It’s last call for the Subway Inn.
The iconic family-owned Midtown East watering hole kept the beer flowing for 87 years at three different locations, but ultimately couldn’t outrun the changing times in the Big Apple.
On Dec. 28, the taps will run dry.
“This is still pretty fresh, and this one hurts a lot,” second-generation owner Steven Salinas told The Post. “This bar was built exactly to what we wanted. My dad would have been happy. My mom is really happy with how the place looks. But it’s not sustainable.
“To give her the news that we’re closing is devastating. We have to worry about workers, their livelihoods,” he said. “Manhattan is not the place to be. Manhattan has so many obstacles you have to go through, as opposed to Queens or Brooklyn. Nobody hangs out in Manhattan any more.”
Salinas blamed the pandemic, changes in the neighborhood, a rise in crime and a bureaucracy that he said can drown small businesses in red tape — and once tied up his liquor license for eight months.
“There is a system in place for the city to help small business owners, and when you follow the rules, and it seems to us that the people who follow the rules are the ones getting picked on the most,” he said.
“We had done everything that the city required us to do, but then we had to go through this eight-month wait. For eight months I was unemployed. For eight months workers were struggling to find jobs.”
Salinas announced the sad news on Facebook last week.
The Subway Inn first opened in 1937 at 143 East 60th St. and quickly became a popular nightspot where Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe would stop in for a drink, and later hosted the likes of Julia Roberts and Willie Nelson, the Village Voice said in a 2014 report.
In 2014, legendary crooner Tony Bennett even stopped in.
Salinas’s father, Marcello, a onetime porter at the bar, was eventually given the keys and took over the business, passing it on to his son after his death in 2016.
After 77 years at its original location, the Subway Inn moved two blocks away to 1140 Second Ave. in 2014 to make way for a new real estate development.
Early last year came the business moved to its current — and apparently final — location.
Salinas said there will still be a bar at the site, with a chain pub outlet moving in. But for the locals, losing a Manhattan institution leaves a sour aftertaste.
Tyler Hollinger, owner of Festival Bar across the street, local resident:
“This neighborhood is falling apart,” Tyler Hollinger, a neighborhood resident and fellow barkeep who owns the Festival Bar, told The Post. “This whole area used to be buildings, it’s now a gigantic construction site. It’s drastically affecting all these places. We’ve been here for five years.
“It’s extremely difficult. It’s very challenging, it’s super disheartening,” Hollinger said.
Resident Stephanie Hochman said the move is sad news for the entire neighborhood.
“It’s just a nice place to meet after work,” she said. “The wings are good, the drinks are straight forward. It’s not pretentious. It’s a good place. I wasn’t expecting that, because they moved. You know, that’s another sign of the decline of the city. I’m not happy.
“The city is always in flux, there are things opening and closing, but it’s always upsetting when an institution leaves the city,” Hochman said. “There has been a difference in things popping up.”
Meanwhile, Salinas said he’s heartbroken, but notes the end of his family legacy is a sign of the times.
“We have good quality beer, we clean our lines, we do everything right, we get an ‘A’ every single time, but nothing,” he said. “Nobody comes out. Nobody drinks any more. Everybody wants to stay home, save money. We can’t change that. Everybody needs to survive.
“But if things don’t change, we’re going to have nothing but these large businesses taking over, CVS, even they’re struggling. Unless you own the building, you’re not going to survive in Manhattan.”
