OPENING the lid on a new year of Forgotten NY in Staten Island in 2026. During my last walk around St. George, Staten Island in January 2025, just over a year ago, I snagged this photo of the old Karl’s Klipper restaurant at 40 Bay Street, a few blocks from the ferry. I seem to recall a ForgottenTour postgame show here some years ago; the restaurant shuttered in 2016. As it turns out this was one of the last photos of the building, since it was razed at the end of 2025. As you can see the buidling has an unusual curved roofline.
Before Karl’s Klipper, the space was home to a previous diner, the St. George Clipper, from the mid-1950s through 1979. In its early years the St. George Clipper was located in a railroad-car metal diner building. Photo: Spencer Stewart, Facebook
Left: St. George Clipper menu, 1960s
Plans call for a 6-story mixed-use building to rise in its place.
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop. As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site.
1/1/26
4 comments
Chicken lovers and hash are two items you’ll hardly ever see on menus today.
Staten Island native, lived in St. George for three years, went by this place a thousand times…never ate there once. Always looked spectacularly average. Be interesting to see the apartment house that replaces it.
Might the original metal railroad car have still been in place behind/ beneath the newer facades, upon demolition?
I hope that monstrous vine will be left undisturbed so it can attack the new building.