Is there still a place in Hoboken for a genuine dive bar, a gracefully disgraceful doghouse where men come to sit with clasped hands and confess their sins?
For 44 years, Stinky Sullivan’s at Sixth and Washington streets was just such an establishment, with a jukebox and dollar drafts and a deep cherrywood bar that drank up laughs and sorrows like bourbon.
As of this past week, it has gone to meet its boilermaker. Though a handful of regulars still loitered in chairs on Monday afternoon, enjoyed the bitter end of their lines of credit, the kitchen stopped serving a month ago, and owner George Palermo Jr. said the doors would be locked for good on Thursday, Jan. 8.
Sullivan’s was not the last neighborhood bar in Hoboken — places like Mario’s on Park Avenue, Wilton House near City Hall, Louise and Jerry’s on Washington Street and several others still carry the banner — but its closing is yet another sign that the city’s working class past is on the way out.
Besides demographic and economic changes in Hoboken, Palermo said his business took a big blow from the loss of the Hoboken St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which was cancelled by its organizers in 2012 after Mayor Dawn Zimmer wanted the event to move to a Wednesday to cut down on rowdy revelers.
With a central location along the parade route, Sullivan’s made enough on the day of the event to pay three months of bills, Palermo said – and he noted that he was not alone.
New neighborhood
Hoboken has seen huge changes since Sullivan’s first opened its doors in 1970, but it was only in the last three or four years that owner George Palermo noticed his profits dropping precipitously. As recently as the nineties, he said Sullivan’s had been rated the number one bar in Hoboken. Even then, many young families and twentysomethings were discovering the mile-square city, with its proximity to Manhattan. As condos sprouted, more and more of them flocked here.
“The town has changed, and I didn’t change with it.”— George Palermo
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As statewide smoking bans became a reality and the dollar drafts fell to inflation, Palermo built a well-regarded menu complete with brunch, sandwiches, wraps, and burgers, along with standard bar fare. One specialty was Shrimp Palermo, sautéed shrimp with shallots, garlic, tomatoes, scallions, lemon-butter, Tabasco sauce, and white wine.
“The food is actually quite good,” wrote a typical reviewer on the business rating site Yelp. “Never had a bad meal here. Not a bad choice for bar food/comfort food.”
Still, Sullivan’s was never able to gain traction among Hoboken’s newest arrivals.
No one can deny that Hoboken is a younger and more affluent place than it was 30 years ago. But raw data alone — a 175 percent increase in children four and under between the last two censuses, a $45,000 jump in median household income since 2000 — does not tell the whole story of Sullivan’s’ growing difficulty drawing customers.
After all, newer bars like Village Pourhouse, 1 Republik, and Pilsener Haus & Biergarten appear to have no issue filling seats.
The more subtle changes…
Palermo said he doesn’t blame anyone, though he noted a handful of recent changes that seemed to shorten the playing field for unvarnished gems like Sullivan’s and Helmers’ Restaurant, the German landmark at Eleventh and Washington streets that closed in December after 78 years.
One was the aforementioned parade cancellation. Each year, people talk of perhaps moving the festivities to Sunday or finding another compromise, but so far, Zimmer’s administration and the St. Patrick’s committee have not collaborated on a resolution that will allow the parade to return.
The second blow was the seemingly zealous enforcement of parking laws under the administration of Dawn Zimmer, which some Hoboken business owners say has scared away some out-of-towners. The former owner of Maxwell’s Tavern cited a similar reason when he sold the legendary music club in 2013.
Palermo said he was stunned to find a parking ticket on his car this past Christmas Eve, and recalled a time when Hoboken drivers got the entire week of Christmas as a reprieve from parking rules.
Palermo said he wanted to thank all of the people who had patronized his establishment over the years.
A long history
Palermo is the third generation of a proud Hoboken family. His grandfather, a former president of the Local 56 Hoboken letter-carriers’ union, still has a plaque in his honor at the main post office on River Street.
His father, who is also named George, was born in Hoboken in 1928 — delivered, he claims, by Frank Sinatra’s mother Dolly Garaventi. As the captain and star left-fielder of the 1945 A.J. Demarest High School baseball team, the elder Palermo helped win the first ever Hudson County Interscholastic Athletic Association championship. He went on to serve with distinction in the Korean War.
When George Senior first opened The Chatterbox near Sixth and Washington streets in 1958, Holland America passenger ships still docked at the end of Fifth Street, linking the city to its immigrant gateway past. A year after Palermo moved over to 600 Washington St. and opened Sullivan’s in 1970, Holland America ended transatlantic service, with its cargo business following suit in 1973.
Sullivan’s was never a longshoreman’s bar, like the tenement shops that once lined every inch of River Street, but it served longshoreman all the same — every bar in Hoboken did so, says Palermo, opening at six in the morning every day except Sunday.
Palermo recalled one longshoreman who would come in every morning, take one sip, run to throw up in the toilet, then knock back three shots and head to work.
The end of Sullivan’s cannot shake Palermo’s love for his lifelong home.
“I was born here, and I’ll die here,” he said.
Still, he is worried about the amount of money that is coming into town now, and the changes it will continue to bring.
If that’s moving up then I’m…
Which is not to say that Palermo isn’t getting his share. His family just sold the building – a corner building with two stories above the bar – for an amount he won’t divulge. After the 2013 property revaluation, the building had been valued by the city at $1.5 million.
George Jr. still lives upstairs, but he is thinking of moving to Manhattan.
Palermo wouldn’t say who the building was sold to, but according to a public notice by the Hoboken Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, he is seeking to transfer Sullivan’s liquor license to Peter LoConte.
In addition to managing the bar, the younger Palermo has had a colorful career as an actor, earning a Best Actor award at the 1996 Soap Opera Update Awards for his role as Tony Soleito in “The City.” He also has appeared on “Law and Order,” “NYPD Blue,” and “JAG” and in commercials.
It seems likely that George Jr. will give acting another shot, but for now, he says he wants to spend time with his 15-year-old son.
Carlo Davis may be reached at cdavis@hudsonreporter.com.