A Montclair ‘stalwart’: Co-owner of Tierney’s Tavern dies at 52 – NorthJersey.com

A lifelong Montclairite and co-owner of the family run sports pub Tierney’s Tavern, James “Jim” Tierney, died on July 30 at home, at the age of 52.

Tierney’s remains an anchor for the much-lauded Montclair bar scene, an apt metaphor, as the aging Tudor Irish pub so far seems an immovable object in a town that has experienced extensive changes over the past decade. 

Tierney’s has always been a family affair, and for years Jim ran the bar with his brother Bill and other members of the Tierney’s, including Bill’s children.

“Jim was a stalwart,” said former Montclair Council Member At-Large Rich McMahon, who often held court at the tavern and lived across the street from Jim’s ex-wife and children.

On Tuesday afternoon, regulars at Tierney’s recalled the co-owner who would often end his shift by sidling up at the bar with a beer and shot. More than one described him as taciturn but that’s not to say he was unfriendly.

“Reserved but not a wallflower,” was how Bill described his younger brother. He could have a sarcastic wit that was sharp, but always funny.

From 2016: Montclair Times letter, Cathy Tierney: “Remembering Dad”

Jim died of congestive heart failure in his sleep, either late at night on July 29, or in the early morning hours of the 30th, Bill said.

“I was sitting right there a week before [he died],” said Rick Roberti, of Bloomfield, a regular at the bar since the early 1990s, as he motioned to the other corner of the large oblong bar. “He was much too young. It’s hard to believe.”

But for all the times Roberti spent warming a stool and chatting with his barkeep, one night stands out.

For decades, a rumor (or legend) circulated that the bar was haunted.

About seven years ago, the bar allowed a team of ghost hunters to come in after the last of the clientele meandered home, to clear the bar of its revenants.

Roberti sat in the room with Jim, sharing a drink as the real life Ghostbusters recorded what many said were the phantom voices that could be heard after last call.

Now, Bill said he will be listening for the sounds of his brother.

Long-running policy was that all employees, including the owners, had to tend bar and work the kitchen. No one was above the lowliest tasks and Jim tended to his duties with aplomb.

But before long, Jim found his own niche in the family business, taking over booking musical and comedy acts to perform in the tavern’s upstairs bar. The upstairs performance space had been in operation for a long time, but Jim “had the fire to start doing it,” Bill said.

Music was a passion for the bar owner, who taught himself guitar and eventually formed a band, dubbed The Jamesons, both a reference to his name and his favorite order: A Budweiser and a shot of Jameson.

“It depended on who you asked,” Bill said of the band’s namesake.

One of Bill’s fondest memories of his younger brother was when The Jamesons played Tierney’s outdoor music festival. Jim wore a smile all day, his brother recalls.

He booked a variety of acts, but his personal listening habits tended toward classic and southern rock, and the Grateful Dead.

This reporter began his humble career as a beat reporter at the Montclair Times, which was once published out of a small brick building a couple doors down from Tierney’s, where the news staff would often retire for drinks after long days in the office. If an office party or farewell get-together was being planned, the locale wasn’t even discussed. You simply knew where it would be.

Despite growing up in Montclair, on nights I visited the tavern on my own, the tavern’s oldtown vibe and older regulars somehow made this townie feel stripped of his townie stripes.

As I would slowly page through a discarded (and probably days old) edition of the New York Times, Bill would offer me a shot on the cuff to accompany a sweaty bottle of Budweiser and would chat me up about bourbon versus rye.

As Montclair continues to see a renaissance that some would rather label a nuisance, and new developments and national chains replace the dusty mom-and-pop shops that lined the township’s many business districts, Tierney’s remains indistinguishable from the watering hole where I sipped my cheap lager more than 15 years ago.

Despite losing a member of the family, Bill is dedicated to ensuring the bar stays as Jim would remember it.

“That’s our goal,” Bill said, “to be the same bar your grandfather went to.”

The Tierney’s family asks that anyone wishing to show their support makes a donation in James’ name to Jazz House Kids at jazzhousekids.org.

Nicholas Katzban is a breaking news reporter for NorthJersey.com. To get breaking news directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.

Email: katzban@northjersey.com 

Twitter: @nicholaskatzban