Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order, Ceases Eviction Proceedings Against Subway Inn

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A small victory was won Tuesday for the owners of an iconic Upper East Side bar.

A judge has issued a temporary restraining order and stopped eviction proceedings by developers against The Subway Inn which opened 77 years ago on East 60th Street.

The bar has been run by Marcello Salinas and his family for the past 40 years.

The developer, The World-Wide Group, decided not to offer the bar a new lease and wants Salinas and his patrons out, WCBS 880's Alex Silverman reported.

The family started a petition to save the bar and called on Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission Executive Director Kate Daly to step in.

"On behalf of my entire family, I cannot express the immense gratitude that I feel for all New Yorkers that stood up and joined our fight to save our home,"Steve Salinas said in a statement Tuesday. "Today's New York City's Civil Court decision, which granted a temporary restraining order and ceased all eviction proceedings, comes because of the hard work and determination of a group of New Yorkers and Lawmakers that aren't afraid to stand up for what is right. We know that this is just the first step in a very long and hard David Vs. Goliath Fight; however, we are confident that in the end justice prevails and the Subway Inn will be spared from the wrecking ball."

World-Wide owns much of the block where the bar is, across the street from Bloomingdale's. The real estate developer hasn't announced plans for the area but is constructing residential buildings elsewhere in the city. The Salinas family says the company plans to build luxury condos there.

In a statement issued last week, The World-Wide Group said the Salinas family has known about the plans for years.

"Subway Inn has been part of the landscape of this community for many years," the developer said. "However, the bar's closing should not come as a surprise.  From the time that the World-Wide Group purchased the site in 2006 from William Ackerman and agreed to allow the Salinas family to operate the bar, it was acknowledged that a development was going to take place at the site. Over the past eight years, the bar's operators have continued to sign one year leases with a 30 day termination option, each time recognizing that the site would eventually be used for development."

"We're going to fight in in court and we believe that justice will prevail and The Subway Inn will be spared from the wrecking ball," Salinas told 1010 WINS.

The Subway Inn once served Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio.

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