Inside 1020 Bar
On Thursday, November 4, the Columbia Spectator released an explosive report detailing a litany of allegations collected from former female bartenders of 1020 Bar, a popular Columbia University hangout on the corner of West 110th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.
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In the story, Barnard student Riley Callanan recalled the time she was interviewed by one of the bar’s owners, Michael McKiernan, in his apartment above the bar. Callanan first sat in a chair but was allegedly “pressured” by McKiernan to sit next to him on his couch as he tried to get her to drink. Callanan noted how the conversation immediately became inappropriate, as McKiernan told her he was against the #MeToo movement.
Callanan claims the interview lasted three hours – 70% of which consisted of McKiernan telling sex stories. Needing money, Callanan still took the job. She told the Spectator she worked at 1020 Bar for two years and “suffered constant harassment” from McKiernan, including the time he asked her to come upstairs to his apartment to get ingredients for a drink; she says that when she got to his door, McKiernan greeted her in nothing but his underwear.
“Almost all the former bartenders interviewed by Spectator discussed having similar experiences. Many alleged that McKiernan emphasized that he hired young Columbia students in an attempt to bring more underage women through the door. They also described being shown McKiernan’s bedroom, where he kept over a dozen cameras across from his bed displaying footage of the bar downstairs,” the Spectator reports.
Another former bartender named Sara told the publication that her interview was essentially McKiernan eyeballing her and asking, “When was the time you realized you were pretty?” – adding that McKiernan said he hired college students because “he’s sexually attracted to [them].” Sara also claims to have received a “slew of angry messages from McKiernan” in which he asked why a man had left her a Secret Santa present at the bar, then making her pick it up in his apartment.
Over and over were stories of alleged inappropriate behavior by McKiernan. A source named Taylor claimed that bartenders were taught to expose themselves to earn better tips at the bar – while Callanan says she was told bartenders weren’t allowed to have boyfriends because McKiernan saw “all of the girls that work there as his girlfriend.” She also told the Spectator that McKiernan was calling her every night following her interview to confirm she’d broken up with her high school boyfriend – while telling her how “sexy” she looked in Facebook photos he had found of her high school prom.
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“Callanan described how McKiernan told her 1020 would host a fundraiser for a Columbia club she was a member of, on the condition she eat dinner with him in his apartment. Following dinner, Callanan tried to leave McKiernan’s apartment, but she alleges he said that the fundraiser would not be allowed to happen unless she ‘stayed all night.’ After she left, he refused to give her permission to host the fundraiser at the bar,” wrote the Spectator.
With reports of inappropriate behavior swirling around female bartenders at 1020, the alleged victims say the bar’s co-owner, Gene Steinhart, didn’t make any “real attempts” to stop the continued abuse. They added that once Steinhart handed over scheduling duties to McKiernan, bartenders were required to cover for those who cancelled – alleging that McKiernan would threaten to withhold their shifts the following week if they didn’t change their schedules. Many of these requests allegedly came just hours before the shifts were supposed to begin.
Columbia student Madison Andrus told the Spectator that McKiernan “used his newfound responsibility over scheduling as a way to get attention from people, especially [girls]. You basically had to be here to suck up to him … not just [to] get a good shift, but to work at all.”
It’s been alleged that McKiernan would call down to bartenders multiple times a day to correct them for things. If they didn’t answer the phone, McKiernan would allegedly “spam” their phones with agitated messages until they responded. “He liked correcting me a lot, bossing me around, telling me I’m doing something wrong when I’m obviously not,” Bess, another former bartender, told the paper.
Bartenders additionally allege that they were expected to look at pictures of McKiernan’s “sugar babies” and “sex workers” on his phone. These photos allegedly portrayed women in bondage gear, naked, or performing sexual acts on themselves – and when bartenders confronted Steinhart, they were apparently told there was nothing he could do to make McKiernan stop.
“It feels almost like it’s a running joke: ‘There goes Michael being Michael again, hitting on an 18-year-old girl and making her feel sexually uncomfortable,’ another accuser told the Spectator.
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Columbia Spectator states that Madison Andrus provided them with a recording in which Steinhart admits to knowing that misconduct had been taking place for decades but that McKiernan was “incapable of changing,” and that there was nothing Steinhart felt he could do about it. “The most anxiety-producing part of my last 25 years with this f*cker [McKiernan] is dealing with his inappropriate behavior. It’s been since day one,” he apparently said in the recording.
Bartenders also reported feeling unsafe and unprotected at 1020 Bar, being harassed by regulars with less than adequate support from the bouncers. One reported incident involved bartender Bess, mentioned above, who was tipped $100 then allegedly grabbed by a customer who would not stop lunging at her from over the bar. Bouncers reportedly refused to help her – and she claims that McKiernan said she “should have known better” to keep the tip, because the customer was attempting to buy more than drinks. Steinhart and McKiernan allegedly told Bess she had made matters worse, and the customer apparently become more aggressive because she called a man for help.
Bartenders claim conditions worsened when the pandemic hit, with McKiernan becoming more openly racist and sexually explicit.
“The bar was just getting run into the ground. [McKiernan] became a lot more overt with his racism during COVID, basically saying that he didn’t want Black people playing at the pool table when he was opening it for other people. He didn’t want Black people hanging around and drinking outside and [in] the outdoor dining area,” Andrus told the Spectator. Numerous bartenders reported how McKiernan was intentionally less hospitable to Black patrons and made stereotypical remarks. “We don’t serve Hennessy. We don’t want it to attract those kinds of people,” Andrus claims McKiernan told her.
Multiple bartenders report that McKiernan also held ill will towards Asians and the Chinese community, saying Chinese people were “ruining the neighborhood.” During a COVID-19 trivia night held at 1020 Bar, McKiernan allegedly played East Asian music. “When COVID happened, [McKiernan’s racism] turned to Chinese people. He also always thought the Chinese were coming to destroy the country, and Columbia was letting in too many Chinese people,” Callanan said.
After the Spectator story was released, 1020 Bar’s Google page was altered to show the article as the bar’s official website.
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ILTUWS visited 1020 Bar at 4pm on Friday, November 5. While we didn’t find either of the owners, we did witness a male bartender take a phone call in which taking down the “hacked” (his words) website was discussed, though he was too busy working to do it at the time. Once he was off the phone, he yelled “idiot!” which we believe was directed to whomever was on the other line.
When we asked the bartender if we could discuss the allegations with him, he simply said “The stories I could tell you about this place …” but the current business of the bar would preclude him from doing so. We said we would come back.
We returned on Saturday, November 6 at about 4:30pm – to find the bar closed despite the hours of “4pm-4am daily” being posted on the door. We stuck around the neighborhood and a little after 6pm, noticed owner Michael McKiernan posting signs on the windows which read “Vacation. Finally. After two years of work! Over 85 hours a week for 51 weeks. I am going on vacation. Tim will take over while I work on my sailboat. The bar will reopen on Friday, November 12 at 4pm.”
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We asked McKiernan if we could interview him to discuss the allegations. He told us he was now on vacation and would only give us an interview if we waited for him to come back on November 12 (making clear that he would only speak with us if we didn’t write anything until then).
Michael McKiernan
We pressed him to speak with us right away, as this story wasn’t going on vacation with him. McKiernan’s response was that a “woman” sued him because he wouldn’t sell her the bar and that the judge threw out the lawsuit. McKiernan claimed that this woman was mad and was out to get him, but with the judge having thrown out the case, there was no story. McKiernan then proceeded to walk away and told us we could not walk with him as he’s on vacation.
We’re unclear about the connection between the above described lawsuit and the various allegations against McKiernan, but we’ve followed up by email for further clarification.
We’ve also reached out to Columbia University which has yet to respond.
In 2013, 1020 Bar was fined $1,500 fined for underage drinking in a police sting.
All of Columbia should show its solidarity as well as their Upper West Side neighbors and residents by boycotting this place. Boycott it until the owner sells. It’s that simple. Do not frequent the establishment and that will close it down.
Columbia men support your Columbia and Barnard peers and avoid this place like the plague. This was a disgusting display of sexist, illegal, deviant behavior.
Call me old school if I’m not in lockstep with todays cancel culture, but I spent a good part of my life working in the restaurant industry as a bartender and chef. In places all over Manhattan including the upper west side. There’s lots of layers. Lots of sides. I’d sometimes see a new waitress working a Saturday night shift, knowing she hasn’t worked her way up, and ask who she was? And someone would say the owners or managers new girlfriend etc. If you don’t think these arrangements are a 2 way street, you don’t understand the way of the world. It’s amazing how girls want to come forward in these stories after years. If a crime was committed, then go to the police or sue him in court, I’m so tired of reading allegations and slander.
I also worked for decades in that industry and saw similar, but what blows my mind is that you seem to have come out of that experience thinking this setup is good, or at least somehow justified because a few people that are forced to operate in that system choose to use it to extract benefits? How about just setting up workplaces where you don’t have to sleep with the boss to get good shifts? People who “worked their way up” as you say would be treated more fairly and employees wouldn’t feel the pressure to sleep with their boss. As for reading about it, you don’t have to read anything. But it’s worth noting that many court cases and criminal cases do start with reporting just like this shining a light on some previously unseen problem or injustice. Just wait, lawsuits and/or a court case on this may be forthcoming.
It’s astounding that an old unattractive pervert thinks he’s a sex God. How he remains in business is beyond me, and why anyone would frequent this place is beyond me.
As a bar/restaurant owner on the upper west side, I’m appalled yet not surprised by this article. Unfortunately, i have been hearing these rumors of exploitation(amongst many other things) for years and I am guilty myself of not speaking up for the better of my community. This isn’t about cancel culture, its about a series of abuses at one particular establishment. Given most of their clientele is largely underage college and even high school students, they should have been shut down years ago. This place has been a long-standing disgrace to the neighborhood and I can’t imagine anyone feeling any loss if they shutter.
More importantly, we must acknowledge sexual exploitation has plagued our industry since it inception. Its a difficult problem to manage, given the social aspect of the job, but not impossible. Thats why more then most workplaces, there needs to be more of a focus on sexual harassment and inappropriate actions.
We have a zero tolerance policy, no matter gender, age, color or sexual orientation. No employee should ever feel they need to weigh their job against any unwanted advances, or discriminatory behavior. The best way to get the best work from an employee is to give them the tools and support to be their best. Its amazing how hard people will work for you when they have your respect rather then fear. May cost you some staff, and even some regular customers, but as the boss you control the narrative in your establishment. Furthermore, As leaders of our community , we have to set the standard instead of pointing fingers. We don’t need to cancel the culture; just change it
Agree B. Although a few of us HAVE been raising concerns where we can (NYPD, Electeds, etc) apparently there’s not much that could be done because most of the concerns could be dismissed as rumors, despite experiencing some of it first hand myself. Now that these brave women have gone on record with specifics and details, I really hope this doesn’t just fade away and become old news. This place has so much potential but as someone who has been in the industry for years and talked to him about ways to grow his business, it is clear that he has no desire to expand his clientele to anyone other than young students who can be easily exploited. He is a bully and regularly intimidates other neighbors. He talks in circles, contradicting himself in the same monologue. He knows a little about a lot of topics and can say things with such confidence and certainty that one starts to question their own understanding of the facts.
I have encountered Michael McKiernan at the 1020 bar one day during 2021 and I confirm from my interaction with him that he is a predator who likes to exploit young vulnerable women as he attempted to target me. Michael McKiernan & Gene Steinhart need to be investigated and charged. We need to protect these women and everyone in between.
As a former employee of this vile man, and his enabling and negligent partner, I can attest that Michael McKiernan is a predator, a racist and should be in jail. The things he has done, only a fraction of which are detailed in these articles, are not only disgusting, but illegal. It is deeply disturbing that he has been allowed to operate with impunity and profit off of his toxic and harmful behavior for this many years. When I tried to get Gene Steinhart to intervene, as had a number of employees, I was told there was nothing he could do, and that’s just who Michael is. Gene is complicit in the abuse of his employees and should be incredibly ashamed of himself, but, I guess money speaks louder than dozens and dozens of young women reporting gross misconduct. When I spoke to the police, I was similarly told that there was nothing they could do, because “no crime had been committed.” Working as a bartender has unfortunately long meant that lecherous harassment is just something you have to endure, and if you don’t like it, best find another job. I hope one of these days these men are held accountable, unfortunately, I’m not holding my breath.
“One of Many” I would very much like to speak to you about your experience. Pls Email: brooklynsmokeshop8@gmail.com
oh, he’s alright. Just a real “hands on” kind of boss. the game is dont mess up and he wont bother you. Also he’s not special. You can walk away from anybody.