A Beloved UES Bar Is Making A Comeback After Closing A Decade Ago

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY— Ship of Fools, the beloved sports bar that anchored the corner of Second Avenue and East 82nd Street from 1996 to 2012, will once again dock on the Upper East Side, its owner told Patch.

Glenn Treacher, together with his wife, Owen, is reopening Ship of Fools on First Avenue at East 63rd Street and aiming for a January 2027 opening.

The original Ship of Fools — named after a favorite British cartoon — was never meant to be a sports bar, but it opened when the Yankees were in the 1996 playoffs, and it quickly became the neighborhood's communal space to watch, Treacher said.

"The place was absolutely slammed. You couldn't move. At that point, me and my wife looked at each other and just decided we were going to be a sports bar," Treacher said.

Treacher, who is from Wales, said the original bar also became somewhat of a Welsh clubhouse for fellow countrymen passing through.

It continued as a beloved late-night institution until it closed in 2012, when the Second Avenue Subway extension construction made it hard to operate.

Since then, Treacher has had his hands in several different bars, like The Liberty on West 35th Street, which closed in March.

However, for Treacher, reopening Ship of Fools is more than just a place to work. His children, Jack and Emma, are now joining the team.

"With this one, of course, I still want to make money, but it's going to be about getting back to the enjoyment of what the industry can be," Treacher said.

Previous to Ship of Fools, the space on First Avenue and East 63rd Street held Baker Street Irregulars, a bar that closed in July 2025.

Long before it was Baker Street Irregulars, the bar space was the site of the original TGI Fridays, and also where Tom Cruise filmed his movie about a New York City bartender, Cocktail.

"I already knew the place, and it was only 20 blocks away from our original Ship of Fools," Treacher said. "It was like, okay, this is what we're doing. And it's exactly 30 years now since we opened the first one."

The new bar will maintain much of what made the original Ship of Fools so homey — including its chef, Miguel Silverio.

On the menu, expect pub classics like wings, burgers, steaks, pies, fish and chips, and bangers and mash.

However, the family-owned business will make some updates, like cutting back on how many screens are in the space.

"Nowadays, sports bars have too many televisions — everywhere you look is a television," Treacher said. "I'll have a few so that if there's a major event on, we can show it, but I don't want the televisions on all the time just to see people talking about sports."

Treacher also said he was planning to offer space to neighborhood groups for meetings.

"We'd like to have more of an atmosphere, and we'd like it to be a place where you can talk. It's a space for the neighborhood," he said.

Ship of Fools will be located at 1152 First Ave.

Know of a business opening or closing on the Upper East Side? Email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.