Two weeks before Thanksgiving in 1979, two unsuspecting British lads arrived on these shores to begin a two-year adventure.
Well, a two-year work assignment.
They were put up in a hotel way over on Tenth Avenue in Midtown and decided to walk to their new office just south of Grand Central on their first morning in NYC.
They managed to walk half a block before they were held up at gunpoint by some kids hanging around outside a school.
Welcome to New York City.
Meanwhile, back home in London, two other young Brits were getting their final briefing before also embarking on the same transatlantic jaunt a week later.
I was one of the second pair.
We were told about the incident with our colleagues and given the option of backing out.
Neither of us took that option.
So, on Thursday, November 15th, 1979, I found myself in the backseat of a cab on the upper level of the 59th Street Bridge, as it practically tailgated an iconic Marathon Checker Cab, thinking to myself, it was just like the TV series Taxi and not at all like Kojak.
The first two lads had already been shipped off to the safety of Westport CT, and we were to be housed in the Lexington Hotel for the first night.
Lexington Avenue was narrow, dirty and very noisy, I hear it still is, and from my lofty perch I could hear snippets of screamed conversations in the streets below, all night long.
So maybe Kojak after all.
But it was to be for a single night.
After reporting at the office on Friday, I was told that I too would be whisked away to sunny and safe Westport.
We pretty much all ended up there over the next year or so, but we still had to take the train into NYC for work every weekday, mostly working around the office.
So, for my first four months in the States, I managed to see around twenty square blocks of NYC, all immediately to the south of Grand Central Station, right around where The Shakespeare is located now.
And then I got assigned to a project in Long Island City.
A much grittier LIC than we see nowadays.
Don’t get me wrong, I like what LIC has become, for the most part.
It took a very long time to get here.
But I miss the grit.
Let us explore the Long Island City of 1980.
Unlike all of the other assignees who were mostly proficient in Cobol or PL/1, I also had a practical background in assembly language and machine language coding, which is why I was selected to help Executone, a communication device manufacturer, develop an embedded-software system/package to handle all aspects of hospital communication.
If you are of a certain age you will remember the Executone building; it was (still is) the large white edifice that sat at the corner of Thomson and Skillman Avenues in the no-man’s land between LIC and Sunnyside, on the other side of the tracks from what is now considered to be LIC proper.
It had a massive red sign planted on the roof that rivalled the Silvercup one and the Pepsi one by the river, and right next door was the Chiclets factory lending its sweet smells over the surrounding streets.
Executone was to move out to Jericho on Long Island while I was there, and the building was eventually taken over by the IDCNY design center; it now appears to be absorbed into the growing empire of LaGuardia Community College, which in my time had a much smaller footprint a couple of blocks away.
But I was working there in LIC for almost a year, and I was the first in my company to have to brave the NYC subway system on a daily basis, taking the 7-train out to Hunterspoint Avenue and walking the few bleak blocks of Skillman Avenue to the office.
And they were bleak isolated blocks (they still are), bounded by the rail tracks to the north and the fences, gates, and facades of nameless, faceless industrial buildings to the south.
If I wanted life and lunch, I had to venture deeper into Queens by heading up the hill of Queens Boulevard towards Sunnyside.
Which I did, daily.
I had no choice unless I wanted to eat in the Executone canteen and talk shop on my own time, I was never a fan of that kind of stuff.
It was a good canteen, with great views of Midtown Manhattan, but it was difficult to hide away and eat my lunch in peace.
So, up the hill I went.
Keeping to the south side of the elevated tracks as that was where the food was; the north side was small industries and grindhouse venues.
My first discovery was a giant food truck selling Italian meatball hero sandwiches from a location at the back of a gas station forecourt, but eventually I stumbled over the Sunnyside Brau-hall, a German restaurant beer hall located mid-block opposite Lowery (40th Street) subway station.
The beer and food (Spaten Dark and Sauerbraten for me) were German as were the servers, but all of the bartenders were either Irish or for some unknown reason, Welsh.
It became my regular lunchtime haunt, and would prove handy when I needed to find a home in NYC a year or so later.
Eventually, somebody in the office pointed out that Court Square station might actually be closer and more populated than Hunterspoint Avenue, so I switched up my walking route and also discovered a new hangout, namely Brooks 1890 at the edge of the square itself.
An old school “Italian” bar and grill.
It became my after-work stop, for a Guinness and a burger, or a French onion soup.
Both venues had been in their respective locations for many years, and both are now long gone.
You don’t know what you’ve got …
The walk on Thomson from subway to work was essentially just the bridge that crossed the railroad tracks (possibly the coldest place in NYC in winter with an icy wind blowing up from underneath), the shortcut through Court Square, and a couple of blocks between the two with a large industrial building on one side (still there) and a dozen or so very active medallion taxi garages on the other, with their activities spilling out over the sidewalk and into Thomson Avenue itself, seemingly for 24 hours a day; very evocative of late 20th century NYC.
The cabs are gone now, replaced by the modern high-rises that have spread east from Queens Plaza and totally erased the very edgy streetscape that used to exist there.
I miss that too.
It was a maze of grit, but you could at least see to the horizon, and navigate your way out of there by looking for the 59th Street Bridge, or the Executone sign, or the elevated subway.
I find no need to venture into there these days.
You don’t know what you’ve got …
Back in 1980, I also found no need to venture deeper into Long Island City, but in the mid-nineties I returned for another project, this time at the big green monster tower, working for a little over a year at Citibank.
I still had the hands-off lunchtime policy and had considered Brooks again, but it was too close to the office, so I usually just grabbed a sandwich and headed straight for the river, knowing that I would be left alone as soon as I crossed Vernon Avenue and dodged around trucks and forklifts for a couple of blocks before reaching the virtual oasis that was the jetty.
True, there was the very swish Water’s Edge docked right next door, and we would do some official office meals meetings there in due course, but nobody from work would go to the river just for the view and the peace and quiet.
Most days it was just me and a couple of folks fishing.
The building/boat/barge that was the Water’s Edge is still there, and I must say it is looking much cooler now that it did back then.
Some old-style LIC grit just a stone’s skip from the ferry terminal and the lively LIC waterfront.
Did I ever mention that I just love desolate places.
I had two other hideaways from those Citibank days, and they were the Murray Playground and park, in the shadow of the tower itself but a million years away, and “old town” LIC on Vernon Blvd. looking very similar to what it is now but with older more family friendly spots, and P J Leahy’s at the far southern end, home to what seemed like every off-duty cop and firefighter in Queens.
I could get a decent shepherd’s pie and pint of Guinness in there and frequently did.
It is still there, and I really should go back and see if the place has changed in any significant way.
Because, you don’t know what you’ve got …
What triggered this outpouring of memories was a walk from Jackson Heights to the river that I undertook a few weeks ago after dropping my missus off at La Guardia Airport.
It took me through my old neighborhood of Woodside (I see another verbal ramble coming up there), down Queens Boulevard and across the railroad tracks.
And it was as I came down off of the bridge and saw that every small shop/garage on the north side of Thomson Avenue had been buried under a shining new tower block, and a little bit of old New York City was no longer there.
I needed a couple of pints in Fifth Hammer to help me reflect.
As I did when I went back this week to walk the old ways and take a few snapshots.
With apologies to Joni …
They paved the Big Yellow Taxi and put up Indianapolis.
Scorecard w/e 09/15/26
In the past week the Cask Whisperer enjoyed the following casks:
- Old Glenham Bobbin Red Ale @ Jones Wood Foundry
- Fifth Hammer Paddy Neverpat Pale Ale @ Fifth Hammer Brewery
Upcoming Cask Events (Festivals and Otherwise)
- 9/19/26: Ecktoberfest @ Eckhart Beer. No tickets required, just show up 12pm-close.
- 9/19/26: Grimm Oktoberfest 2026 @ Grimm Artisanal Ales. Rumors of casks. I sense a crawl.
- 9/26/26: Blocktoberfest returns, this time it will be held at The Lot @ LIC Culture Lab, right across the street from Rockaway Brewery, between 1pm and 5pm. Will there be any casks? I am willing to chance it.
- 9/27/26: Faßfest ’26 @ Kills Boro Brewing, Snug Harbor, Staten Island.
Upcoming Random NYC Casks
- Nothing on the radar yet.
NYC Cask Venues
Known Operational/Active Beer Engines
- Jones Wood Foundry (x2)
- Fifth Hammer
- Wild East
- The Shakespeare (x3)
- Drop-off Service
- Rough Draft
Occasional Pins (worth a follow on Instagram)
- Strong Rope
- KCBC
- Tørst
- Blind Tiger Ale House
- Threes Brewing
- Brouwerij Lane (First Friday Firkins)
- The Owl Farm
- City Swiggers
Cask Venues Reachable from NYC by MTA or NJ Transit Train in Under two Hours
Metro-North Hudson Line
- Draught Industries, Beacon NY (one handpump, Old Glenham beer range).
- Coopers, Beacon NY (one handpump, Old Glenham beer range).
- Happy Valley Arcade Bar, Beacon NY (one handpump, Old Glenham beer range).
Metro-North Harlem Line
- The Ambleside Pub, Mt. Kisco NY (four handpumps, Old Glenham beer range).
Metro-North New Haven Line
- Marlowe Artisanal Ales, Mamaroneck NY (one handpump, Marlowe beer range).
- Nod Hill Brewing, Ridgefield CT (two handpumps, Nod Hill beer range).
NJ Transit NJCL Line
- Triumph Restaurant and Brewery, Red Bank NJ (one handpump, Triumph beer range).
- Little Dog Brewing, Bradley Beach NJ (one handpump, Little Dog beer range).
