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A neighborhood institution that has been feeding Upper East Siders for 75 years may be in its final months — and a social media post this week set off alarm bells among its loyal regulars.
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Donohue’s Steak House, the beloved spot at Lexington Avenue and 64th Street that has operated continuously since 1950, announced on Instagram that this weekend will mark its “Final St. Patrick’s Day” — a phrase that drew an outpouring of dismay in the comments.“It would be a huge cultural tragedy if you were to close with no plan for the future on Lexington Avenue,” wrote one Donohue’s patron. “Continuity of places like Donohue’s are rarer and rarer. It would be such a sad shame if you also went to the dustbin of history like so many others have in recent years. Many of us, including those like me not in NYC, would mourn the loss of your departure.”
East Side Feed reached out to the restaurant to ask when, exactly, it plans to close. One employee said he believes the closure will come by the end of the year, as that’s when the lease ends; another said she thinks it will be June. The owners have not yet responded to our inquiry, and we will update this article when they do.
The writing has been on the wall for some time. Last June, Patch reported that third-generation owner Maureen Donohue-Peters was weighing a permanent closure of the UES location when its lease expires, citing safety concerns and a desire to focus on a new venture in the Hamptons. Donohue-Peters opened a second Donohue’s at the site of the former Post Stop Cafe on Main Street in Westhampton Beach, partnering with her niece, Mary Barrie, who manages the Manhattan location.
Donohue’s has long held a reputation as an unofficial clubhouse for both neighborhood regulars and the well-known — a place that felt, as Barrie put it last year, like “a second home” to customers who don’t have family in the city.
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