SAG HARBOR

Murf’s Changes Hands, Funkiness Remains

By Taylor K. Vecsey

Morgan McGivern Those who frequent Murf’s Backstreet Tavern in Sag Harbor need not worry. Even though it was recently sold, the place won’t change.

(05/24/2007)    After nearly 31 years, Tom Murphy has sold Murf’s Backstreet Tavern in Sag Harbor. Jay Hamel of North Haven said the bar would stay just as it is — from the old plank floors to the worn wood bar, from the pirate ring-toss game to the picture on the wall of Mr. Murphy as a New York City motorcycle policeman, when he was the first to cross the new Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in 1964.

    Mr. Hamel’s line of thinking: “If it isn’t broke, why fix it?” Even the name won’t change. “If I put out Jay’s Place, no one knows me,” Mr. Hamel said at the bar Tuesday morning.

    Mr. Murphy will remain a familiar face at the Division Street tavern in the shadow of the Sag Harbor Village Police Station. He will stay on as somewhat of a consultant to help Mr. Hamel learn the business. On Tuesday morning, Mr. Murphy even beat the new owner to the dimly lit establishment, which he bought in 1976, unlocked the old red door, and let in a jukebox repairman.

    Murf’s is the longest-running one-owner bar on the East End, according to Mr. Murphy. He has “mixed feelings” about giving up proprietorship, but said that it was time for him to slow down. He said he was glad to see that the bar would stay a bar in the midst of all the redevelopment in the village.

    Timing played a role in the transaction. Mr. Hamel, who spends summers in Sag Harbor, worked for 17 years in the pharmaceutical industry, and at 44 he was ready for a change. Corporate America “was terrible for my personality,” he said.

    Although his bartending experience was limited to his college years, he said he was attracted to the “un-Hampton” saloon. He plans to keep the same five employees. “Whatever they say, I’ll do. I’m here to learn.”

    In a press release about the sale, Mr. Hamel said that “the transition will be seamless,” and even said the “cobwebs we’ve had in here for over 200 years” would be untouched.

    The previous owner was “gracious,” Mr. Hamel said Tuesday, in lending his expertise and advice on running a successful bar without pretension in light of the pricier bars and restaurants lining Main Street. Mr. Murphy lives across the street from Mr. Hamel’s parents in Noyac.

    Mr. Hamel would not say how much he paid for the one-and-a-half-story saltbox, which might have been built as early as 1790. The building was a private residence until 1975, when the zoning was changed to commercial and it became Tinker Alley, a lesbian bar that some say was ahead of its time. A sign by that name hanging on the wall serves as a reminder of the building’s past.

    And what about the ghost of Murf’s, who has been blamed for noise in the attic and things inexplicably falling over? Perhaps she will remain too. Mr. Murphy has got on with her well over the past 30 years.

    “She’s a good girl,” he said. “She’s very benign.”