Tucked between blown-up headshots of Broadway stars and rotating marquee lights on Manhattan’s West 44th Street is Jimmy’s Corner. Nothing but a dim neon Heineken sign illuminates the historic boxing bar’s dusty facade.
The front door to the bar is hard to open on a Thursday night, revealing a scene of corporate bros clinking pints after work, regulars playing cards, and tourists grabbing a pre-show drink. By the looks of it, you’d never guess the building’s landlord is trying to evict the beloved Times Square haunt three years before its lease is up. You also wouldn’t know some patrons are there because of it — and because owner Adam Glenn has been posting about the bar’s legal battles on social media.
It’s a similar case in the pocket of the Lower East Side known as Dimes Square, where the tenants of 169 Broadway face eviction, a location better known as 169 Bar among the hipsters who’ve cemented the dive as a downtown institution.
Both establishments have been trumpeting their battles on social media. In the age of bars and restaurants doubling as content creators, some post about their troubles — whether legal or financial — to grab eyes across stories, short-form videos, and grid posts, hoping for a spike in sales.
Indeed, businesses have long capitalized on the appeal of pathos-driven marketing. But hospitality is an industry with an inclination to keep a strong front during bouts of struggle. This duality is something Jeremy Salamon, the chef-owner behind Agi’s Counter in Brooklyn, has grappled with over the past year. Agi’s Counter was named as one of Bon Appétit’s 50 Best New Restaurants in 2022 and received a Bib Gourmand distinction from the Michelin Guide the following year, but Salamon sparked even more media attention last October when he posted a teary-eyed video to Instagram in which he implored his followers to pay Agi’s a visit, citing the restaurant’s rocky financial position.
Running a bar or restaurant requires more than a stellar food and drinks program. It requires financial, marketing, and entrepreneurial savvy. A burst of social media likes may not necessarily kickstart any boost in patronage, Salamon admits. But with the many difficulties involved in running a small business — say, Big Money closing in or operational costs inching upward — some owners feel there is nothing they can do but proclaim their woes through a virtual megaphone. Whether or not it’s a sound business decision, however, is up to the masses who view it.
The Good Fight
Glenn took ownership of Times Square’s neighborhood bar in 2021 after the previous owner, his father, passed away in 2020. He describes his battles with his landlord, The Durst Organization, as a “David and Goliath” scenario. The Durst Organization owns properties like big-time banks’ offices and One World Trade Center. While massive corporations like this have the financial capacity for resources like publicists who can architect and broadcast a certain narrative, social media is a democratized, cost-free way of doing just that.
Glenn began with hosting Instagram livestreams — his preferred method of communicating online with a vast audience — in December after rumors floated of the bar’s uncertain future. His father opened Jimmy’s Corner in 1971 at a time when Times Square was a neighborhood, albeit run down and dangerous, and not the gentrified destination for tourists, the Naked Cowboy, and corporate offices that it is today. Now, many view Jimmy’s Corner as Times Square’s last neighborhood bar.
“I really could never imagine the response to the video. The day after, we were slammed, like lines out the door for about a month and a half. It started to fizzle down, but we even continued to have an unusually busy January. I think we’re still feeling the repercussions of that video.”
In its 55-year history, Jimmy’s Corner has amassed a robust yet tight-knit community — the very reason that compels Glenn to continually post updates about the bar’s landlord battle to social media. He keeps reminders to post on his to-do list.
“You have to use the tools that are out there,” Glenn says. “We’re lucky enough here to have this really great community that rallies around us and that physically shows up. It has made me really feel a desire to be transparent with the community out there. I want them to know what’s going on.”
Any recent post on the @jimmys_corner44 Instagram page includes a deluge of comments in support of the bar like “Keep up the good fight” and “Save Jimmy’s Corner!!!!” An upshot, Glenn says, is that it demonstrates to the landlord and others watching the strength of the anti-eviction sentiment. He aimed to show his community’s backing by staging a rally in April, which he co-hosted with a few pro-small-business organizations.
Glenn naturally advertised the rally in a number of posts, and commenters said they would attend. Day of, they showed out: Lawmakers, local news outlets, and longtime regulars attended the rally to express their disdain for Durst’s fight to evict the bar.
A few miles downtown, 169 Bar is fighting a similar legal battle. In February 2025, the dive’s landlord sued its owner after he had failed to evict after its lease expired, Caper reports. It wasn’t until January, however, that 169 Bar began urging devotees to stop by in an Instagram post, citing the landlord battle and the gentrification uprooting the neighborhood. “The Lower East Side keeps changing, and like many neighborhood staples, we’re under pressure,” the bar’s first post about the case reads.
But in a later post, 169 Bar took on a more candid approach by making claims typically relegated to legal complaints. In an Instagram carousel, it purported that the landlord had berated the bar’s staff and removed liquor from its shelves, among other allegations.
169 Bar did not respond to VinePair’s requests for comment.
The support in the posts’ comments is much like those for Jimmy’s Corner’s. Most of them tag New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, calling on him to step in. (Jimmy’s Corner even commented on a post from 169 Bar, offering some help).
Ultimately, the fate of 169 Bar is in the hands of the case’s presiding judge, but posts like theirs and Jimmy’s Corner’s wedge consumers into realizing the power of where they offer their time and money.
All Style, Some Substance
Kartisha Henry admits she got in over her head when trying to build out a second location of The Wing Suite, her chicken wing restaurant in Lawrenceville, Ga. The second location she signed on had never operated as a restaurant, and its construction proved costlier and more time-intensive than planned. She and her daughter Ari took to TikTok to share their story and make an emotional appeal for customers to visit the restaurant and donate to its GoFundMe page.
“I had already purchased equipment and I had loans,” Henry says. “I just didn’t have enough revenue coming in to cover all of the debt that had occurred over that two-year time frame.”
Henry first leveraged Ari’s already-established TikTok fame: Ari alone has over 238,000 followers on the app as a “hair influencer.” In early videos, which they began posting in late March, the duo openly cited their mounting loans as the reason for requesting a financial boost. They then took on something of a remorse-baiting tactic with multiple posts proclaiming, “Unfortunately, Today We’re Closing,” before non- sequitur cuts to The Wing Suite owner asking for support to prevent the business from closure.
Nonetheless, The Wing Suite reported a major uptick in on-premise sales since posting to TikTok. Henry says out-of-staters and locals have flocked to her restaurant to help pay off the loans. Its GoFundMe page has also raised roughly $29,000 at the time of publication with a goal of reaching $100,000.
Financial insecurity also prompted Salamon to plead for support in an Instagram video. His business’s instability similarly came from straddling two restaurants — Agi’s Counter in Crown Heights and the more recently opened Pitt’s in Red Hook. He also cited the usual suspects that rattle neighborhood restaurants in NYC: abounding food and labor costs, limited seating, and loans.
“This business is risky. It’s always been risky. That’s just the nature of the business. But now more than ever, it really feels like there’s this kind of quiet suffering going on behind the scenes.”
The video, posted on Oct. 15, shows Salamon in a T-shirt and baseball cap, speaking to the camera and lamenting his bar’s struggling situation. “We are working behind the scenes to refine and streamline labor, schedules and systems,” Salamon writes in the caption. “But to make a difference, Agi’s needs your support. If you can, come in for a meal, buy a gift card, or host your next event with us.”
Salamon’s post amassed roughly 30,000 views and a flood of sympathetic comments from fellow chefs, food influencers, and locals alike. It was picked up in NYC media outlets Brooklyn Magazine and Eater.
“I really could never imagine the response to the video,” he says. “The day after, we were slammed, like lines out the door for about a month and a half. It started to fizzle down, but we even continued to have an unusually busy January. I think we’re still feeling the repercussions of that video.”
The video might have bought some more time for Agi’s Counter, but the weight he faced became too heavy for both restaurants to bear. In January, Salamon said Pitt’s would take a hiatus for the winter, but just a few weeks later, he announced the Red Hook spot would officially shutter.
Can Social Media Save a Business?
With a quick refresh, any social media user can wipe and reset their feed, and a business’s online buzz can only sustain for so long. A momentary surge in popularity doesn’t necessarily ensure a business’s longevity.
Bar and restaurant owners must consider whether changing course is the most financially viable option.
Megan Bell, former owner of the now-closed Margins Wine, made headlines when she candidly spoke up about the frailty of California’s wine industry in 2023. Today, it’s hardly “news” to hear about the headwinds disrupting the market. (As The San Francisco Chronicle put it, Bell “was one of the first California winemakers to openly acknowledge the industry’s crisis.”)
She started posting by sharing her worries about her own livelihood on social media, such as her ability to afford groceries and pay rent. At first, Bell says, viewers disregarded her posts. “There was this idea that it was temporary and that we shouldn’t give too much weight to it,” she says.
What began as personal instability became universal: The industry’s downturn did not stop, and soon after the initial posts, Bell realized she needed to admit to herself that her life had to change and, earlier this year, made the difficult decision to close Margins. She now works in customer relationship management at Superior Foods International, a frozen food supplier.
For a business in any industry, a demonstrable change in sales requires a rewiring of business strategy. No coverage in legacy media nor online publicity immunized Bell from closing up shop. But, to Bell, there’s a larger importance to informing the public. “Keeping a stiff upper lip is counterproductive to protecting our industry,” she says.
Salamon thought the same after a number of industry figures — ranging from small, independent owners to multi-millionaire restaurateurs — reached out to tell him that they are also struggling in response to his video.
“You know, this business is risky. It’s always been risky. That’s just the nature of the business,” he says. “But now more than ever, it really feels like there’s this kind of quiet suffering going on behind the scenes.”
Prior to posting, Salamon experimented with a number of business models. He juggled his employees’ hours to cut back labor costs, played around with various operational hours, and stripped some high-cost ingredients from his menu. No matter what he threw at the wall, the bottom line still was never high enough. Reaching out to his regulars on social media was his last resort.
“They want to know,” Salamon says of the community he’s corralled since opening his restaurant. “They want to help.”
This story is a part of VP Pro, our free platform and newsletter for drinks industry professionals, covering wine, beer, liquor, and beyond. Sign up for VP Pro now!
