SAN FRANCISCO -- Since they moved West, the Giants have had just four seasons in which they visited both of the current New York teams. This season will be the fifth, and the timing couldn't be better for a New York bar that has the Giants on every night.
After being closed for five years, Finnerty's is back, albeit in a new location in Manhattan. For over a decade, one that included three Giants titles and the dawning of a Warriors dynasty, Finnerty's was the New York home for Bay Area transplants who wanted somewhere to hang out with fans cheering for the same side. The pandemic led to its closure, but it quietly reopened earlier this year and is fully up to speed now as the Giants prepare to visit the Yankees. Later this year, they'll visit again to face the Mets, and the 49ers will visit the New York Giants this fall.
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WATCH HERE"How cool is that, right?" Finnerty's co-owner Dieter Seelig said recently by phone. "It's pretty bonkers. Believe me, we're super excited to have the chance this year to do a couple of game buses again. We're very psyched to be back."
For years, the Finnerty's buses were a staple of Giants trips to play the Mets. Dozens of Giants fans in New York would take over sections of Citi Field, and the noise was certainly heard -- and appreciated -- by players and broadcasters. Finnerty's was such a common stop for Giants fans in the city that the World Series trophies would visit when the Giants flew them back to New York after parades.
On Feb. 2, 2020, Finnerty's held a watch party for the 49ers-Chiefs Super Bowl. Six weeks later, the bar shut down because of COVID, and the doors never reopened. It was a difficult time for any small business owner in a major city, but the restrictions were particularly harsh on anyone running a bar or restaurant.
When New York first shut down, Seelig, who co-owns Finnerty's with Brian Stapleton, had a feeling the bar would not reopen that year. They had a lack of space for outdoor seating and a limited capacity indoors. On Dec. 21, 2020, a YouTube video announced the bar's closure and thanked all of the Bay Area sports fans who had made it their home away from home over the years.
"It was very emotional," Seelig said. "We all cried a few times, because that was not the way you want to have that thing end. But I knew we would be back. I would say from a month after that video was filmed saying goodbye, I was out looking for spaces. I knew things would turn around eventually and it was just a matter of finding the right space."
San Francisco Giants
The perfect home for the new Finnerty's ended up being a familiar spot in midtown. Foley's, a popular baseball bar in the shadow of the Empire State Building, had also closed because of the pandemic. It had been home to more than 3,000 signed baseballs which were displayed in cases on the walls and the bar was filled with memorabilia from the game's history, but it closed just two months into the shutdown of New York.
In April of 2023, Seelig went and saw the old Foley's space at 18 West 33rd Street. He immediately sent a text to his wife: "I'm pretty sure I just found the new Finnerty's." A remodel began the next February.
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SIGN UP "We're thrilled because it's a beautiful space and we've kept a lot of the original touches," Seelig said. "The handles from the door to walk in are made from suspender cables from the Golden Gate Bridge and there's the actual pennant that hung over the Polo Grounds from the 1951 National League Championship Series. It's a much more touristy area. We've never had a kitchen before but now we'll have a kitchen and we'll do American food, garlic fries, sourdough bread bowls and all that stuff."
The new spot has more TVs and a different layout, but many of the old charms remain. There's a painting of Willie Mays making "The Catch" near the front entrance and old Giants jerseys and Bay Area bobbleheads throughout the bar. The game buses will return when the Giants play the Mets in August, and Seelig said the early response to their soft opening has been very positive.
"We didn't want to rebuild Finnerty's, we wanted to make Finnerty's for 2025," he said. "We wanted to make a new sports bar that would have a lot of those things you loved about Finnerty's, but also, hey, it's not 2009 anymore. There are different expectations by customers and we took that seriously. So far, the people that have been to the new spot are very excited."
