How a dive bar in a glamorous beach town got a second chance
Last spring, Liar’s Saloon, one of the last no-frills watering holes in Montauk, the rapidly developing resort town at the tip of Long Island’s East End, looked like it was gone for good. The family business had just closed and the old owners were ready for a change.
“When it closed, the locals almost saw it as a lost way of life,” said Jennifer Fowkes, the executive director of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce.
Residents cackled that another chic lounge or hotel would replace it as the hamlet, with its rustic fishing village roots, continued its whirlwind evolution from casual surfer hangout to glamorous hot spot. “Every day there was a new rumor,” Ms Fowkes said. “It was everything from ‘They’re knocking down Liars to build luxury apartments’ to ‘The owners of from Gurney make it exclusive’ to ‘Liar’s isn’t really closing’.
That last rumor eventually turned out to be true. A local couple, Hali Devlin and Phil Baigent, along with Mrs. Devlin’s mother, Eileen Devlin, 62, plan to reopen Liar’s as it was, with nothing more than a fresh coat of paint, some new gravel in the parking lot, and a new name.
“We think people will probably still call it Liar’s,” Hali Devlin said. “We did that for a long time.”
There’s a reason for that: The 600-square-foot bar, part of a marina on Montauk’s harbor, was something of a salty, storied institution.
“It was like the Montauk old guard,” said Brian Lee, 38, a commercial fisherman who now operates out of New Bedford, Massachusetts. “It was where all the fishermen hung out,” he said, recalling the dollar rush and generous mudslides. “We could get a little crazier there than in a normal bar,” he continued. “It would be like taking 20 cowboys from the 1800s and putting them in a bar today. We were like wild pirates.”
For Hali Devlin, 29, who grew up in Montauk, and Mr. Baigent, 39, a fisherman, it was personal to take over Liar’s – and keep its traditions alive. For starters, the Devlin family owns it Salivars Clam & Chowder House, a harborside restaurant and another old-fashioned Montauk abode. But Liar’s is also where Mrs. Devlin used to hang out, and where she and Mr. Baigent, who knew each other from all over town, met and fell for each other.
“I used to put quotes around the word ‘with’,” she said with a laugh. “It was one of those quintessential nights out at Liar’s.”
The bar is now called Marlena’s Pack Out, as the new owners do not have the legal right to the old name. Marlena’s is the name of the marina where the bar is, and “pack out” is a fishing term, referring to fishermen unloading their catch.
Marlena’s Pack Out is waiting for the liquor license to open. But when it does, customers will find the same wooden bar and metal stools and the same photos – usually of local fishermen and patrons holding their catch. Frozen pizza and mudslides remain on the menu. Unlike many bars in Montauk, there’s no cover charge and no “$21 dollar cocktails,” Ms. Devlin said.
Many of the bartenders will be the same as before. “Many of the bartenders are really good friends,” she said. “We all have many fond memories of the old bar and we are all happy to come back.”
Mr. Lee is looking forward to returning with some of his fishing buddies. “My family lives in Noyack, so I end up there a few times every summer, and I’m definitely going to have a mudslide,” he said. “It felt like home for some of us. I like it coming back.”
Some of the younger folks drawn to Montauk’s flashier and Instagram-friendly venues have expressed interest in stopping by to pay their respects.
“I always associated Montauk with Surf Lodge,” says Megan Eberly, 26, who works at a public relations firm in Manhattan, referring to Montauk’s celebrity-clad live music venue, which opened in 2008. But the more she talked to people who lived there, she said, the more she discovered that Liar’s, which had been around for more than twice as long, was more representative of the beach town before it lit up.
For Ms. Devlin, everyone is welcome, especially the Liar’s regulars, she said, adding that she feels the pressure to bring back a place that so many love.
“Every time we leave the house, everyone keeps asking, ‘When does it open?'” she said. “I’m like, ‘Please stop asking. We’re more concerned than you about having it open.