New York City is jammed in these boom times.
The sidewalks are abustle with shoppers, the streets clogged with vehicles, their passengers staring out mournfully as we walkers glide by pitying their immobility.
Then again, it was always thus. Take Broadway in the 1860s. Back then, New York’s main street was divided: the “Dollar” side on the west catered to the gentle folk from Washington Square, while the “Shilling” side on the east was exclusive to the hordes of immigrants from the nearby Five Points.
While writing the musical "Hard Times," I used to track the down-at-heel composer Stephen Foster as he made his way down the crowded “shilling” side to Nelly Blythe’s Saloon where he could parlay his once brilliant reputation into cheap drinks.
I was reflecting on economic drinking and the disappearance of the buyback recently when I remembered an odyssey I used to take on Sunday afternoons when I lived in the far East Village.
This was back in the 1970s when one could live on hopes, dreams, and a couple of gigs on the weekends up in the Kingsbridge area of The Bronx.
One Sunday afternoon, while in recovery from my Bronx labors, a friend arrived at my apartment where I was entertaining some others over a couple of six-packs. He had heard it on good account that a bevy of “high-end models” congregated at Puffy’s Tavern on Hudson Street in Tribeca and were interested in meeting “interesting people of diverse means.”
Why any of our scruffy bunch felt that such ladies would be taken with the likes of us is a mystery to me now, but back then hope sprang eternal; so began our pilgrimage to Puffy’s.
It was decided that we would break for a beer at Fanelli’s on Prince Street in Soho, as an aspiring writer among us had been treated to a sufficiency of buy-backs on his last visit there.
And so began my almost fifty year association with the second oldest continuous drink and food joint in New York City.
Prices have risen since my first fateful visit, but I’m happy to report that writers, aspiring and otherwise, are still welcome and buybacks, though rarer, are common enough.
A salmon sandwich is still a bargain and the pint of Dogfish 60 IPA is to die for. We then stumbled on to Kenn’s Broome Street Bar on the corner of West Broadway.
Kenn Reissdorf, owner and artist, dressed like an urban cowboy, resplendent in turquoise, while his wife Berry, a former model, was the thinnest and sharpest bar owner I’ve ever met.
Alas, both have passed on to the great saloon in the sky, but their place has been taken by Jonathan Kaufman, a delightful, outgoing proprietor who likes nothing better than visits from thirsty pilgrims.
The BLT on Rye is mouth-watering and the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale will please greatly, while the once sacrosanct tradition of the buy-back is not unknown.
Over the years, as the pilgrimage gained notoriety and new devotees, we added many blessed stops that included: The Holiday Lounge, a Ukrainian beer & shot joint on East 8th where owner, Stefan Lutek, would bid us godspeed with $1 brimful glasses of Jameson’s; and who could forget the esteemed Ear Inn on W. Spring that dates back to 1817, and whose Lamb Burger washed down by a pint of Guinness approaches Godliness, and so on and so forth and so fifth, as John Lennon used to say.
I can almost hear members of Shilelagh Law, up in the far reaches of County Yonkers, speculating on how a bunch of rowdy tossers was greeted by Puffy’s “high end models.”
Well, they proved quite friendly, digits were even exchanged, but only Mad Dog Brodsky, a writer of some renown who went on to edit Hot Tub Magazine, ever claimed to have dated one.
I doubt the relationship ever came to much as she didn’t attend his Shiva. Yes, time and, no doubt, a surfeit of shots took a toll on our number, and eventually our weekly pilgrimage fell by the wayside.
However, in this coming age of anxiety, I sense there will be need of alcoholic fortification.
So, on the first Sunday after President Trump’s inauguration, the pilgrimage will resume - destination Puffy’s!
Who knows, perhaps the granddaughters of the original “high end models” will be there to greet us.
