche amongst our readership as the head cheese at New York Night Train, the one-man collective that, for two decades, has put the “show" in late-night punk ’n’ garage showbiz all over the world, or the equally international Soul Clap, the dance party/ contest where JT disc-jockeys the funkiest 45s of yester-century, cohosted by a who’s who of legendary soul shakers and otherwise stirred denizens of what remains of the underground. To paraphrase another freak of the industry: “Oh yeah, he also likes to write.”

My first ’90s New York job was delivering food in Hell’s Kitchen. And while I wasn’t the most industrious employee, both on and off the clock I became a diligent explorer of the wide variety of dives still dotting the Times Square area. While I discovered a number of suitable locations to indulge my wide-eyed Bukowski on Mean Streets twentysomething romanticism, particularly along Ninth Avenue near the shadowier end of Port Authority, my absolute favorite bar was smack-dab in the belly of the beast. Jimmy’s Corner, with its tattered boxing posters, yellowing photo collages of ancient regulars, and soulful jukebox, was also chockfull o’ characters, good vibes, and affordable booze. For only a couple bucks you could grab a drink, find a ringside barstool, and become a fixture among the mise-en-scene of a mythical Times Square noir narrative— a living relic from the end of an era when boxing intersected low life on the sidewalks of New York in life, books, and cinema. The owner, Jimmy Glenn, a former 1940s boxer, trainer, and gym proprietor, reliably lorded over the end of the bar until he passed away from COVID complications in 2020. While Jimmy is missed by all, his family still runs the iconic watering hole. Not much else has changed. And while I’ve done time in my fair share of barrooms in the decades since my first Jimmy’s experience, after all these years I still can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be. Thus, I am beyond thrilled that my old friend Jesse Malin picked Jimmy’s Corner as our rendezvous point.