Manitoba's - Handsome Dick Manitoba

HEY GANG,

HANDSOME DICK MANITOBA here…

My deepest own personal condolences to the death of the extension of my living room… the end of my clubhouse known as MANITOBA’S BAR.

There are so many deaths in life beside the ultimate one.

Each one takes a little piece out of us.

Each time we experience something that we love and it goes away, it’s another little chunk of life taken away from us.

It is in essence, a death of some sort..

At my age, we don’t hang out at pizzerias anymore.

We don’t hang out at schoolyards anymore.

We hang out at bars.

And to the people from all over the world, especially western Europe and all over America, I’m sorry I couldn’t keep the bar going longer.

Just last week, there were six people from England having a great time, talking about how their friends and their hometown mates love this bar.

It was one of Jimmy Fallon’s favorite bars, it was one of Drew Carey’s favorite bars, Tom Morello LOVED Manitoba’s… the Sopranos were known to stop by from time to time.

I never went to the newspapers with the stars that came into the bar. This bar was so iconic that we didn’t have to wave our flag to the media.

I always thought word-of-mouth was cooler anyway…

There are so many places called “bar” in New York City and if they closed, people wouldn’t give a shit … there is rarely a passion or a sadness when people’s average, generic bar closes…

They will go to the next “bar” and the next “bar”.

Folks came in and expressed the love and the passion that they felt about the bar… it gave me great joy, nachas in Yiddish, of having a bar that felt like it was something SPECIAL… like I created something that COUNTED… After all, you can sell anything…. what I tried to sell was atmosphere, spirit, history, and hopefully, a special New York City camaraderie.

An endless amount of people would come up to me, look me in the eye and say: “please keep this bar open”.

It meant so much to them.

In a neighborhood I have been hanging out in and living in for 50 years…

A neighborhood, whose culture I have known intimately for many of those 50 years, has now died, for the most part, as we know it.

I can honestly say I feel I did my part to keep OUR culture alive.

“It felt like home, it was unpretentious and relaxing and cool”. IT meant so much to THEM. I can’t tell you how many dozens and dozens of emails I’ve gotten ALREADY. Each one with a specific story about what MANITOBA’S meant to them, during their visits.

So in essence,

Like I helped create THE DICTATORS …like I helped create THE DICTATORS NYC …like I helped create MANITOBA’S WILD KINGDOM …like I helped create the HANDSOME DICK MANITOBA radio program on Sirius XM Satellite radio….

I created a unique bar: MANITOBA’S. That meant something to people and that will give them great memories… and for that, I am proud and grateful.

As far as all the haters go…

You are what’s known as keyboard gangsters.

It’s all good
It’s all good

AND….

A 95% positive rating after 20 years makes me feel a lot better than your anger and your hatred.

NOW

HATERS, GO AWAY!

I will continue to live the creative, productive life I have always cherished.

I also have the joy and love filling my heart I get from taking care of my son, JAKE.

I will put the same love, energy and passion I had with MANITOBA’S into every single thing I do in my life.

I will mail nothing in, whether it be a recording artist, songwriter, live performer, radio DJ, podcaster, author, etc.