Staten Island Restaurant Tour, Part XXIX: New Dinette (Port Richmond)
M y mission to Port Richmond, should I have chosen to accept it, and I did, had two objects. Have lunch, and capture some primo pix of the Bayonne Bridge. It was a massive success on both counts. These initial views are from the Port Richmond side, since Port Richmond is the scene of today’s restaurant outing.
However, I actually got off the bus on the Mariners Harbor side, because I had been in that neighborhood but not come this close to the bridge. The plan was to start the walk in Mariners Harbor and finish it at the restaurant in Port Richmond. So the pictures are presented in reverse shooting order.
Hope you don’t mind.
The Bayonne Bridge was built to link Staten Island with the industrial town of Bayonne, New Jersey.
The town in Jersey is itself named after a small city in southwestern France, between Bordeaux to the north and the Basque region of Spain to the south.
On its completion in 1931 the Bayonne Bridge was the longest steel-arch mainspan bridge in the world. We are about to swing from the Port Richmond side, east of the bridge, to the Mariners Harbor side, west of the bridge.
Holy smokes, we’re right beneath the behemoth.
Shifting to the western exposure, the Mariners Harbor side. Though this bridge has been superseded by newer arch bridges, it is still the sixth-largest of its kind.
It is built at a 58-degree angle to match up to the street grids of both Port Richmond, SI and Bayonne, NJ.
Everything about it is fascinating; check the Wiki.
The portion of the highway on the Staten Island side is the Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway. Running from the North Shore down to the SI Expressway, it is the dividing line between Mariners Harbor to the west and Port Richmond to the east. Farther down it also divides Graniteville (subject of the last episode) from Westerleigh (probably not the subject of the next one).
Was my sightseeing in Port Richmond done? Not hardly. Here is Faber Park, which includes both the Faber Skate Park, foreground, and the Faber Pool, not pictured. The latter has a view of the Kill Van Kull (and is probably much safer for swimming).
The Faber Recreation Center fit into a neat view with the bridge in the background. Call me obsessed.
The door to the place had a Keith-Haring-esque painting. The phone cam was feeling under the weather as I took this shot. It had been shutting down repeatedly in the heat. I was graciously allowed to use the restroom but was shooed out before I could shoot the interior, which look like an elementary school and included a dozen or so computers for the use of local youth. Presumably the Recreation Center is for youth only; for adults, the Port Richmond branch of the New York Public Library is nearby.
The ailing Dutch Reformed Church was missing its steeple (I’m guessing). Perhaps some future fund drive will give it a coat of paint and a new finger to point toward heaven (affluent people, take note). Erected in 1845, this is the third iteration of the church. The first went up in 1714.
Original Dutch settlers are buried in its churchyard. It was used until 1696. The plaque dates from 1932 and wears its years gracefully.
The five Mesereau brothers, who fought in the American Revolution (on the correct side, which you can’t take for granted), are honored on a more recent plaque. They prevailed over the British troops and Hessian (ethnic German) mercenaries who hoisted their pints at the Bulls Head Tavern, after which the nearby neighborhood of Bulls Head is named. Tory landmarks and names are thick on the ground around here so it’s nice to see traces of revolutionary fervor. You can, and absolutely should, read their story here. Unless you’re not interested in American Revolutionary spies so notorious that the Brits put a price of 500 guineas (about $20,000) on their heads.
In addition to the recreational riches of Faber Park, Port Richmond has an island of green — reminiscent of a town square, which it once may have been — called Veterans Park, surrounded by nice houses and churches.
There I had a brief encounter with this panhandler, who was a lot milder than the ones in my Upper Manhattan neighborhood, who look me right in the eye and glare at me, like I’m the jerk. (Indigent people get benefits in NYC. They don’t need to beg except for alcohol and drug money.) I went away sad, but the gentleness of the elderly lady’s approach lingered in an odd way.
The locals must have had the same experience, judging from the NO LOITERING — NO SOLICITING sign in a local religious-figurine store.
I thought I was going to another restaurant — there are lots of choices along Port Richmond Avenue — but its dark interior and lack of air conditioning on this hot day somehow steered me to the New Dinette, where locals were exchanging hard-won life lessons on the street. I decided to duck in my head.
The ventilation, mostly from ceiling fans, was good. I picked a table with a good direct blast from overhead. Suddenly I was in the mood for a diner lunch — undeterred by the cool-white variety of fluorescent lighting, which tends to make me look like a corpse. It didn’t matter. My date was with a tuna club sandwich, not a sexy nurse.
If you come with a group, snag one of the extra-large tables, with tablecloths, at the front.
Those were the front-to-back views. Here’s the back-to-front view. I have not juiced the color saturation, as I normally would do, because I wanted to capture the soothing rose-pink color scheme of the booths as it was. My booth was opposite the middle of the menu above the counter.
No need for a printed menu or one of those insidious barcode things that makes you whip out your phone when your thumbs are already aching. Color boosted for a hair more legibility.
The owner was reserved, but affable and fatherly, the ideal diner-dad personality. Business has been soft, he recently told a reporter for the local paper, because the incoming Latino population is fearful of immigration sweeps, with police cars sweeping “up and down, up and down” the restaurant strip on Port Richmond Avenue.
The tomato was fresh. The lettuce was iceberg, from the interior, which would’ve made me long for some bleu-cheese dip had the chunk-lite tuna salad not been so fresh and delicious. The New Dinette has been in operation since 1978, when I was a college sophomore, and these people know their business.
And lettuce, haha, speak of the fries. They were lightly but not brutally salted and had not been sitting around — as a former fry cook, I know the difference. Like the lettuce, they were on the pale blond side, yet not underdone or soggy. The exterior was firm without being crispy, the interior soft and sensuous. It sure helped that the ketchup was fresh. I don’t eat much ketchup, but when I do, I prefer it without gas bubbles. (Long and unpleasant anecdote about my fast-food kitchen days deleted.)
While the diner had a timeless look, the facilities showed more evidence of recent investment. They were immaculately clean. Oh Lord, I wish the bathroom in my apartment were as spacious and modern (though my deep and recently refinished bathtub is second to none). Fed and emptied, I was in a good mood to get back on the bus.
Up Castleton Avenue, the Bayonne Bridge hovered in the distance. Soon the S46 would carry me home, to plan next episode’s outing to, most likely, Castleton Corners. It won’t have any magical water views — though more of those are in store later. But the neighborhood has a park with no fewer than three lakes and I’m looking forward to a walk somewhere peaceful and green on New York City’s Secret Island.
Previously on the Staten Island Restaurant Tour:
Part I: Angelina’s (Tottenville)
Part II: Fina’s Farmhouse (Arthur Kill)
Part III: Laila (Richmond Valley)
Part IV: Il Forno (Pleasant Plains)
Part V: Breaking Bread (Prince’s Bay)
Part VI: Woodrow Diner (Huguenot)
Part IX: Marina Cafe (Great Kills)
Part XI: Canlon’s (Oakwood Heights)
Part XII: Prince Tea House (New Dorp)
Part XIII: Inca’s Peruvian Grille (Grant City)
Part XIV: Colonnade Diner (Jefferson Avenue)
Part XVI: Chinar on the Island (Old Town)
Part XVII: Cinco de Mayo (Grasmere)
Part XVIII: Phil-Am Kusina (Clifton)
Part XIX: Lakruwana (Stapleton)
Part XX: Pier 76 (Tompkinsville)
Part XXI: Chang Noi Thai (St. George)
Part XXII: Mike’s Unicorn Diner (Bulls Head)
Part XXIII: Melt Shop (New Springville)
Part XXV: Big Nose Kate’s Saloon (Rossville)
Part XXVI: The Manor (Manor Heights)
Part XXVII: Luk & Bart Homemade Food (Mariners Harbor)\
Part XXVIII: Rinconcito Paisa (Graniteville)
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