Just 17 years ago, Eugene Steinbach bought Publicans bar at 550 Plandome Road and changed its name to Edison’s Ale House.
Thousands of barrels of liquor and 17 years later, Edison’s apparently shut its doors for good on Saturday.
Steinbach said he had no plans to reopen Edison’s, but he was awaiting completion of a proposed sale before he made the closing official.
“Yes, we’ve closed up shop but the finalization of the sale is still pending,” Steinbach said.
Rumors have been swelling on social media for weeks about the closing of the bar but Steinbach denied the closing until the day before he shut its doors.
Reached by phone on March 17, Steinbach denied the bar was closing.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. We are not closing and we are not for sale,” he said.
Employees expressed frustration with the lack of notice provided by Steinbach in the days leading up to the closing.
“I don’t know. Maybe he wants people to show up for work,” an employee who asked to remain anonymous said.
The employee said Steinbach didn’t inform his employees he had sold the business until last Friday.
“I’ve worked for him for years now and he wouldn’t even give me a heads up that the bar is closing,” the employee said. “I’ll be out of a job by Easter.”
Another employee at Edisons said Steinbach will move a number of the staff to the Barefoot Peddler Pub, a bar Steinbach owns in Greenvale.
“It’s just so sad to be leaving this place. So many memories,” the employee said.
Longtime residents of Manhasset took to Facebook to share their memories of the restaurant that some say is intertwined with the fabric and history of Manhasset.
“Having grown up here and watched it transition from Publicans to Edison’s, I’m sad to see it go,” Maria Herrington said in a comment posted on the Manhasset Connection page.
Richard Belt said he knew the bar as Publicans growing up in the 1960s.
“It was a good meeting place for old friend drinks,” he commented. “We met there as prelude to a class reunion several years ago and had an awesome time.”
Some residents have been calling on the same page for the revival of the bar as Publicans.
“I know, it probably needs updating, but there’s something about it for me, that it’s the same as it has always been that is comforting,” Lauren Devlin Boylan said.
For residents, reopening the bar as Publicans might be a way to step back in time but for outsiders and tourists, the bar represents more than that.
In 2005, Pulitzer-prize winning writer and former Manhasset resident J.R Moehringer released his memoir titled “Tender Bar”.
In it, Moehringer recounted his childhood growing up and frequenting the bar where his uncle served as bartender as an escape from his chaotic family life.
He described his experience at Publicans, saying the people there “practically raised” him.
Tender Bar was so popular that tourists traveled to Manhasset to visit the “tender bar” that raised Moehringer despite the name change.
Boylan said years ago a waitress at Edison’s told him about four elderly ladies who flew all the way from Arizona just to have lunch at Edison’s because they had read Moehringer’s book.
“That’s what I mean about not wanting it to change,” Boylan said. “I feel like it’s a piece of history for our town.”
