Siberia

Siberia, a Legendary NYC Dive Bar, Reopens

"Inside the Columbus Circle subway station at 57th and Eighth, I caught Siberia’s third act — Tracy Westmoreland presiding again over a compact, Lynchian-red-lit dive that carries the bar’s mythic history from its 1996 opening inside the 1/9 downtown subway at 50th and Broadway, its 2001 closure, and a long second life at 40th and Ninth. The 750-square-foot space sits about 40 steps down, with slate floors, 12-foot-high ceilings, an eight-foot-long bar with eight stools, a TouchTunes jukebox playing ’70s punk, old country and rock, and a semi-Warholian portrait mural by Dana Nehdaran; opening night drew roughly 40 alumni patrons and felt defined by loyalty and curiosity. It keeps its grit — there’s no working bathroom inside (a communal restroom elsewhere in the station requires a door code), red subway-style lighting, and the claustrophobic basement vibe that once prompted comparisons to Silence of the Lambs — and it’s the kind of place Anthony Bourdain called his favorite bar on Earth and where Jimmy Fallon was a postshow regular. Westmoreland, who calls himself the “minister of propaganda,” runs it like a neighbor’s bar: he prices drinks a dollar less than surrounding places, hires people he knows rather than professional bartenders, often moves furniture to create space, and projects a beefy, intimidating exterior that melts into a gap-toothed smile and bear hugs. It’s unapologetically unpolished — a revived dive-bar ethos that, he says, will only get more Siberian as it’s lived in." - Steve Garbarino