THE WAY OF ALL FLESH

by Kevin Walsh

JJ’s Navy Yard Cocktail Lounge, which had been on the corner of Flushing and Washington Avenues, spent its last few years as a strip club. It is being divided up into a Dunkin’ Donuts and a Subway as we speak.

In a few years, all stores will be banks, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds, and Subway.

A few years after that, I’ll be torn down for a Dunkin’ Donuts.

Also vanishing this week is the Holiday Lounge on St. Mark’s, where I got drunk a lot in college, and Bleecker Bob’s. I wasn’t a Bleecker Bob’s record buyer — when I was buying vinyl, I’d go to Venus and Sounds on 8th or St. Marks, or even Tower, where the prices were good and I would typically emerge with 7 or 8 platters without spending $50.

12 comments

JOEL NORMAN January 27, 2012 - 12:33 am

When you live in a YUPPIE world you get YUPPIE culture……would bet if the Navy Yard was still open and busy JJ’s would still be a BAR and the coffee would have either Jack D or Many Roses in it……

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Helen Chirivas January 27, 2012 - 2:41 am

I remember Sounds… also Venus… It all seems like so long ago..

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barb g January 27, 2012 - 2:54 pm

and forget malls. all the stores are the same. it is creepy.

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Larry January 28, 2012 - 12:01 am

Where I live, it’s banks, CVS, Dunkin’ Donuts, and medical office buildings. At one intersection near me , there is a different bank on each corner.

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Patrick January 28, 2012 - 1:33 pm

Sounds and Venus may be gone (as is Bleecker Bob’s as of this week), but other great record stores have popped up in the EV: Academy, Big City, Good Records, Gimme Gimme and more.

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John F. January 28, 2012 - 5:55 pm

I believe that section of Flushing Ave is absent of any acceptable eateries. At least if you are working in the area you have something to go eat.By the way,you sure a Subway is going in there? I believe one is located on Myrtle Ave.near Adelphi St.or Clermont Ave.

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Joe Fliel January 29, 2012 - 9:26 pm

What would be considered “acceptable”? More joints advertising “quirky new takes” on everything from toothpicks recycled from pier pilings to gen-oo-wine Ye Aulde Breukelen Spring Water, serving 15 dollar, artisanally prepared grilled cheese sandwiches and 8 dollar cups of organic, fair trade, rooftop collective-grown coffee to wash them down? There was nothing wrong with greasy spoons and run of the mill sandwich shops which dotted the area for generations. The problem is with the influx of refugees from flyover states who move in and attempt to impose their version of what passes for “civilization” by attaching “Brooklyn”, or any other New York-centric catchphrase, to anything from bottles of dirt to overpriced cuisine in order to give it some kind of credibility. More “Sloppy Joe’s Eats” shops and topless bars serving drinks in dirty glasses, not food snob establihments.

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justin February 1, 2012 - 12:17 am

I’m pretty sure that John’s comment was in favor of Subway coming in, so this response isn’t exactly on point. But that stretch of Flushing also lacks greasy spoons and sandwich shops, aside from Navy Yard Hero Shop and Cibao diner, which are basically the only food options along the Navy Yard.

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Tal Barzilai January 29, 2012 - 12:51 pm

You might as well place a McDonalds there after the one that got torn down by the Manhattan Bridge recently that wasn’t too fare from here.

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Old Skool January 30, 2012 - 11:39 pm

If you turn around and face the other way the Brooklyn Navy Yard is right across the street. Can we still call it that? I never set foot inside this place, I was always rushing past on my way to High Street where I caught the A train into Manhattan. This was in the mid “80’s and if it was sketchy the last few years i don’t even want to know what it was like then.

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Joe Fliel January 31, 2012 - 7:51 am

The last ship completed at the Navy Yard was the TT Bay Ridge, constructed by Seatrain Shipbuilding, in 1979.

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meb February 4, 2012 - 7:58 am

…if not replaced by dunkin, subway, it will be left as is abandoned, dangerous eyesore

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