SUTTON PLACE — A Sutton Place bar that was destroyed in a fire in October will reopen in January with a new name and a new vibe, according to one of the owners.
The bar formerly known as Sin Bin, which operated for eight years at 1074 First Ave. between East 58th and East 59th streets, will reopen in early 2016 as the Sutton Bar Room, which will have more of a neighborhood tavern feel rather than focusing on sports as its predecessor had done, according to co-owner John Moloney.
“We want to make it look like the bar’s been there 60 years, and we want it to feel like it has a history in the neighborhood,” said Moloney, who also owns bars in Queens, Brooklyn, and two more in Midtown.
Sin Bin was destroyed in a fire on Oct. 8, when a spark from welding in the neighboring building smoldered on a beam and eventually caught fire, according to owner John Moloney. No one was injured in the fire — which broke out while customers and staff were inside — but the interior suffered extensive smoke and water damage, he said.
Sutton Place and its surrounding blocks are relatively short on pubs, so Moloney said he didn’t want to leave the neighborhood high and dry — or give up his piece of the local market. So rather than curse their bad luck, Moloney and his partners turned the destruction into an opportunity to adjust the bar to the changing tastes of New York’s tipplers, he said.
“The business has changed a lot in eight years, and it’s no longer ok to just have Heineken and Bud Light on draft,” Moloney said.
The Sutton Bar Room will offer a dozen draft beers, with some from local brewers, Moloney said. They also plan to make the bar slightly smaller in order to have expanded seating for customers to sit and chat instead of just staring at television screens, he added.
“The old bar was more of a sports-oriented gin mill, and we’re going to make it more of a proper tavern,” he said.
The new bar will employ the same staff of about six who ran Sin Bin, and who after the fire were rotated to Moloney's other bars, which include John Doe, in Midtown; Brooklyn Public, in Fort Greene; Austin Public Gastropub, in Forest Hills; and The Junction, in Murray Hill.
