A little bit of old New York in Red Hook

The BQE (Brooklyn Queens Expressway) is a multi lane mass of ever moving vehicular traffic. It divides our leafy, brownstone neighborhood of Carrol Gardens from the waterfront area of Red Hook, a tough, no-nonsense, semi industrial pocket of true New York, where until quite recently it would have been ill advised to loiter, unless of course you were loitering with dubious intent. Red Hook was home to Long Shoremen (Brando in On The Waterfront), mob bosses: Capone was born in the area and married at a local church; and 'Crazy Joe Gallo' whose headquarters were draped in inch thick iron - a remedy against machine gun attacks. Then in the eighties gangs came and Red Hook was dubbed by Time magazine as the worst neighborhood in America. Businesses closed down. A bar, one of my favorites, simply shuttered up, leaving full bottles of alcohol and glasses, everything behind. Then a decade and a half later re-opened for business when the city during Gulianis time, cleaned up. Red Hook is one of my favourute areas. It's still run down in many parts and there are pockets which after dark I wouldn't go but it's also changing. Artists moved into loft warehouse spaces paying little or no rent and then as happens over time the area became re-discovered. There are small galleries, terrific restaurants, cafes and a couple of wine bars. One of which has opened up within a hop, skip and jump over the BQE (via footbridge) and where a couple of nights ago I was perched with a mate having a glass of wine when an American guy approached the bar with all the swagger of Tony Soprano, his frame too of similar stature. The barman ran through the choices of wine listing with a certain flamboyance the characteristics of each variety and finishing by offering the final choice of Pinot Noir..."and we also have a lovely Pinot Noir which is soft and subtle, which you might prefer..." were his exact words. After a pause of several seconds in which not a word was uttered the burly American finally spoke up. His eyes boring down at the young bar keep, the sound from his throat rumbling like an iron cannonball rolling through cement pipes way underground. "Do I look soft and subtle?" he asked. The bar man poured him a whiskey. Red Hook might have undergone some cosmetic changes lately, but it's heart is still very much the same.