P. J. Clarke's
P. J. Clarke's is a saloon, established 1884. It occupies a building located at 915 Third Avenue on the northeast corner of East 55th Street in Manhattan. It has a second location at 44 West 63rd Street on the southeast corner of Columbus Avenue. History. The bar was once owned by a Patrick J. Clarke, an Irish immigrant who was hired in the early 1900s by a Mr. Duneen who ran the saloon. After about ten years working for him Clarke bought the bar and changed the name. The building is a holdout and is  surrounded by 919 Third Avenue, a 47-story skyscraper. Clarke's former owners, the Lavezzo brothers, signed a deal in which the building housing the saloon was sold for $1.5 million and a 99-year lease was signed with Tishman Realty and Construction. However, due to financial reverses the Lavezzos were forced to sell their interest to a consortium, which includes George Steinbrenner, Timothy Hutton, and others. Prior to his arrest in 2008, Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, whose offices were located near to the bar, was also an investor. The building was originally a four-story structure. It lost  the top two floors when the skyscraper went up in the late 1960s. On the second floor there is now a separate upstairs bar/restaurant called Sidecar, which offers a more formal dining experience. There are two locations in Brazil. Its first location outside the U.S. opened on November 7, 2008, in São Paulo, Brazil, as a partnership with local entrepreneur Maria Rita Pikielny Marracini. Notable visitors. The bar has catered to a number of notables over the years: Reviews. In 2013, "Zagats" gave it a food rating of 18.