Wednesday, August 29, 2007

From Either Side of the Bar, Firefighters Embrace a Tradition


by KATE HAMMER
New York Times
Published August 27, 2007

On Thursday, after the funeral of Firefighter Joseph Graffagnino, and on Friday, after the funeral of Firefighter Robert Beddia, many of the city’s bars filled with grieving men in navy blue uniforms who wore pins in remembrance of their fallen brothers.

But the Salty Dog on Third Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where black and purple bunting hung above the bar’s bright red garage door, had its own special connection with that grief: Firefighter Graffagnino tended bar there on the side.

In a city with so many kinds of bars that telling them apart requires modifiers — sports bars, gay bars, Wall Street bars, college bars, sake bars and topless bars — firefighter bars are distinctive because the customers are often served by a fellow firefighter. As it happened, Firefighter Beddia, 53, of Staten Island, who along with Firefighter Graffagnino, 33, of Brooklyn, was killed fighting a blaze at the Deutsche Bank building at ground zero, had also tended bar, at Chumley’s in Greenwich Village, not far from the firehouse where both firefighters worked.

Other firefighters, or retired firefighters, own bars or restaurants.

“We like to go to the places that are owned by a firefighter, the places where you know they’re going to take care of you,” said Firefighter Frank Blackstone of Ladder Company 173 in Howard Beach, Queens.

While the Salty Dog no longer has a firefighter as one of its owners, it embraces its motif with no subtlety. A shiny 1947 Mack fire truck, parked across from the bar, houses a D.J. booth. A cast-iron bucket that predates fire hoses hangs overhead, and around the bar, only a few inches of red brick separate old portraits of fire companies and photographs of famous American fires.

“It’s all made to look like a firehouse,” said Larry Kaplan, an assistant manager. “The only thing we don’t have is a pole, and that’s only because we don’t have room.”

Most firefighter bars are not quite so elaborate, but they are part of a long tradition that dates to the late 1700s, according to Gary R. Urbanowicz, who has written books about the Fire Department’s history and lore.

“Going out to a bar after a shift or after a bad fire once you’re off duty is certainly something that’s been done for years upon years,” said Mr. Urbanowicz, the son of a Brooklyn firefighter. Those encounters have always involved “socializing beyond just talking,” he said, adding that in the early 19th century, firefighters gathered at chowder bakes and gun clubs.

By the late 19th century, some firefighters had begun gathering at Walker’s, a restaurant and bar on North Moore Street in TriBeCa. Firefighters still occupy the tall bar stools there today; Ladder 8 is across the street.

“We’ve been a firefighter bar for ever and ever,” said Linda Anthonijsz, Walker’s manager. She says that firefighters remain faithful to their bars, and that once a bar becomes a firehouse favorite, the tradition lasts for generations.

At Walker’s, firefighters prefer burgers, “no quiche,” she said. “They order it, they eat it all. You don’t even have to clean their plates.” And with the food and drink come the firehouse stories.

At Farrell’s Bar in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, which employs three firefighters as bartenders, Dan Mills, a co-owner, said that a casual atmosphere and inexpensive cold beer attract firefighters as well as police officers.

While the police also have a long-established bar culture, officers are prohibited, by their department and the New York State Liquor Authority, from working in establishments that serve alcohol. There is no such rule for firefighters. Firefighters do not need special permission to take bartending jobs, and are allowed to work within the districts covered by their engine or ladder companies, though they are expected to cooperate if, say, their bar or club becomes overcrowded and the Fire Department is called.

To be sure, the drinking traditions have raised concerns. In 2003 and 2004, when a high number of firefighters were arrested on drunken driving charges, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta increased the departmental penalty for those offenses from several days suspension without pay to as many as 30 days.

Along with several city firefighters at the Salty Dog on Friday, there were two firefighters from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, who met Firefighter Beddia in 2002 through union activities.

They said that firefighters everywhere appreciated a good place to share a beer, especially after a difficult fire or the loss of a colleague, and that they had never known a place to embrace that tradition as well as New York City.

“We wanted to come to a firefighter bar,” said Rob Hogan, one of the Canadian firefighters. “We’re firefighters so we had to come.”

As he raised a pint of ale, Bruce Siemen, the other Canadian, said, “It’s firefighter history and tradition and it accumulates here like nowhere else.”

Al Baker contributed reporting.


An interesting article, wouldn't you say?


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NUFF said