Penn Station's most famous watering hole poured its first pints back on home turf Thursday, as Tracks Raw Bar & Grill officially reopened inside the terminal after nearly seven years away. The ceremony inside the station came complete with a Franciscan priest blessing the bar's beer taps with holy water before MTA and LIRR brass raised glasses of Guinness to mark the occasion.
According to Bloomberg, Tracks first opened in the basement of Penn Station back in 2003 and built a loyal following among commuters before closing in 2019 during renovation of the Long Island Rail Road concourse. During construction, the bar relocated to a nearby street-level spot to keep serving riders while the station was torn apart around it. Per Newsday, Rev. Brian J. Jordan of the Church of St. Francis of Assisi performed Thursday's blessing at the concourse bar, while MTA Chair Janno Lieber and LIRR President Rob Free joined in the toast.
A Bigger, Brighter Home Near Tracks 18 and 19
The bar's return wasn't sudden. Newsday's reporting notes that Tracks soft-reopened in August within a new concourse location near the 1, 2 and 3 subway lines, ahead of Thursday's formal ceremony. The new space was designed to replicate the original bar's dark wood and railroad-car look, giving longtime regulars a sense of familiarity inside an otherwise transformed station.
That transformation is significant. The LIRR concourse reconstruction that forced Tracks out in the first place widened Penn Station's main 33rd Street corridor from 30 feet to 57 feet and raised ceiling heights from under 7 feet in some spots to 18 feet, according to the New York State Governor's Office. Penn Station serves more than 600,000 people daily, with more than half passing through the LIRR concourse. The overall modernization of the LIRR concourse cost $559 million, with general contractor Skanska reaching substantial completion on the primary corridor overhaul in 2023, the same Newsday report notes.
Displacement, Then a Foothold in Two Terminals
Tracks was one of ten station businesses forced to shutter over Labor Day weekend in September 2019 after receiving eviction notices from transit authorities, according to 6sqft. Those vacate orders cleared the way for construction of a new entrance at 33rd Street and 7th Avenue. Owner Bruce Caulfield kept the brand alive by moving operations to street level at 220 West 31st Street, a space that had previously housed the Cafe 31 sports bar across from Madison Square Garden.
That West 31st Street location isn't closing now that the concourse bar has reopened. Newsday reports it will instead rebrand as O'Briens under former business partners, leaving Caulfield's Tracks brand focused on its transit-hub locations. Caulfield had already expanded that footprint in September 2025 by opening Tracks Raw Bar & Grill inside Grand Central Madison, making it the first restaurant tenant to operate inside the East Side terminal, per 6sqft.
Rent, Build-Out Costs, and What's Next for Penn Station
The Grand Central Madison venture came with real financial commitments. Under a 2024 agreement with the MTA, Tracks signed a 10-year lease paying $216,000 in base first-year rent plus 12% of gross sales exceeding $2.5 million, according to 6sqft's reporting on the lease.
Penn 1 and Penn 2 are part of a connected commercial office campus with improved station entrances. Looking further ahead, Amtrak and transit officials unveiled renderings in June for an estimated $8 billion transformation of Penn Station, aiming to expand public circulation space by 165% starting in 2027, according to CBS News. That proposal includes removing the Madison Square Garden theater to make way for soaring, daylight-filled concourses, raising fresh questions about how future construction will handle vendor displacement across the station.
