The rags-to-riches tale of Arsemio Salinas is facing last call.
The immigrant owner of legendary East Side dive the Subway Inn might turn off its familiar red neon sign for good this week in a landlord-tenant dispute that he’s unlikely to win.
“I’m going to be sad, because I’ve spent the majority of my life here,” the owner said Saturday as the future of his bar hung in the balance. “This is where I met my wife. It means a lot to me.”
Salinas, 60, and his family are due Wednesday before Manhattan Civil Court Judge Lynn Kotler as they seek a longshot reversal of their eviction — or maybe just a few more months in business.
It won’t just be Salinas mourning the loss of a boozy old-school landmark that opened in 1937, when Joe DiMaggio was playing center field in the Bronx.
Bar lore holds that the Yankee Clipper and wife Marilyn Monroe were among the clientele, which more recently included celebs like ex-Yankees manager Billy Martin and actor Sean Penn.
The doors opened at 10 a.m., and the cost of a cold beer never topped $6.
The World-wide Group, owner of the valuable E. 60th St. property opposite Bloomingdale’s, said the bar’s ironclad lease left the decision on closing time entirely in their hands.
“The bar’s closing should not come as a surprise,” said a statement from the group. “From the time the World-wide Group purchased the site in 2006 . . . it was acknowledged that a development was going to take place at the site.”
The Subway Inn operated on a one-year lease with a 30-day termination option for the last eight years.
If the Salinas clan loses in court, they hope to leave the bar with possession of its classic neon sign and other sentimental bar fixtures.
“The stuff is old — dive-bar old,” said bar lawyer Michael Shapiro. “What’s (World-wide) going to do with it? Sell it to the dive bar antiques store?”
Salinas arrived from Peru in the early 1970s and quickly landed a job as a porter in the now 77-year-old bar.
He worked his way up to bartender and then manager while developing a father-son relationship with owner Charlie Ackerman — a Russian immigrant.
Before the old man’s death in 2007, he passed the bar along to Salinas rather than his own family.
The World-wide Group’s purchase included an agreement allowing Salinas to continue running the beloved neighborhood bar, where Ackerman’s picture still hangs on a wall.
But last month, the Subway Inn was served with its eviction papers. The Salinas family soon launched an effort to save the tavern, hiring an attorney and reaching out to the city Landmarks Preservation Commission.
“We know that this is just the first step in a very long and hard David vs. Goliath fight,” the family said on its Facebook page.
“However, we are confident that in the end justice prevails and the Subway Inn will be spared from the wrecking ball.”
