“In summer of 1997, my brother Mark and I were sitting in his yard talking about our original BillyMarks Bar on College Point Boulevard by Shea Stadium in Queens. It was a good size bar -- 35 feet long -- pool table, arcade games, and a slamming juke box. And the crowd! What a mixture of people. We thought about how it would be great to open a bar like the original one, but in Manhattan. Just a regular place with great music, inexpensive drinks, a pool table and no theme -- a place where the crowd dictates the atmosphere.
Shortly after, we start checking out locations for this brainstorm, but nothing got us really excited. Then we come across this ad in the New York Times classifieds about a bar for sale. So we go check this joint out, and let me tell you, what a nightmare. Everything was off: the people; it was dirty; the corner of 29th and Ninth. What? Where? Ninth Avenue? Who goes there? But the one thing it had -- that no other place had we looked at had -- was the exact same dimensions as the first BillyMarks. It was like a time warp, as though someone airlifted the bar in Queens and laid it on 29th Street.
Now we're hooked, and started thinking that if we do this, clean up the joint, change the music, put up some posters and put in a pool table, this place would have the makings of a great bar.
Even with that inspiration, my brother and I never thought it would have become this! Just an easy, great place to hang, with a bunch of fun bartenders who will talk about anything from ancient history to modern
music and a crowd that can run from artist to postal worker to political journalist within the span of three bar stools.
So come to BillyMarks before the clubs or concerts at the Garden for a tune up, or hang with the regulars and pretty soon you'll have a new nickname and you'll be part of the crowd.” - Billy