This is a great ode and history of an emblematic bar located in neighborhood of  Washington Heights in Manhattan, New York. It details how rooted in New York the establishment was and how important it was to an ever-changing neighborhood.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my gifted finished copy. 

Last Call at Coogan’s details the rise and fall of the Washington Heights neighborhood institution of the same name. As someone who has worked in the service industry for a number of years, I found it interesting to follow along with Coogan’s journey as it became more than just a neighborhood bar. I also liked learning about the sociopolitical climate of New York starting in the mid-1900s and going all the way into the present day. I found this account to be engaging in many ways, and I feel like I learned a lot!

Interesting story of the history of a neighborhood bar and restaurant.    Was a little too dry for my taste but I'm sure everyone will be delighted with the book.

While this book was a little hard to connect to at times (the restaurant biz isn’t really my thing), I enjoyed learning about NYC history and how it related to this bar. 

The research is top notch, and I’m sad that COVID was the straw that broke this camel’s back, because Coogan’s sounds like the kind of place my husband and I would love to visit. 

Thank you to the publisher and Jon for the opportunity to read and learn about Coogan’s.

This book was such a fun read. I really thought this was a fun read and would love to read more by this author. The subject matter was fun.

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect when I started reading Last Call at Coogan's.  While the book's focus is on the much beloved restaurant and bar in NYC's Washington Heights, it's so much more than that.  Author Jon Michaud provides an unvarnished account of this multi-ethnic neighborhood and how Coogan's became a refuge from the violence on the streets to an "institution" that sought to bring a sense of community to so many different cultures and people from all walks of life.  

While Coogan's had a long run as far as NYC's restaurants go, sadly it was no match for Covid and closed permanently in 2020. While I couldn't always keep track of the individuals mentioned in the book, I found Last Call at Coogan's a fascinating read.  

My only regret is that I never got to eat/drink there. 

Thank you to #NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing an electronic ARC of #LastCallAtCoogans.

I’m not normally much of a non fiction reader but I thoroughly enjoyed this little gem! Hearing the interviews from the people who knew Coogan’s best made the bar and those who loved it come to life in my head. 

I really enjoyed the author’s writing style and also really appreciated how, through the stories relating to Coogan’s, the author also managed to delve into some serious, important topics such as race relations, gentrification and the impact of the pandemic. 

Despite never having had the pleasure of visiting Coogan’s myself, thanks to the author I can fully understand why it was so well loved. 

If you’ve ever had a “local” that you loved, I think you’ll appreciate this book too!

4.5 rounded up
Non-fiction that reads like fiction. Story drew me in and the writing was great.  Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

As a midwesterner born and raised, I've never been to Washington Heights, and have only been to lower Manhattan a couple times as a tourist.  When I picked up this book I didn't even know where it was located, it just seemed like a slightly different take on the history/biography genre I've been into lately so I thought I'd give it a try.  Coogan's turned out to be a griping narrative history that I had a hard time putting down!  I learned so much, and I'm so sad that the bar was lost to the pandemic so now I can never visit.  However, while reading I did google some things and discover that their Facebook and Instagram pages are still alive and I had a fun time scrolling back through pictures to put faces to the names, see the bar in all its glory and was especially thrilled to find video evidence of the story about Lin-Manuel Miranda once singing Happy Birthday to a group of diners!  Once finished, I sent them a nice message on Facebook and Tess quickly sent a lovely reply.  It really seems like a great group of people and I hope they're all doing well!

“Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name.” Bars should be special places and Irish Bars, more often than not, are the best places to have a great pint with old or new friends talking politics or listening and singing along. I really enjoyed Michaud’s book, “Last Call at Coogan’s.” Unfortunately, I never had a chance to visit this NYC institution, but this book made it as if I was sitting at the bar. It is not only a great history of this bar, but of NYC and what was happening throughout the 35 years that it was a place that provided a special, important meeting place in Washington Heights. I highly recommend this book if you want to know more about this bar or even the history of NYC.

Thank you to Net Galley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of Last Call at Coogans by Jon Michaud!

Lots of historical information and dates to wade through. I requested this book because I love NYC and I was hoping there would be more references to the city itself. I wasn’t a big fan of the way this book was written but I am grateful that I received an advance copy of this book for review.

An enjoyable tribute to a beloved community institution. I was surprised to discover this bar was located in Washington Heights and especially enjoyed reading about the larger community context of Coogan's.

Wonderful book! It was clearly well research and made for such an easy read.  It felt like talking to a bartender and finding out about the place you are drinking. It is beautifully written, and fascinating.

Thank you to St. Martins Press for my complimentary copy of Last Call a Coogan’s.

A poignant love story to the rise and fall of a beloved neighborhood bar.
I really enjoyed reading about the beginnings of this cherished bar in Washington Heights. Such a shame to have is close during COVID after the neighborhood came together to fight the injustice of the rent increase.
Every neighborhood needs a place where friends and “not friends yet” can meet and forget about their problems for a few hours.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. Slow start but it picks up and becomes a heartfelt story about friendship, family and a community all being part of this long standing establishment.

Covering decades of New York history from the perspective of one neighborhood bar, Last Call at Coogan’s speaks to the growth and change of a community at a very intimate level. It reads like a series of vignettes, showing snapshots of the lives of the owners, employees, regulars, and local partners of a hometown bar in a diverse and rapidly growing section of town. 

It’s entertaining, it’s personal, it’s introspective, and it drives home the need for places and institutions that are driven by a spirit of support, understanding, collaboration, and acceptance. A solid read covering a turbulent period of recent history and some of the colorful, real-life characters that inhabited it. 

Thanks to Jon Michaud, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for my gifted copy. Last Call at Coogan’s is available now!

I really enjoy nonfiction, especially when it reads well like this one. Coogan’s was a neighborhood Irish bar that opened in NYC’s Washington Heights in 1985 and ended up closing as a result of the pandemic in 2020. However, its life was threatened prior to that until local politicians and Lin-Manuel Miranda helped to keep the doors open until 2020. Learning about how this beloved community bar had such an impact on the community, as well as how the bar came to be in the first place was a really fascinating read that I enjoyed. I love bars like this and the people behind them, and while I never had the opportunity to go while in NYC I thought this was was a great read that I definitely recommend.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the digital and advanced copies to review.

Last Call at Coogan's is the story of a neighborhood bar in Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan. It is the story of an independant bar/restaurant doing everything it can to keep up with the neighborhood and it's people. The book is very well researched, and the story is told in a very relatable narrative. It is not simply a dry, academic telling of the history of the bar and the neighborhood.

You get to know the owners and the patrons very well. You root for them, and care for them, and quite frankly end up wanting to visit Coogan's and have a drink with them! This is a story of a changing city, and changing times, and an establishment that did all it could to bring people together and be a safe haven for all. It is sad that so few places like this still exist and that after all that Coogan's did to stay open through thick and thin, the pandemic ultimately caused its demise as well.

This is a great read for anyone interested in the history of NY, and what one establishment can do to truly bring people together.

There’s a lot going on with this book. First I felt part of the story would jump back and forth from the 90’s to the 80s which I understood since the bar opened in 1985. But once you got into the early 2000’s the story would still jump back and forth. My second issue or concern was that to me it seemed as if the people owning the bar or wanting control of the bar had never worked in the restaurant or bar business before. There was one female employee who was a bartender who actually should have been the owner because she knew what she was doing behind the bar and in the back with orders, books, and supplies. The biggest problem with the bar business is alcohol is so expensive and bartenders will steal that, which is why owners are always working or have a hidden camera. Having been in the restaurant business I don’t know how to handle the other issues that they had but there might have been a way, but covid did in many long-time bars and restaurants that did not have enough in the bank or people there to support them. A very interesting book still.