On July 18, 2024, the night before Neary's poured its last drinks, people lined up on East 57th Street before the 4 p.m. opening. Our Town spoke with a couple who had been coming for 48 years. They came that night for one last lamb-chop dinner. The husband remembered Jimmy Neary as a special presence in the neighborhood, someone he saw almost every day.
Two years later, lamb is back on the menu at 358 East 57th Street. The rack of lamb persillade comes with a side the new menu calls Neary's Mint Jelly. The name on that jar reflects how The Derby Club handled one of Sutton Place's best-known rooms. It kept the original bar and floor plan, and it built a new restaurant around them.
Two years between last call and the first seating
Our Town reported that Neary's opened on St. Patrick's Day in 1967 and closed on Friday, July 19, 2024, after 57 years. By then Jimmy's daughter, Una Neary, was running the pub. She told Grub Street that selling the building was "the right decision, the right time," and that she wanted to leave on top.
The corner took a long time to reopen. Here is how it went, according to local coverage:
| When | What happened at 358 East 57th Street |
|---|---|
| March 17, 1967 | Neary's opens on St. Patrick's Day |
| July 19, 2024 | Neary's last day of business |
| After the closing | The Neary family sells the building to Thomas and Anthony Martignetti for $3.2 million |
| August 2025 | The New York Post reports The Derby Club could open by mid-September 2025 |
| July 2026 | The Derby Club soft-opens |
| August 19, 2026 | Listed opening day |
| October 2026 | Open seven nights a week, with a weekend roast planned for later this year |
The September 2025 target slipped by almost a year. Once the doors did open, things moved faster than planned. The Post's August 2026 review reported that the team didn't intend to open officially until after Labor Day. The neighborhood took to the soft opening so quickly that chef Ed Cotton opened to everyone right away.
The first plan was a modern Neary's
The menu at 358 East 57th Street could easily have been Irish. The Martignetti brothers also own East Pole on East 65th Street. According to the Post's 2025 report, Anthony Martignetti told Community Board 6 at a liquor license hearing the year before that the brothers planned a "modern version of what Neary's was" with an Irish menu.
They changed course and leased the space to Ed Cotton, restaurateur Chris Coco and managing partner Craig Hutson. That group also runs Jack & Charlie's No. 118 in the West Village and Leonetta in Murray Hill. "They came to us after seeing our places and liked what we did," Hutson told the Post.
So the building's owners passed on a straight tribute. They chose a team that would keep the room and rethink everything served in it.
What stayed in the room
Hutson described the approach in the same 2025 Post interview, before construction was finished:
"We kept the classic floor layout. You'll recognize it as the old Neary's."
The finished restaurant lives up to that. Two things carried over directly, and a third honors the old pub:
- The cherrywood bar. Neary's original bar still greets guests at the door.
- Where the bar stands. The Post's review notes that the bar sits exactly where it stood for 57 years, in a rectangular dining room that at first recalls Neary's.
- A book on the shelf. A book about notable New York bars and restaurants is displayed in honor of Neary's, open to a page about the pub.
Past the bar, the room is new. Markets of Tomorrow describes a 38-seat dining room with ruby red banquettes and a chandelier from the original Waldorf Astoria. A mural by Philadelphia's Bird Studio covers the west wall with a landscape of Sutton Place and the East River. The Post describes that mural as 19th-century Sutton Place, painted above white tablecloths. In other words, the new wall art is a picture of the neighborhood outside the door.
What the menu kept, and what it rewrote
Cotton chose a period instead of a cuisine. The restaurant is built around New York dining in the early 1980s. Cotton told DiningOut that he wanted to honor the corner's history "in an unexpected way," and that he pictured "a time when dining out was an event, when restaurants felt more like social clubs."
The menu brings back dishes from that era and reworks them:
- Chicken à la King Pot Pie comes in a crisp puff pastry shell with poached chicken and root vegetables, finished in a chicken broth with crème fraîche and lemon.
- Baked Potato Bourguignon pairs a crisp-skinned potato with red wine–braised beef, bacon, mushrooms and pearl onions. It is finished at the table with whipped horseradish cream.
- Pastrami carved at the bar. Through the evening, a roasted pastrami beef eye round is sliced on the bar for a beef and cheddar sandwich on a warm onion roll.
Steak Diane, Broiled Littleneck Clams Casino, Cottage Pie Croquettes and Potted Chicken Liver Mousse round out the list.
The lamb ties the old menu to the new one. Neary's regulars came for lamb chops on the last nights. The Derby Club serves rack of lamb persillade with Neary's Mint Jelly. In August 2026 the Post listed it at $58 for a half rack and $110 for a full rack, and the critic named it a favorite dish. Of everything on the menu, that plate stays closest to the old pub.
Turnover on the surrounding blocks
The neighbors show how unusual the Neary's handoff was. Two blocks north, at 420 East 59th Street between Sutton Place and First Avenue, Mykonian Garden was a Greek restaurant that had only opened that August when Patch reported in March 2026 that it was being replaced. The new restaurant, Nostos, from co-owners Alina Borys and Stephania Papadopoulos, opened in late March 2026, according to Eater NY. It serves braised classics, wood-fired meats and hand-made pies. That storefront turned over within months of its previous opening.
Some places have lasted. Mr Chow at 324 East 57th Street opened in 1979 and still serves dinner every night. Jean Claude at 1076 First Avenue is open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. for lunch, brunch and dinner. Neary's lasted longer than either. Part of that was the people. Una Neary told Grub Street that one waitress had been there for 57 years, another employee for 45, and a manager for nearly 46. Over the decades, Our Town noted, the room hosted Hugh Carey, Bill Clinton, Michael Bloomberg and both Bush presidents. Michael Bloomberg also recalled to Grub Street a regular New Year's Eve stop with Jimmy after the ball dropped in Times Square.
Those years happened at the same cherrywood bar that greets Derby Club guests today.
Getting a table this fall
As of late October 2026, The Derby Club is open seven days a week. The bar opens at 4 p.m. and dinner starts at 5 p.m. The menu posted on the restaurant's site covers dinner only. Markets of Tomorrow reported on October 23 that a weekend roast will be added later this year, but no start date has been announced. Reservations are on derbyclubny.com. The address is 358 East 57th Street. One August review printed it as 348, but the restaurant and earlier coverage use 358.
The dining room has 38 seats. The bar is at the front, in the same spot as always. Bar service starts an hour before dinner, so a 4 p.m. drink at the cherrywood bar is the closest thing on the block to the old Neary's routine.
Sutton Place homes have something in common with this corner. Much of their value sits in what an owner chose to keep, like original millwork, a layout that works, or a room that buyers recognize as soon as they walk in. If you're wondering what those details are worth in your own co-op or condo, Julio Izquierdo can walk through the numbers with you, in English or Spanish. Get your instant home valuation.
