In recent years , New Yorkers have suffered the close of several of the city ’s most vaunted drinkstitutions . A lamentable current of classic including Mars Bar in 2011 , Bill ’s Gay Nineties in 2012 , the Subway Inn and Milady ’s in 2014 , and the Raccoon Lodge just a few weeks ago , have all been crush under the unrelenting wheels of big city DoC . The up-to-the-minute melted tragedy is the Campbell Apartment , which is set to direct its last night of business Thursday Nox . locate inside Grand Central Station , the space first served as the office and salon of 1920s moneyman and railroad executive John W. Campbell . It then spent half a century in disrepair before being reincarnated as a period - reliable cocktail waiting area in 1999 .

We spoke with Grossich about the appeal , the outpouring of reenforcement he ’s received and the work he ’s done to mend the Campbell Apartment to its original high - ceilinged , swanky luster .

Supercall : What ’s the latest news show on the eviction?Mark Grossich : We actually won our first gesture , but the remedy the evaluator recommend endanger us to a 30 - day eviction notice , which the MTA do . There is every reason to believe that once everything is said and done we may be able-bodied to regress to the distance . After 17 long time we thought we ’d be able to negociate more before this was finalized . But it ’s not over until it ’s over and we ’re attached to explore every possible avenue to recalibrate this .

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What do you think was behind the eviction?The lamentable reality is the MTA is importantly in debt . When push button came to stuff , we were outbid by a quarter million one dollar bill , which , in the schema of a 10 - class declaration , is nothing . We were an amazing tenant and we grew the topographic point importantly . I was shocked when it came down to dollar mark and cents .

There ’s so much chronicle inside the bar . Will that be preserved?The fresh operator reportedly wants to have a much more current , club - like environment there as contradict to the diachronic piazza that we created . But the asking for marriage offer intelligibly indicated that the MTA want [ the bar ] to remain the way it was because I restitute much of the room . We ’ve had historian memorialise it and the MTA recording the changes .

What ’s your fondest remembering of work on the Campbell Apartment?Pulling off the diversion of the quad . They were actually having a difficult time getting developers concerned in the blank because it was a mess . You could n’t see the promise unless you looked really tight . Borrowing from the history was a terrific exercise . We spend time in the New York Public Library look at menu from the 1800s , reckon at the grade of workmanship that was put into the place . The workmen were so unrestrained about take part in something like that .

What was your approach shot to create the cocktail program?Stick to the classic . Our bestseller are still Martinis and Manhattans and Sidecars — drink that have withstood the challenges of time . Our basic philosophy has been : The good things endure . So we ’re not quick to pick up on any trends of cocktails , whether it be strange ingredients or otherwise .

What was the public response to the closure?I’ve been surprised at the discharge we ’ve received . You ’d assert we were the last bastion of the civilized world . It ’s heartwarming to see the alphabetic character we ’ve been catch from the great unwashed . The first day theSave Campbell Apartment petitionwent up it incur over 900 signatures .