Ozone Park, Queens —

During the winter months, we wander the great outdoors of the Pacific Northwest. Soon, we will be heading off to the rocky slopes of the Cinque Terre. But the shoulder season finds us back at the Fabricatore family homestead in Ozone Park. This is the other New York. The one far removed from Central Park, the Theater District or Greenwich Village. The one you’re never going to visit.

Though it sounds like it might have been named by Al Gore, it was originally settled in 1882 and named to entice buyers with the idea of refreshing sea breezes from the nearby Atlantic. Hmmmmmm. With the dense traffic, the rumble of the A Train and its closely spaced houses, Ozone Park today hardly evokes the sea. Still, it does offer an unusual environment for an outer borough ramble.

Architecturally speaking, we are squarely in Archie Bunker territory here. When Donna was a girl, Ozone Park was a straight down the middle Italian/Irish/Polish enclave and happily, a fair amount of these cultural influences remain. Fresh mozzarella, pastas and cannolli are always close at hand. For the most part though, the immigrants have moved on and new ones have replaced them. Queens is the most culturally diverse county in the nation and Ozone Park is one of the most culturally diverse neighborhoods in Queens so there is an unusual variety foods, music and activity. At Joe’s Hardware, Joe is long gone and it is now run by a charming and helpful Indian couple. Mike’s Place lacks Mike but offers the best goat curry takeout I’ve had in the city. Our neighbors hail from Columbia, Bangladesh, Guyana, Surinam and Italy. It’s a hard working, family oriented mix.

I was surprised to learn that Ozone Park has had its fair share of influence in the arts. Bernadette Peters grew up here and Cyndi Lauper had her first “fun” on an Ozone Park stoop. Check out the florist below. Jack Kerouac published his first novel while living with his parents above the “Shoppe”. He used to hang out across the street at Glen Patrick’s Pub. I read recently in the New York Times that locals there remember him as the “weird guy who nursed a beer, scribbled notes and didn’t like to talk sports.”

I’d love to tell you that Simon and Garfunkel grew up here but that would be a few blocks over in South Ozone Park (South Sea Breezes?)

Descending from the subway onto Liberty Avenue always takes me back to the wonderful, gritty crime films of the 1970s. I almost expect to see Gene Hackman go barreling by in a beat up Buick. It’s not that far off the mark. A couple of blocks away, John Gotti ruled the nastier side of New York from the Bergen Hunting and Fishing Club. Cultural icons pass quickly here though. I tracked it down and it is now a Hindi owned pet grooming salon.