'Lin-sanity' keeps NYC sports bars packed
Andy Keung, right center, and others cheer at Nom Wah Tea Parlor in Chinatown at the end of KNicks game during an MSG-sponsored party. (February 15, 2012) Credit: Craig Ruttle
The Knicks aren't the only ones winning with Jeremy Lin -- so are New York's sports bars.
Lin, the sensational point guard who has led the team to seven straight wins, is drawing droves of fans and even non-Knicks fans to the city's watering holes for a chance to experience "Lin-sanity."
"He's great for beer sales. Everyone loves somebody who was a nobody," Michael McNamee, owner of The Mean Fiddler, a midtown sports bar, said Wednesday night. "This is the most hype I have seen about the Knicks in six years."
As the Knicks prepared to host the Sacramento Kings at Madison Square Garden that evening, McNamee walked around the bar, switching the televisions to the game. Lin, 23, a Harvard graduate, had a career-best 13 assists in the Knicks' 100-85 win that night.
McNamee estimated that since Lin's breakout performance Feb. 4 against the New Jersey Nets, his gametime customer base has swelled by 40 percent.
"Right now is a slow time in sports and this is dragging everyone back in," said McNamee, who has owned the West 47th Street bar for six years.
While McNamee gets the game through DirectTV, millions of others are missing Lin's dazzling play on their home televisions because of a blackout, the result of a dispute that began Jan. 1 between Time Warner Cable and the MSG Network.
Steps away from the Garden, where Lin was picking apart the Kings, customers packed a row of bars after many of them failed to get tickets because of soaring demand to see the phenom.
"We had tables of people who came in just to watch the game. I think this is mostly because they're not televised anymore," said Lauren Liberman, 31, manager of Feile, a bar on West 33rd Street that features a "Lin-burger" special during Knicks games.
Nearby at Stout NYC, manager Tara Tingquist doubted whether the cable spat was the reason for the surge in fans.
"People want to come out to be at bars and be part of the great atmosphere with other fans," she said as the entire bar erupted into cheers as the Knicks scored.
At the Fiddler's bar, Pranay Butail, 28, a banker from Manhattan, and his co-worker, Mark Tenpas, 26, nursed a couple of beers and watched the game.
"About three weeks ago, I was in here, I wasn't even paying attention," said Butail. "Now, I'm here exclusively for the game."
Back at Stout, two fans from Hoboken, N.J., in blue and orange Knicks jerseys, watched the game, the remnants of their food and beers on the table.
"It's electric," said Steve Altieri, 26, who couldn't get Knicks tickets. "It was hard just to get in. This is becoming an event. But with Jeremy Lin, every game is an event."
"You're so dramatic," said his fiancee, Andrea Mazzullo, 27.
"I'm serious!" he insisted. "When basketball tickets for Wednesday are going for more than Giants tickets on a Sunday, that's impressive."
