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Popeyes Chicken Returning to Coney Island’s Surf Avenue

Posted in Food & Drink, Redevelopment, tagged Coney Island, Herman Popper, Popeyes Chicken, Popper Building, Surf Avenue on October 17, 2011| 4 Comments »

Popeyes Chicken former location in the now demolished Henderson Building. Surf & Stillwell Aves., Coney Island. August 21, 2011. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

Popeyes Chicken is returning to the south side of Coney Island’s Surf Avenue after more than a year’s absence. The owner has leased the first floor of the Popper Building at 1220 Surf Avenue, just a few doors down from his previous location and has started renovations. The restaurant owner had been in business year-round in Coney Island for 27 years when he lost his lease in the now-demolished Henderson Building at the corner of Surf and Stillwell. The Thor Equities-owned property was one of four lots in Coney Island rezoned by the City for high rise hotels, which set the stage for Thor’s evictions of longtime businesses and demolition of historic buildings.

The popular fried chicken and biscuit restaurant served its last supper at midnight on August 24, 2010. A previously reported deal to lease space in a proposed new restaurant building on the north side of Surf fell through after Horace Bullard sold the property instead of leasing it.

Popper Building, 1220 Surf Avenue, Coney Island. July 30, 2011. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

The Popper Building has a distinctive old copper sign that says “Herman Popper & Bro.” Though it does not have landmark designation, the building as well as its original owner have a colorful history. Herman Popper was a whiskey distiller and wholesale liquor seller who once supplied most of the Bowery dives and concert halls. His business extended to Sundays, though selling liquor on the Lord’s Day was then illegal. When his friend John “Boss” McKane was tried in 1894 for conspiracy, Popper was called to testify since he had been in charge of one of McKane’s “paster” booths in a notorious ballot-box stuffing scheme. “Yes sir,” he said when the City attorney asked “Isn’t your Coney Island place open on Sunday?,” according to a report in the New York Times. “The witness got tangled up at once, and wanted to take back his answer.” Finally he acknowledged he ‘received orders’ on Sunday, as directed by John McKane.

The Popper’s most recent first floor tenants were a group of homegrown flea market vendors, some of whom have found new locations in the neighborhood. The building was home to a Carvel ice cream shop from the mid 1970’s through about 1995, according to former Playland arcade operator Stan Fox. He also remembers a greyhound racing game and other games at the location. The art dealer who has owned the building since 1998 occupies the second floor. Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York popped in for a visit in the summer of 2009.

Eldorado and Popper Building, Surf Ave, Coney Island. Coney Island. July 30, 2011. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

Photo of the Day: Coney Island Americana Looking for New Beach

Posted in Photo of the Day, Redevelopment, tagged A & W Root Beer Family, Americana, Coney Island Boardwalk, Countdown to Corporatization, Gregory & Paul's, Paul's Daughter, roadside architecture on October 13, 2011| 2 Comments »

Looking for a New Beach: Papa Burger Atop Paul' s Daughter, Coney Island Boardwalk. October 8, 2011

Last week, a new sign was seen on the roof of Paul’s Daughter, a 49-year-old Coney Island Mom and Pop being booted off the City-owned Boardwalk at the end of the month. Papa Burger, a winsome fiberglass figure, is sporting a sign that says “Looking for a New Beach.”

“I am looking for a new location,” Tina Georgoulakos, the owner of Paul’s Daughter, told ATZ. “Our first preference is to stay on the Boardwalk in Coney Island, if we can’t have that, then we are looking for another beach.”

What are her plans for Mama and Papa Burger? The reason we ask is numerous people, including fans of roadside signage, have sent emails expressing concern about the fate of the figures, which have been part of the Coney Island skyline for decades. They wanted to make sure these rare pieces of roadside Americana were preserved. Last fall, when the businesses first received “Surrender the Premises” notices, among the people we heard from was Debra Jane Seltzer, a devotee of roadside architecture who has catalogued the whereabouts of the Burger figures known as the “A & W Root Beer Family” on her wonderful website RoadsideArchitecture.com.

“The A&W Burger Family may not be the biggest giants out there but they are arguably the cutest,” writes Seltzer on the “Land of Giants” section of her site. “In 1963, A&W introduced four choices of hamburgers and their corresponding Burger Family members: Papa Burger, Mama Burger, Baby Burger, and Teen Burger.” When A & W introduced another mascot called “the Great Root Bear” in 1974, some stores began selling off the burger figures, which have ended up at places as various as Magic Forest in Lake George, New York, and the backyard of a private residence in Portland, Oregon. Others are in storage or have been greatly altered, according to Seltzer’s research.

Burger Girl at Paul's Daughter, Coney Island. November 13, 2010. Photo © me-myself-i/Tricia Vita via flickr

“I found the man that made them,” Tina says. “It took all day. His name is Steve Dashew.” There’s a touch of excitement in her voice. In an interview with Roadside America, the former president of International Fiberglass and creator of the Muffler Men and other figures said, “My favorite of all of them was a ‘burger family’: Mama Burger, Papa Burger, Baby Burger, a little larger than life-sized.” Tina contacted him to find out how much the Burger people weighed, so she’d know if a crane would be required to remove them from the roof. It turns out Papa Burger is 10 feet tall, 6 feet wide, and weighs 250 pounds. “I’m going to wrap them with ropes and lower them down,” Tina said. “I am taking every single thing with me. Anything that has meaning is coming with me.”

Another soon-to-vanish piece of Coney Island Americana is the vernacular signage of Paul’s Daughter, including Mister Shrimp and other favorites, which we will detail in another post. “I had considered an auction of certain things but I’m not sure what they are,” says Tina. “It will all depend on whether we move the business somewhere else and I don’t have the answer to that as of yet. If I can’t use them, then I will be auctioning them off.”

Formerly known as Gregory & Paul’s, the beloved seaside restaurant and its signage is featured in the book “Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York” (see photo here). It was also the scene of the 1999 music video “Summer Girls,” in which the band LFO danced on the roof in front of the Astroland Rocket. “It was a sad day when the Rocket left,” says Tina. “The Burger statues really miss it. We do too!” Why doesn’t the City keep Paul’s Daughter, the Burger Family and return the Rocket to its rightful place on the roof?

The restaurant is being evicted from the Boardwalk property to make way for a gentrified, corporatized Coney Island. The City-owned property is expected to be taken over by a concession run by France’s Sodexo, the world’s 21st largest corporation. Sodexo was chosen by the Italian company that runs Luna Park to be their partner for “On-Site Service Solutions.”

Through November 4th, ATZ is posting a favorite photo (or two) a day to say goodbye to the Boardwalk Mom and Pops who must “Surrender the Premises” at the end of the month. Click the tag “Countdown to Corporatization” to see all of the posts.

Photo of the Day: Butterflies & Beer Island by Bruce Handy

Posted in Photo of the Day, Photography, Redevelopment, tagged Anthony Berlingieri, beach bar, Beer Island, Bruce Handy, Coney Island Boardwalk, Countdown to Corporatization on October 11, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Coney Island photographer Bruce Handy snapped these photos of Beer Island and the adjacent vest-pocket garden on Saturday. “The garden on Stillwell is a butterfly garden,” he wrote in an email. The Monarchs that greeted us on 12th Street earlier in the week, en route to Florida via Coney Island, touched down in even greater number this weekend.

Butterflies are a potent symbol of change and transformation. The Boardwalk side of Stillwell Avenue, purchased by the City from Thor Equities in 2009, is undergoing a transformation too. In 2011, the parcel on the east side was developed into the new Scream Zone thrill park by Zamperla’s Central Amusement International. CAI is slated to take over the west side, currently occupied by Steve’s Grill’s House, Beer Island and a vacant lot, in 2012. What will they build? There’s been talk of double-deck go-karts or a double looping coaster. And oh, yeah, a beer garden very similar to the one that’s there now.

The key to Beer Island’s success is serving a wide variety of beer in bottles and on tap–all for $5—on a sandy beach just a few steps from Coney’s shore. Blaring music, bikini-clad waitresses, and the fact that you can bring in food from any of the Boardwalk restaurants add to the party ambiance. As one Yelper explains:

I have seen some strange shit at Beer Island. One time some guy rolled up with a bunch of exotic animals: iguanas, parrots, pythons–all at the same time. He sat down at a table, scattered his animal kingdom cohorts about, ordered a beer and proceeded to let old ladies feed his massive iguana (what looked like) strawberries.

But mostly it’s just occupied by a diverse mix of people who share the common goal of getting shit-housed in the Coney Island sun while belting a bunch of Def Leppard in the process. The music is usually amped up pretty loud, and it’s controlled by a jukebox that has the kind of music you want while getting drunk at Coney Island.

Beer Island is a newcomer to the Boardwalk compared to its fellow evictees. The bar got its start in 2007 after Thor Equities bought the property and evicted Norman Kaufman’s Batting Range and Go Kart City. The beach bar was built on the site of the miniature golf course seen in these photos of the park. Its creator was Shoot the Freak’s Anthony Berlingieri, who told the New York Post last year: “They’re going to steal my idea, after I put a lot of time and money and built it up over the past three years.”

In the meantime, stop by for butterflies and beer, weather permitting. You can view Bruce Handy’s complete slide show here. Through November 4th, ATZ is posting a favorite photo (or two) a day to say goodbye to the Boardwalk Mom and Pops who are losing their leases at the end of the month. Click the tag “Countdown to Corporatization” to see all of the posts.