{"id":179483,"date":"2026-03-30T10:04:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T10:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/179483\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T10:04:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T10:04:31","slug":"staten-island-property-once-a-bar-considered-a-borough-landmark-is-for-sale-and-the-memories-are-flowing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/179483\/","title":{"rendered":"Staten Island property, once a bar considered a borough landmark, is for sale\u2014and the memories are flowing"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 On Friday nights along Canal Street, just off Tappen Park, a narrow storefront at 219 Canal Street drew lines out the door. The building\u2014a rabbit warren of rooms stitched together over time\u2014housed the Paramount Bar & Grill, where a mercurial bartender held court over judges and neighborhood regulars while merchant marines sketched ships on tablecloths.<\/p>\n

Welcome back to the Paramount\u2014also known as Joe\u2019s Paramount\u2014once a key stop along Stapleton\u2019s raucous nightlife circuit and immortalized in a back\u2011in\u2011the\u2011day image by New Brighton artist Bill Murphy. This was the era of the Choir Loft, the caves<\/a> of Demyan\u2019s Hoffbrau<\/a>, Bay Street joints<\/a> like the Narrows Tavern, the Green Lantern <\/a>by the Stapleton train stop, and, yes, as Staten Islanders of the time called it, the \u201ctopless bar\u201d known as the Bard of London.<\/p>\n

\"VintageBack in the early 1980s, the marquee of the Paramount Theater on Bay Street in Stapleton stirred anger among nearby residents and merchants. The theater had no connection to the Paramount Bar & Grill. The image is by Robert Parson.Staten Island Advance<\/p>\n

Between 1979 and about 1984, the borough\u2019s stories were traded as freely as the 35\u2011cent beers. Some might also remember Pete Piffins, a restaurant and bar with shocking sapphire\u2011colored walls and weekend entertainment, including performances by Tommy Bowes of Tower of Power lead\u2011singer fame.<\/p>\n

With that vibrant backdrop, let\u2019s focus on the Paramount Bar & Grill itself, now a vinyl\u2011sided building for sale, still standing amid a row of shabby, time\u2011worn structures. <\/p>\n

According to a real estate listing on Zillow<\/a>, the property is for sale for a $754,000 asking price. <\/p>\n

Murphy, the artist, remembers Paramount Bar & Grill well. Right behind the bar loomed the old Piel\u2019s brewery, where people wandered at night\u2014a whole other layer of Stapleton life, he said. And up the hill on Grymes Hill stood The Mount, a mansion once owned by Wagner College. It was demolished in the late \u201960s and much later on replaced by a gated community of luxury homes. In the summers, people would head up there to look out over the harbor\u2014another piece of the neighborhood\u2019s landscape folded into the Paramount era.<\/p>\n

\"1984The scene in 1984 on Staten Island included David Johansen who performed at Wave Street, Stapleton. (Advance\/SILive.com | Steve Zaffarano) Staten Island Advance<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Paramount was the place in Stapleton,\u201d said Murphy, who spent countless nights there from the early 1970s through the mid\u20111980s. \u201cFor a good 10 to 15 years, it was really the spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy first heard about the Paramount from a friend who laid out the ritual: grab a pizza from Mauro\u2019s\u2014later of New Dorp Beach\u2014or, depending on the night, Tung Bo.* He\u2019d carry it next door to the back room, order a $2.50 pitcher and settle in for the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cSoon you had to wait on line to get in,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

From the street, the bar looked small. Inside, it unfolded like a secret\u2014a long bar up front, then a small room, then another, and finally a back room anchored by a single long table. Murphy\u2019s mother told him the building had once been a Prohibition\u2011era speakeasy, and its layout certainly fit the lore.<\/p>\n

\"BillThe view looking out from near the former 219 Canal Street property in Stapleton, photographed on Monday, March 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

One\u2011shot waitress<\/p>\n

In its early years, the Paramount was what Murphy called \u201can old man\u2019s bar,\u201d drawing merchant marines who swapped stories of far\u2011off ports. One night, he watched sailors sketch their ships on tablecloths.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne guy disappeared, and a half hour later he comes in holding a glass bottle with the ship in it that he had built,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n

There were no printed menus. Instead, a waitress would deliver her warning: \u201cI\u2019m going to tell you this one time, so listen up, because I\u2019m not repeating myself.\u201d Then came the options\u2014hamburgers, fries, maybe catfish.<\/p>\n

Beer was 35 cents. A \u201cladies beer,\u201d served in a smaller glass, cost 25 cents. A sign at the bar read: \u201cUnescorted ladies not permitted at the bar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally known as Joe\u2019s Paramount, the bar took its name from bartender Joe McCarthy, who worked Friday and Saturday nights and whose moods were the stuff of neighborhood folklore.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never knew how he would be,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cSome nights he was the nicest guy in the world and everybody was getting free beers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other nights were different. When Murphy once asked for a Bloody Mary, McCarthy snapped, \u201cYou want a Bloody Mary? Go to Demyan\u2019s for a Bloody Mary,\u201d and walked away.<\/p>\n

\"BillBack in the 1980s, Bill Murphy looks out at a ship graveyard off of Staten Island. <\/p>\n

A hub for artists, lawyers and the Bay Street scene<\/p>\n

By day, judges and lawyers from the nearby courthouse filled the bar. By night, it turned into a haven for artists, musicians and the Bay Street creative scene. Murphy photographed the Paramount extensively and later turned those images into two editions of lithographs. The first came in the early 1990s; a second, stylistically different version followed and included longtime owner and occasional bartender Charlie Lee.<\/p>\n

The bar thrived during a vibrant stretch of Stapleton nightlife\u2014a period Murphy summed up simply: \u201cStapleton was just jumping.\u201d On any given weekend, you could bounce between two or three places and find live bands in all of them. The Paramount was the anchor in that circuit, a place where the neighborhood came together and stories were made.<\/p>\n

\"BillBill Murphy’s view of the Paramount Bar & Grill. Courtesy of Bill Murphy<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like a landmark,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cMy friends still joke around: \u2018Are you going to the Paramount tonight?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy\u2019s drawing of the bar\u2014the one featuring the bartender\u2014now sells for $350. The Paramount itself once earned a spot on the New York Daily News\u2019 list of the Top 10 bars in New York City, a distinction proudly framed on its wall.<\/p>\n

The bar closed around 2001, and the storefronts that housed it later fell into disrepair and were damaged by fire, leaving behind little more than memories\u2014and Murphy\u2019s artwork, which preserves what once stood there. His work can be found at ABurningLight.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

*An earlier version of this article said Lum Chin. The restaurant was Tung Bo. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 On Friday nights along Canal Street, just off Tappen Park, a narrow storefront at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-179483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-manhattan","9":"tag-manhattan-headlines","10":"tag-manhattan-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}