Dead Horse Inn

Plumb Beach, Brooklyn (History of Plumb Beach)







More Brooklyn by the Sea

Digital Scrapbook (DrunkWalk Artifacts)

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Bumming in Bay Ridge

4/21/07 (Saturday), 2 pm - 9 pm

A vigorous trek up the eastern slope of Owl’s Head Park, a placid 27 acres next to the Belt Parkway, which is next to a sewage treatment plant, although nothing outside the park’s verdant hills can intrude; it’s a near-perfect symmetry of (engineered) nature and industry . . . A brief respite at the bustling pier off Bay Ridge Ave., then a long stroll through Shore Road Park, busy with ball fields, playgrounds, benches, and grass—all the amenities fit for a perfect April afternoon . . . Idyll from the start of a spring delayed, languorous and dream-like; the sun on the bay and Saturday in the air—that all-encompassing feeling of possibility, a pleasant, hopeful aura—sky and light and children at play conjure a mirage of simple pleasures and harmony all around . . . The houses on Shore Road, alongside which the long, narrow park runs, range from handsome to majestic . . . And looming always, over the whole neighborhood and other swaths of south Brooklyn, visible from spots in all five boroughs: The Bridge—Verrazano Narrows, that freak of engineering, the largest suspension bridge in the U.S., and perhaps Robert Moses’ most imposing statement.



The bartender at Irish Haven said that at one time Bay Ridge was nothing but churches and bars. There’s still plenty of churches and bars in Bay Ridge, but now it boasts many large chain stores, and it’s safe to assume one could probably find a yoga center or two and some other contemporary trappings there. Also, Bay Ridge has become home to a large Arab community. Hookah cafés and Middle Eastern restaurants line Fourth and Fifth Avenues for miles, and the pale, Christian throngs of what had once been an archetypal working class Brooklyn neighborhood (Saturday Night Fever was set there) have been altered considerably. There’s always the Irish Haven, though, whose jukebox is like no other, packed with the most Irish of tunes, from the likes of Christy Moore, The Chieftains, and The Clancy Brothers; everything from “Dunmore Lassies” and “Dear Old Donegal” to “Imis Dhun Ramba” and “Come Out Ye Black and Tans.” It’s a fine place for a soon-to-be-minority to cry in his beer or dream of reels and jigs past, back home on the Ould Sod.

Kensington Daze

Denny’s Steak Pub—A complimentary weekday buffet (where else do you find that?), sausage and peppers, with an alluring snack mix at the bar: Cheetos, pretzels and barbequed Fritos. It’s an accommodating place . . . Lotto, horse racing feed . . . A New York Post on the bar: “MISERY: Coroner Reveals Anna Nicole’s Descent into Hell” . . . lachrymose Dire Straits’ songs, one after another . . . nicest day of the year so far, 78 degrees--perfect. [Church Ave. & McDonald Ave., 3/27/07 (Tuesday) at 2:18 pm] . . . Club 773—Oprah blaring on TV . . . trompe l’oeil pics of Elvis and John Wayne . . . an impressive selection of darts accessories for sale, in glass display cases . . . More lottery action, horse racing video, an Instant Lotto vending machine—the Brooklyn version of a gambling bar . . . Ahh, the languor of weekday drinking . . . the sun through the open door reflects off the video poker machine . . . no one here under 60 or 70 [Coney Island Ave. & Cortelyou Rd. at 4:05 pm.] . . . Coney Island Avenue @ Cortelyou to Avenue I—a crazy ethnic mélange: Russian, Polish, Pakistani, Muslim, Christian, Hasidic . . . my love of Brooklyn sometimes makes me tear (5:09 pm) . . . Nitecaps bar--Some bearded dirtbag laughs at an electrocution death reported on the local news, mocking the other miseries dribbling from bland anchors’ tongues—a coarse but understandable response to media abstraction . . . Spring means DrunkWalks . . . McDonald Ave., beneath the F line: Royal Marble, Family Dollar.