I used to be really into bars when I was in my twenties. Now that I'm well into my forties, I no longer go (as often), but I am amazed at all the bars that have come and gone since I moved to Astoria way back in November '87. Let's list some of the bars that have gone.
1) On the east side of 21st Street just south of 30th Avenue there was a place called Mantle's. It is now a private social club I believe.
2) Also on the east side 21st Street, just north of 30th Avenue, there was believe it or not a Czechoslavian bar. It is a free standing brick building that became a used furniture store and is now an auto parts/motorcycle store.
3) On the west side of 21st Street, a two blocks or so below where Newtown and Astoria Blvd. come together, was believe it or not a disco! It then became a bar run by a Jamaican guy and also billed itself as a clam bar. I used to jog down 21st Street at night and run by the place and there was never anyone in there. It is now some other kind of business, a restaurant maybe.
4) On the south side of 30th Avenue between 31st and 32nd Streets there was a "neighborhood" bar that is now a butcher shop. You can still see the cool tin ceiling. Pinnochio, a restaurant on the southeast corner of 30th Ave. and 32nd St., and the butcher shop were located on the southwest corner of 31st St. and 30th Avenue and respectively moved when the building came down and the office building, now housing a bank on the ground floor, was built.
5) Tupelo, on 34th Avenue between 36th and 37th Streets approximately, was the last of three or four bars at the site that is now a Bravo supermarket. If my increasingly faulty memory serves me correctly, when I moved here in '87 there was a bar on the site that went under and then it became one ethnic social club then another before going out of business until the stylish Tupelo moved in.
6) I can't remember the name of it, but there was a bar on the west side of Steinway between Broadway and 34th Streets. It was closer to 34th Street than Broadway and to narrow it down further it was south of the subway entrance. I can't remember which storefront it was but there is another business there now.
7) I believe there was a bar on the northeast corner of Crescent and 30th Avenue directly across from the hospital. It is now a pharmacy. I'm pretty sure it was a bar.
8) There was a bar on the south side of Broadway between 31st and 30th Streets across the street (and on the same side of the street) from the supermarket. It is now a nail salon. I remember walking by and never seeing many people in there, but there was one regular I would see in there all the time who was in a wheel chair. He quickly found a new spot because I saw him in the bar on Broadway diagonally across street. That one is still open, albeit having undergone a renovation.
9) There was another bar, called "The Spinning Wheel" or the "Spinnaker" or something like that also on the south side of Broadway near Crescent. When I moved into Astoria the place was closed, but reopened shortly after. It has since gone out of business.
10) There used to be a bar on the west side of 31st Street and 36th Avenue that was part of the same building as the supermarket. I walked by one day and the bar was gone. The supermarket expanded and took over the space.
11) And I seem to remember an Irish Bar on the south side of 36th Avenue a block or two west of 31st Street. I walked down that block for the first time in years and the bar was long gone, having been replaced by an Indian deli/store.
12) When I moved into Astoria I remember going to a bar on the south side of Broadway between 33rd and 34th Streets. Remember back then Astoria was bereft of cable TV (I didn't get mine until '92 or so) so I went to this bar to watch a sporting event and the odd thing about the bar is that it was painted all black inside. There was a backroom with a pool table. And they had some sort of electronic sports trivia game. That place closed and a more upscale, and brighter, Irish bar opened in the space and was open for about a decade. I noticed the Irish bar closed and it is now some other type of bar. Of all the bars listed, this is the only one I ever actually went into.
13) Maybe someone can help me out here and I'm stretching the boundaries of Astoria to include Long Island City, but were there ever two bars on the south side of Queensboro Plaza? I remember one that had an Irish name that was right on the corner where you would pick up the bus when they were working on the N line. It was open until fairly recently -- the last five or six years -- but last time I went by it was gone and replaced by a deli. I could have sworn there was a second bar in that stretch, but could be imagining it.
14) I never went in and never even walked by it, but as you made the turn on the N train either from or two Queensboro Plaza you could see a bar on the street just west of 31st Street, just north of the plaza. It is long gone. I'm not even sure it was a bar, but I could have sworn it was by the neon sign.
15) This bar was closed before I stumbled across it, but two or three blocks west of the 39th Street subway station there was a corner bar. It was closed when I walked by, but the facade was still there. The facade is long gone and I can't even really remember where it was located.
Topic: Astoria Bars That Are Gone, Gone, Gone (Read 41216 times)
