O'Connor's Bar to Be Ruined

I knew changes were afoot for O'Connor's, the wonderful old dive bar on Fifth Avenue at the edges of Park Slope. The last time I was there I heard the regulars grumbling about how the new owner was going to "improve" the place and make it more acceptable to the kind of people who like to rent bars for parties and receptions and such.

But I had no idea how devastating the changes would be. How, after they were done, O'Connor's wouldn't be O'Connor's any more, but something completely different and far blander.

The blog Here's Park Slope talked to owner Mike Maher, who bought the 80-year-old bar three years ago. He said the beautiful old bar will be expanded to at least three times' its original size (goodbye coziness!), with the addition of a huge back room, a kitchen serving the usual Irish far like fish and chips, burgers and such, and a second floor with an outdoor beer garden. There will also be a stage for live music (goodbye twilight-like, dive-bar silence).

"We're modernizing the room, but a priority is to keep the old look," Mayer told the blog. "We'll be saving the bar and the booths and as much of the room as we can, but the seats will be replaced, because they're falling apart. If we want to serve food, we have to bring it up to code." He added, "That O'Connor's brand, the O'Connor's feeling, that's not going anywhere."

Brand?

I'm doubtful. It sounds like O'Connor's is just going to become another run-of-the-mill Irish pub. Same kind of food, same "live music" program, same upstairs space for large parties, same, same, same. I supposed the great old bathrooms with be cleaned up, and the wooden telephone booth ripped out.  I loved that O'Connor's was just a bar, didn't have food besides those little bags of chips you could buy. I loved that it only had a jukebox, and a good one, too. I loved that it wasn't party central, but more an insulated retreat from the harsh world. 

This City has declared war on the dive bar.

What's That Thing on Top of O'Connor's?

As has been reported earlier on this blog, the classic Brookyn dive O'Connor's (est. 1931) has been in the process of being ruined for a year or so now. The new owner said last year that he planned to expand the bar, add a big back room, crank out some fish and chips and other pub fare, add a stage for music and a second floor with beer garden.

Well, I guess that ugly white carbuncle plunked down on top of the black-painted bar is the beer garden.  Beauty. I wonder if it ever occurred to the owner that people come to O'Connor's because it's O'Connor's, not because it's a family joint or a hip youth mecca; or that, if people want to go to a modern beer garden, they now have about four dozen options in the city, including some good ones in Park Slope, and probably won't choose O'Connor's?

The inside, meanwhile, still looks basically the same, except that it's been noticeably cleaned up—not a dust speck anywhere—the old wooden phone booth is gone (*sob*) and a television has been added, piercing the one-time dive-bar silence. (I don't have a picture because you just don't take a picture of the interior of a dive bar full of barflies. It's not done.)

One thing that hasn't been changed, I'm happy to say, is the impossibly old and decrepit men's bathroom. I'm including a couple pictures here, not to gross anybody out, but because I'm fascinated by the wear and tear the old tile floor in the restroom has endured. The half-door into the stall, and the paper towel hung on a pipe are also nice touches.

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O'Connor's, Classic Brooklyn Dive, Closes—for Renovations?

What happened?

I knew that times were a-changing over at O'Connor's, the 81-year-old Fifth Avenue dive bar. The Park Slope fixture had been bought by a new owner, who was slowly "improving" the old tavern, adding televisions, a big back room,  a food program and a rooftop addition meant to house a beer garden. It was all very un-O'Connor's. The appeal of the bar had always been its old-world decrepitude and timeless feel. There was a wonderful silence to the place and, if you didn't like quiet, a great juke box.

Well, now, it's just plain closed, according to Here's Park Slope. Apparently, work has reached such a point that the joint has to close down in order to complete it. The staff has been let go and the phone lines shut down. If it does reopen, expect a cleaner, more respectable bar. In short, a different bar. Hopefully, the owner won't touch the old bar and booths.

O'Connor's Has an Awning Problem

Did the classic Park Slope dive O'Connor's lose its awning in the recent three-day blow that unleashed such wind damage on New York and its environs?

Walked by recently and all that was left was the skeleton of the awning. There's just a Tullamore Dew banner protected the poor old bar now. The naked front, however, resolved a nagging question in my head. It's now clear that there was no older, cooler sign hiding beneath the newish awning. Just some cinder blocks.

Below is how O'Connor's looked with the now absent awning.

Wooden Phone Booth Sighting: O'Connor's Bar

Haven't done a "Wooden Phone Booth Sighting" feature in some time, and it's high time I did. This one is inside O'Connor's bar, which since 1931 has sat anchored Fifth Avenue near Atlantic. The booth is in working order. It has a seat, a light that goes on when you close the door and a fan above.


And here's the piece la pièce de la resistance. The phone has a rotary dial! And it works! Only wooden phone booth rotary dial in working order I've seen outside of Fedora.



Previous "Wooden Phone Booth Sighting" features

Wooden Phone Booth Sighting: O'Connor's

I was recently alerted (by its author) of a brand new blog called Here is Park Slope, set on covered all things concerning, yes, Park Slope. I checked in and it looks like Dan Myers is already up to some good work there. But that's not why I'm posting this. I'm posting this because the resourceful Myers has found a wooden phone booth that I did not know about. It's in the old dive, O’Connor’s, on Fifth and Bergen. I've been wanting to check out that place for some time. The pictures entice me even more.

The Alarming and Unfortunate Residents of 765 Eighth Avenue

Last week, I marveled at the faded ad on the side of 765 Eighth Avenue in Times Square and wondered at what sort of rooming house it might have been back in the day. Well, I did a little research and I found out what kind of place it was: scary. And getting scarier with each passing decade, as it turned from whatever it was to begin with, to the Hollis Hotel to the current New York Inn. Actually, the residents start out as generally unlucky and hapless; they only turn actively criminal with the urban decline in Times Square.

Here's a sampling, drawn from the New York Times archives, or the kind of people who have called the address home over the years:

1904: Charles O'Connor, who was arrested for operating an illegal pool hall and betting parlor on 31st Street, in which information on the races was communicated from an upstairs bedroom by way of a 30-foot length of garden hose.

1913; John Heageney, the manager of the Bijou Theatre, who was arrested for showing the much-objected-to picture "The Inside of the White Slave Traffic."

1916: Charles O'Neill, 25, a salesman, who was arraigned for sending out a false fire alarm. His excuse was that he was celebrating his imminent marriage and that an excited friend, not he, pulled the fire alarm box.

1928: Irene Cross, a 26-year-old chorus girl, who was visiting the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Sidell here, when she mistook the door to the dumbwaiter for the bathroom. She fell three stories down a shaft and fratured her right leg. Bad move for a chorus girl.

1937: Thomas Meister, a ventriloquist, who was arrested as possible kidnapper, but released when the officers found only a baby doll in his black handbag, not a real kid. The police were confused when Meister tried out part of his routine on a train, causing a voice to come out of the bag.

1939: Jade Sen, 25, an employee at Ruby Foo's Den at W. 52nd Street, who was slugged and robbed of $4,000 while entering the IRT subway, while heading to the bank at 34th and Eighth.

1964: Thomas Gambino, a boxer, who checked into what was by then called the Hollis Hotel, and strangled his 19-year-old girlfriend, one Laura Macaluso, an "unemployed waitress."

1976: Clarence Stewart, a resident, also known as Blood, also known as Ralph Moss, who abducted, abused and raped a 14-year-old Long Island runaway over a period of three days, and then attempted to turn her into a prostitute.

1995: And unknown John, who, on the night of June 29, checked in with Wendi Rivera Hoffman, a 46-year-old prostitute. The next day her body was found, partly clothed, face down on the bed, with her hands tied. She had been strangled.

Manganaro Grosseria Italiana to Close

We seem to be in one of those periodic spells where the New York landmarks fall like dominos. Monte's Venetian Room definitely gone for good. O'Connor's Bar to be changed beyond recognition. Karl Ehmer leaves Ridgewood and its building becomes a storage facility. Carmine's gives up finally.

And now we hear that Manganaro's Grosseria Italiana, one of the bedrock institutions of Ninth Avenue in Midtown, with roots going back to the late 1800's, will close, and the owner will sell the building. The frozen-in-time place will shutter as soon as a deal is sealed. So hurry up. This is obviously not the usual circumstance of a rent hike, since the Manganaros own the building. Business has been slow, said owner Salvator Dell'Orto. I'll post more about this in the future. For now, read more here.

The shop began as a wine store in 1893 and expanded into hero sandwiches—they are said to be the inventors of the form by the way—and red sauce fare during the Prohibition, attracting garment workers, Italians in the neighborhood, and the patrons of the then Metropolitan Opera House. Business began to decline with the arrival of the Lincoln Tunnel (which forced the demolition of much of the neighborhood) and the more recent arrivals of places like Whole Foods and Zabar's. The notoriously surly attitudeof the waitstaff may not have helped.

The Lost City List

Inspired by recent lists of places to go posted by Eater, the New York Times and others, I've decided to post a simple tally of classic, utterly New York places worthy of your patronage. Who knows is extra business will do them good and keep them open in this economic, political and cultural moment that is so aggressively hostile to history and heritage. But it can't hurt. I've divided it into Restaurants, Bars, Stores and Bakeries (because I love bakeries, and think every neighborhood should have fresh bread). (Last updated 7/15/10.)

RESTAURANTS

Peter Luger (Williamsburg)
The Oyster Bar (Grand Central)
Four Seasons (Midtown)
Sammy Rumanian Steak House (Lower East Side)
Totonno's (Coney Island)
Di Fara's Pizzeria (Midwood)
Bamonte's (Williamsburg)
Brooks 1890 Restaurant (Long Island City)
Mario's (Arthur Avenue)
Dominick's (Arthur Avenue)
"21" Club (Midtown)
John's Pizzeria (Greenwich Village)
Fedora (Greenwich Village)
La Grenouille (Midtown)
Le Veau d'Or (Midtown East)
Sardi's (Theatre District)
Second Avenue Deli (Murray Hill)
Sarge's Deli (Murray Hill)
Stage Deli (Midtown)
Carnegie Deli (Midtown)
Smith and Wollensky (Midtown East)
John's of 12th Street (East Village)
Lanza's (East Village)
Katz's Deli (Lower East Side)
Donovan's (Woodside)
King Yum (Fresh Meadows)
Keen's Steak House (Garment District)
Heidelberg Restaurant (Yorkville)
Zum Stamtisch (Glendale)
Von Westernhagen's (Glendale)
Lombardi's Pizzeria (SoHo)
Grimaldi's (Brooklyn)
Patsy's (East Harlem)
L&B Spumoni Gardens (Bensonhurst)
Yonah Schimmel Knishery (Lower East Side)
Nom Wah Tea Parlor (Chinatown)
Wo Hop Restaurant (Chinatown)
Barbetta (Theatre District)
Sam's Pizzeria (Cobble Hill)
Ferdinando's Foccaceria (Carroll Gardens)
DeFonte's Sandwich Shop (Red Hook)
Skyview Glatt Kosher Deli (Riverdale)
Eisenberg Sandwich Shop (Flatiron)
Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden (Astoria)
Sammy's Rumanian Steak House (Lower East Side)
El Quijote (Chelsea)

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Some Stuff That's Interesting

Andrew Berman gets some things off his chest. [The Villager]

Coney Island scourge Joe Sitt is working his charm again, this time frightening clowns away. [Curbed]

Chumley's has a new predicted opening date—fall 2009! We sorta believe this one a little more than the previous nine predictions. [The Villager]

Why couldn't they have just let the roof cave in? [NY Post]

A nice film of the interior of the RKO Keith in Flushing. [Queens Crap]

Details magazine thinks Park Slope's O'Connor's is a dive (correct), as well at Times Square's Jimmy's Corner (wrong). Dives are on the decrepit side and are home to sad boozehounds. Jimmy's is simply a nice, well-kept, modest bar. It's old and unfancy, not down and out. [Details]

Queens is Pinko. [Restless]

There was a road called Bloomingdale. [Harlem Bespoke]

Some nice photos from near the Hudson. [Greenwich Village Daily Photo]

Abraham and Straus, "Brooklyn's Greatest Retail Store," remembered. [Forgotten New York]

Lost City: Philadelphia Edition: Humphreys Flag Company

I thought New York had a store of every kind. But I'm not aware of one that makes and sells only flags. Philadelphia has Humphreys Flag Company. However, New York can enjoy a proprietary feeling toward the shop. It was founded in New York City in 1805 as a sail manufacturer. It moved to Phily in 1864, still making sails, but also flags. It now purports to be the leading business of its kind in the U.S.

The shop's location is ludicrously ideal—right across the street from the Betsy Ross home. However, this has only been Humphreys' address for a few decades. The shop is owned by Tim O'Connor, who says he can make any flag that's requested. They're made to order.

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Jackie's Fifth Amendment, Classic Brooklyn Dive, to Close

Mars Bar. Holiday Cocktail Lounge. Blarney Cove. O'Connor's. Now Jackie's Fifth Amendment.

Another timeless, irreplaceable dive bar has found the new New York inhospitable to its kind. Jackie's, located on Fifth Avenue and 7th Street and armed with one of the best bar names in the history of mankind, is one of tony, stroller-ridden Park Slope's last regular, old man bars. I will pour its last bottle (it doesn't serve any beer on draft) on Sept. 14.

The bar has been in the same family since the 1950s. "The owner's health is deteriorating," a bartender told Gothamist. "It's going to be taken over by the pharmacy next door." He added, quite correctly, "It's a shame to see these kind of bars leave the area, because once they're gone they're gone forever."

The bar was called Costello's in the 1960s. Why it changed its name (but remained in the same family), I do not know. If Jackie's had a signature, it was the cheap buckets of ponies. It served no food, not even pretzels, but a spacious room in the back hinted that there might have been hot lunches in the past. Last time I was there, they still had a rotary phone and an 8-track tape. (Photo courtesy of Eater.)

This Week on Lost City

An 86-Year-Old Locksmith in Park Slope; Frankie & Johnnie's Bar Still in The Works; O'Connor's Lost Its Awning; My Parents Down Like the High Line, and Readers Don't Like My Parents; Inside a Lost Tiki Restaurant in Jackson Heights; Guss' Pickles Leaves the Lower East Side; More Revelations on Carroll Gardens Corner of Mystery.

Bring Out Your Dead: 2012 Roundup of Lost New York City Landmarks

Every year since I began this blog has seemed like a bad year for New York landmarks, with too many classic restaurants, bars and stores falling under the steamroller of progress. But somehow 2012 feels like one of the worst. Maybe that's because of the exceeding quality of the places that have closed. Any year that includes the exit of such irreplaceable establishments as Bill's Gay Nineties, Prime Burger, Donovan's Pub, Lascoff Drugs, Colony Music and Manganaro Grosseria Italiana has to be counted a black year. So, here is the final sad and sorrowful tally. 

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Wooden Phone Booth Sightings

Peter McManus Cafe
Bamonte's
O'Connor's Bar
Miele Pharmacy
Farrell's Bar & Grill
Capri Social Club
Fedora
Old Town Bar
Capsouto Freres
Sam's
Chumley's
The Ear Inn
Bill's Gay Nineties
Gino
Sardi's

Holland Bar to Reopen on Wednesday

The good news: The Holland Bar, dives of dives, will reopen Wednesday.

The bad news: All that stuff they scraped off the walls when they gutted the place last summer is gone for good. "The photographs of customers who had died years before, the posters for shows at the dear, departed CBGB — is gone, too. [Owner Gary] Kelly sent many framed pictures home with regulars as farewell gifts, other memorabilia went into storage. One of the relics of the Holland’s lore — an urn containing the ashes of Charlie O’Connor, a former bartender — had gone missing."

The news news: The Times reports that the reason the Ninth Avenue dive closed in the first place were the villainous dreams of the greedy landlord, Ebeden Wong. "According to Mr. Kelly, who has owned the bar since 1998, the landlord refused to renew the lease in the hopes that he could make more money converting the building for residential use or selling it off. But such plans apparently did not work out, and the landlord offered Mr. Kelly his old space back starting Jan. 1, albeit at a 20 percent increase in the rent."

The article also tells us where Holland's devoted barflies have been these past months. Rudy's mainly, a few blocks north. Others went to the Bull Moose Saloon. They followed the Holland bartenders. "Bill Leary, known as Dr. Bill, took over the Monday and Tuesday shifts at the Bull Moose Saloon, on 44th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, and Steve Bibko has been serving free hot dogs along with Jameson shots and Budweiser back at Rudy’s Bar and Grill, at 44th and Ninth."

Makes sense.

Two Pizzerias on Fifth

For the Avenue that wears its age with grace and not a lot of show, I give the prize to Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, from Boerum Hill on down through Park Slope to Windsor Terrace.

There are very old bars on this strip that do not get a lot of play in the papers—places like O'Connor's, Smith's, Jackie's Fifth Amendment and Smolen Bar & Grill. Likewise, you'll find a lot of retail stores and diners which are quietly marking their decades, such as Eagle Provisions.

Here are a couple of long-serving slice joints which sit a few blocks from each other: Luigi's (since 21st), which was founded in 1973; and Lenny's (near 17th), which dates back from the 1950s. You can see what Lenny looked like it you walk on to the back. There's an oil portrait of the man in a suit, complete with boutonniere.