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Oct 31: Last Day of Season for Boardwalk Businesses, Some Won’t Be Back

Posted in Real Estate, Redevelopment, tagged Boardwalk, Cha-Cha's, Coney Island, dive bars, Last Day of Season, Ruby's Bar on October 30, 2010| 2 Comments »

Halloween at Cha Cha's 2009. Photo © Coney Gal/Mindy via flickr

On October 31st, Ruby’s Bar will host their annual closing party. “Come celebrate Halloween at Ruby’s, wear a costume and get a free beer,” Rubys Host says. The Grill House will have Coney Island band Neptune Jam’s Halloween Jam on the Boardwalk from 1- 5 pm. Cha Cha’s, which is decorated for Halloween year round, will celebrate from 2:30 pm with music by Killer Joe and the Warriors. Come out to playyy! It’s the last day of the season for Coney Island’s legendary dive bars as well as for the other Boardwalk businesses, including Paul’s Daughter, Steve’s Grill House, Gyro Corner and Lola Star Gift Shop.

Lola Star Gift Shop and Gyro Corner. August 20, 2010. Photo © Mattron via flickr

The 11 Boardwalk businesses have leases with the City through Oct 31 for the 2010 season. Zamperla USA/CAI, which is taking over management of the City-owned Boardwalk properties, is expected to offer new 9-year leases to some, but not all, of the businesses after reviewing their business plans.

Paul's Daughter in Coney Island. September 24, 2010. Photo © SaucyPinkJesus/Christopher Duff via flickr

“Some will stay, some won’t. We’re exploring our options,” Zamperla USA CEO Valerio Ferrari told the Brooklyn Paper earlier this month. The catch is we don’t expect to find out who’s getting a new lease till the end of the month. Hey, it is the end of the month! Rumors abound, but an official announcement has yet to be made. If you have a sentimental favorite on the Boardwalk, come out on the last day of the season and show them some love. And don’t forget to take souvenir photos. UPDATE October 31….Business owners told us that they would find out on Monday whether or not they’d get a new lease from Zamperla/CAI!

Wild Women & Wise Guys. March 15, 2009. Photo © Justin Korn via flickr

ATZ will be in Coney on Halloween to hang out with friends and revisit old haunts. We’ll snap photos as if it were “last call” for the vernacular signage and gritty authenticity of these Boardwalk mainstays. Just in case. If they get erased from the Coney landscape, we’ll still have our memories and our photos. The oldest existing business is probably Paul’s Daughter, formerly known as Gregory & Paul’s. The family-run business has been at its Boardwalk location for more than 40 years. Cha Cha’s and Nathan’s satellite location are in the former Club Atlantis building,which requires extensive rehab to bring it up to code.

Behind the Counter at Ruby's Bar in Coney Island. April 16, 2010. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i

The namesake of Ruby’s Bar–Ruby Jacobs–bought the bar in 1975. That’s his portrait with the Parachute Jump amid the vintage photos on the oft-photographed wall. After Ruby’s death in 2000, West 12th Street was named Ruby Jacobs Way in his honor. His daughters and son-in-law continue to run the family-owned business.

Shoot the Freak (I felt like I had stepped back in time). October 7, 2010. Photo © Marniepix via flickr

The world-famous Shoot the Freak is a relative newcomer having arrived on the Boardwalk in 2002. By the next season, the game was world famous. ”Look, this is a country where there was the pet rock,” Shoot the Freak’s creator Anthony Berlingieri told a reporter for the New York Times. ”I always figure that after that, everything stands a shot.”

Last November, Berlingieri made headlines when he appeared at the City’s press conference about the $95.6 million land purchase from Thor and posed the question directly to Mayor Bloomberg: “Is there a place for us?” NYCEDC President Seth Pinsky gave a diplomatic reply: “Our intention is for the foreseeable future to keep all the tenants in place, certainly through next summer [2010]. And we’re going to be looking to work with each of you to figure out where it makes sense for the various tenants to remain as we build out the amusement park.”

Does this mean the EDC is committed to relocating the small businesses displaced by the redevelopment of City-owned property in the new Coney Island? Stay tuned.

Grill House Color. August 26, 2009. Photo © verphotoman/Joel via flickr

Photo Album: Requiem for Coney Island’s Shoot Out the Star

Posted in Amusement Game, Photo Album, Redevelopment, tagged Creative Time, Henderson Building, Shoot out the Star, shooting gallery, signage, Steve Powers, Thor Equities on October 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Out the Star. October 15, 2010. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Somebody swiped “The Star” from the Shoot Out the Star sign on Thor Equities-owned Henderson Building, exposing an earlier version of the signage. We’re glad they did. At least it won’t be destroyed with the rest of the building.

Following the fortunes of Shoot Out the Star on Coney Island’s Stillwell Avenue is one of our longtime obsessions. One year ago this week, the game was open for business. After cutting up jackpots with the operator and helping him call people in to play, ATZ posted “Coney Island’s Shoot Out the Star Still Open… Players Wanted!” Coney’s rides and the rest of the games were closed by Columbus Day as usual, but the shooting gallery was open almost every day. CB, who ran the game for Slim, kept it open year round. We’re told that Shoot Out the Star was in operation at the Henderson for about 20 years.

Shoot out the Star--Players Wanted! Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

One year ago: Shoot out the Star--Players Wanted! October 30, 2009. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

On the day of my visit, CB wasn’t looking any further ahead than the next couple of days. In fact, the operator was locked out a few weeks later by Thor and never opened again. When spring came, CB found a hole around the corner on the Bowery. Shoot Out the Star remained shuttered for the 2010 season though it was “liberated” on Memorial Day Weekend by a couple of guys. We snapped a few photos, careful not to capture their faces. As far as we know, these are the last images of Shoot Out the Star in operation. It was the shooting gallery’s last hurrah. Along with Faber’s Fascination, Shoot Out the Star was among a handful of year-round amusement destinations in Coney Island. Now both are gone.

Last Hurrah: Shoot Out the Star. May 29, 2010. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

As ATZ reported previously, the City issued a demolition permit for the former Henderson Music Hall, which has undergone asbestos abatement and is now surrounded by demolition scaffolding. The Shoot Out the Star sign above the awning is still intact, awaiting its fate. In May, NY1 did an interview with Joe Sitt in which he claimed the buildings were “horrible rundown relics.” According to the reporter “Sitt said he’ll re-use the vintage signs in a more modern setting.” After seeing the Fascination sign on the Henderson cannibalized by a tenant and the Surf Hotel sign offered to a bystander, we’re skeptical about ever seeing this historic signage again.

Last Hurrah: The Star. May 29, 2010. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Shoot out the Star’s iconic signage is the work of Dreamland Artist Club founder Steve Powers, who also painted the Cyclone roller coaster seats, the Coney Island Museum steps, and the Bump Your Ass Off sign for the Eldorado. In 2003, Powers teamed up with Creative Time, the non-profit public art agency, to bring artists to Coney Island to create new signage for the stands along Jones Walk and the Bowery. The first year’s funding was $80,000. When the murals and signage debuted in June 2004, Powers told the Times: “A large percentage of them will be up forever.”

Last month, when we realized the Henderson signage was endangered, we urged Powers and Creative Time to come out to Coney and rescue their work! Don’t the signs actually belong to Creative Time? Haven’t heard back. We hope “The Star” found a good home.

Lettering on Thor Equities banner Dwarfs Shoot out the Star. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Joe Sitt’s Gang Punches Holes in Bank of Coney Island Building

Posted in historic preservation, Photography, Redevelopment, tagged Bank of Coney Island, Bruce Handy, Coney Island, demolition, Eric Kowalsky, Joe Sitt, Thor Equities on October 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Joe Sitt's Demolition Crew Punched Holes in the Bank of Coney Island's south wall. October 18, 2010. Photo © Eric Kowalsky

On Monday at 2 pm, “Mayor” Dick Zigun sounded the alarm on the Coney Island Message Board: “They have just started to punch holes in the Bank of Coney Island building’s south wall, facing the Bowery. The holes are being punched out from the inside via drills and jack hammers. Earlier today they erected scaffolding along the north and east facades.”

Bank of Coney Island Demolition. October 18, 2010. Photo © Eric Kowalsky

Coney Island photographers Eric Kowalsky and Bruce Handy have been documenting the demolition for the past two days. They’re made of strong stuff. We’ve put off posting the images because it was painful to see this 87-year-old building having holes– first two and three, and now eleven– punched through its walls. We know a building is not a human being, but this is torture. The building looks as if it faced a firing squad and is a dead man standing.

Bank of Coney Island Demolition. Photo © Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 via flickr

A poster on the Coney Island board claims that the holes are for shoring up the upper part of brick wall while they build the scaffolding from the inside, so as not to disturb what’s left of the fire-damaged arcade next door. But the bank building was built to last and isn’t going to come down easily. On the first and second day of Joe Sitt’s 40 Days of Demolition, the worst is yet to come.

ATZ promised to live-tweet the demo to keep Sitt’s ongoing desecration of Coney Island in the public eye. But we have no idea how we’re going to weather the ordeal if the first two holes in a wall look like wounds to us. If we could have picked one building to save, the Bank of Coney Island would have been the one. For more info, read “A Rare Peek Inside Endangered Old Bank of Coney Island,” (ATZ, October 9, 2009).