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One of the many things I love about this town is that there are a thousand places where you might find yourself saying, “It doesn’t even feel like I’m in New York City anymore.” I started driving a yellow cab, in large part, to try to find as many of those places as I could.
I’ve discovered quite a few. The first time I drove down those steep streets in upper Manhattan I imagined I was winding through San Francisco. Certain parts of Middle Village, smack in the center of Queens, look like that gaudi suburb I didn’t grow up in. The first time I caught a glimpse of City Island in The Bronx, I was sure I’d found some long-lost New England fishing village.
Broad Channel Island, Queens is certainly one of those places. But I don’t have any frame of reference with which to compare it, because I’ve never encountered anything quite like it before. They call themselves “New York’s Little Venice” because part of the island is comprised of miniature canals along which the residents dock their boats. But really, Venice and Broad Channel look almost nothing alike aside from the fact that both are barely above sea level.
Broad Channel is the only inhabited island in Jamaica Bay, and half of the island is covered with the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Inside, thick vegetation and abundant wild fowl might make you feel even more like you aren’t really in New York City until a jumbo jet on its way into nearby JFK roars overhead or you stumble upon the stunning view of the distant Manhattan skyline.
But perhaps even more striking than the waterways (they are hidden back amongst the side streets) or the herons or the view are the demographics. The first thing I noticed when I went to Broad Channel was that here, inside the most ethnically diverse city in the world, is a neighborhood in which every single person I saw on the street was white. 
I’ve been back many times, and not only have I never seen a black person in Broad Channel, I’ve never seen a Hispanic, an Arab, an Asian, or a Pacific Islander. Nearly the entire population is of Irish descent, although I did meet an Italian girl tending bar at Grassy's who hailed from neighboring Howard Beach.
One of the last things I expected to encounter on Broad Channel was a great bagel shop. But the bagels they make at The BayGull Shoppe aren’t much like the ones New York’s Jews are so proud to have introduced to the rest of the country. In fact, they taste more like the generic bagels you’d find somewhere else in the country.
The reason I love The BayGull Shoppe is that they offer a wide variety of delicious, creative, named bagel sandwiches. My favorite is the Godmother: ham, salami, pepperoni, provolone, and roasted peppers. Last time I went, I fell hard for the BayGull Special: grilled ham, melted American, thinly sliced pickles on a cheese bagel.
At BayGull, they don’t even bother with the whitefish salad sandwich or the lox and capers. They know their audience. And it’s nothing like the rest of New York.
The BayGull Shoppe, 16-32 Cross Bay Blvd, 718-474-1274
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your food coverage is becoming increasingly disturbing.
one guy reports on the obvious ie water can be a fabulously fresh drink! just get a clean glass and turn on the tap. water is best served somewhat above room temperature.
this guy is just gross. he seems to have the food aesthetics of archie bunker.
Oh man! What won't the Hungry Cabbie eat?!?
Are you saying you don't like baygulls....;-)
"this guy is just gross. he seems to have the food aesthetics of archie bunker."
HOW DARE HE!
there's probably no organic produce in there at all!
and he didn't even bike there!
SHAME! FOR SHAME!
(this message has been brought to you by all the assholes who live in park slope foundation: building a really expensive tomorrow today)
THC: Best food reviews in the city. I once got into it with a gothamist reviewer named Salazar. I was complaining that every food review of his was at unaffordable restaurants in which there's a small drop of food on a huge plate.
He accused me of Philistinism. I accepted.
www.forgotten-ny.com
cool. another review that no one will use because WHO IS GOING TO DRIVE (much less take mass transit) BROAD CHANNEL ISLAND FOR A BAGEL??
seriously. this is gothamist, im all for eating the outer boroughs, but why not make a few posts about restaurants that you wont need to devote an entire day to getting there and back?
As a lark, one should go to these places but instead of THC have a person of color visit them.
And, a hidden camera in a backpack because the camera don't lie.
to add to my comment. dont get me wrong. everything the hungry cabbie covers looks really tasty and his writing gets me excited about it, but in reality, the majority of these places are impossible to get to without a car.
"cool. another review that no one will use because WHO IS GOING TO DRIVE (much less take mass transit) BROAD CHANNEL ISLAND FOR A BAGEL??
seriously. this is gothamist, im all for eating the outer boroughs, but why not make a few posts about restaurants that you wont need to devote an entire day to getting there and back?"
Ah, posted by one who assumes that everyone lives in Manhattan, and no one in New York drives.
of course you need a car to get to these places, the column/guy is the hungry cabbie and not the hungry subway conductor.
but why review a bagel shop with "generic" bagels? tell us where the goods are.
listen there's lots of great cheap food in the city. particularly in your neck of the woods -- flushing isn't it? -- mr. walsh. i just don't think bagel sandwiches are among them.
my complaint is that there very little knowledge behind this writing. don't even get me started on the alcohol reviewer. example: there's a place in sheepshead bay (across from randazzo's) on the water next to stella maris that serves calamari that is sublime. best i ever had (and that includes my neapolitan grandmother's). not to mention the great great (and cheap if you're in a group) chianti's. the chinese seafood places that dot avenue u are so good they would make you cry. i've had really south and central american in brooklyn and queens.
i'm just sick of reading about disgusting glop and fruit and vegetables in season.
for that person that think's i'm a food snob: i, not too long ago, did a hot dog survey of the tri-state area. i was fond of the dearly departed 2nd ave deli, but rutts hutt in nj and walter's in mamaroneck had a certain charm.
i'm now considering, if enough still exist, luncheonette research -- the kind that used to be called manny or moe's and had those white boards with the black press-on letters. tuna on white toast and a black and white (it's not a cookie) is what i am contemplating testing. maybe a lime rickey, although those are rarer than hen's teeth these days.
So WRONG!!! The bagels here are bad. I used to stop on my way to the Rock but now drive right on past. If you want to do an interesting review, why don't you do Mike's Crab Shack just up the road? Or even any of the other places on the other side of the bridge. Very poor choice of a place to review.
"for that person that think's i'm a food snob: i, not too long ago, did a hot dog survey of the tri-state area. i was fond of the dearly departed 2nd ave deli, but rutts hutt in nj and walter's in mamaroneck had a certain charm."
rutts hutt does indeed have a certain charm. it is not the charm of hank's franks, however, which is somewhere beyond charming and into insanity land.
well, you are a snob. don't be ashamed of it.
i dont think slightlynaseuous is a snob, i just think he's a bitter 87 year old hermit.
But seriously, most the The Hungry Cabbie's reviews are of mediocre-at-best places that just aren't worth the schlepp--not just from Manhattan-below-96th, but from just about every other neighborhood that isn't the obscure enclave in question. Now if you could marry the novelty of going to a remote corner of the city with a delicious discovery, you'd have something. Call me a food snob, but ham and American cheese on a glorified Lenders ain't gonna cut it.
part of the problem is that there aren't that many good cheap -- or even mid-level -- places left in manhattan -- owing to the influx of the . . . you know. you need old immigrants and young provocateurs to get a really good cheap eat.
i like stage, but you have to go for that ukranian comfort food and sucelt on 14th (if it's still there) for tamales and cafe con leche, the japanese place on the far end of st marks and the empire szechuan on the west side. moreover, sites like slice, eg, have made places that used to be not so well known -- totonno's eg -- very well known. so food reporting is getting harder probably.
but, in my opinion, the hungry cabbie -- and i'm sorry to harp on you guy, believe me nobody likes a ginormous meal like me -- seems to focus on food that comes in big sloppy portions or that have some kind of gemutlich backstory.
as for hank's frank's hot water much diminishes one of my most important criteria: salty snap.
o and chinese mirch. having a love affair with chinese mirch lately. caveat: fried foods vary, cauliflower app - perfect.
Most of the time the food in question looks incredibly nasty. Seriously - ham and cheese on a bagel? However, I'm always interested in hearing about these random little pockets that he winds up in far more than the food.
Most of the time the food in question looks incredibly nasty. Seriously - ham and cheese on a bagel? However, I'm always interested in hearing about these random little pockets that he winds up in far more than the food.
i agree. well couldn't he be a human interest writer then?
Dear Gothamisters,
Thanks for the input. Just to clear up these questions about this column:
I was hired to try to expand the world of the Gothamist reader. I cover everything that's not Manhattan. This place is tasty, about 50 minutes from lower manhattan on the A train, and in an interesting neighborhood.
Since this is a weblog, I'm really just writing about my food experiences on a day to day basis. My professionally published food writing has a lot more research behind it.
Yes the bagels are generic. I'm trying to say the sandwiches are big and tasty. And I've got nothing against American cheese. Don't order the chicken cutlet however. It's dry. I should have mentioned that. This place, I agree, is not worth the schlep. But if you want to go check out the Refuge and drink at Grassy's and see a unique part of NY, I suggest a bagel sandwich for lunch.
The places I review are always recommended to me by the people in my cab who live in the neighborhood. That's genrallly how I find them and if I like it, I write about it.
Right on, THC. Someone smart once said something to the effect of, "To stop moving, to stop traveling is to die." I think that's one of the pitfalls of living in NYC--it's like an entire continent squeezed down and pinched together. Brains tend to melt if you just go to the same great bagel place around the corner from your little, shitty apartment. Someone above said with contempt (!) that going to some of the places THC recommends would take an entire day. Maybe that's the point.
To A Dude,
It's a relief to hear someone out there who has some perspective. Thanks for looking at the bigger picture. We're not just looking for great food; we'll looking for life outside of the city.
Just don't go looking for a great deal on a used car. Some of these places may get you killed if you have some pigment.
be forearmed is being forewarned. I'm just saying.
Melt? Please stop, stop stop stop.
A Dude,
How did you know I have a shitty, little apartment?
And YES. At heart I am a traveller and what I'm doing in the cab is the closest thing I could do to travelling without really going anywhere because (A) All the people from all over the world come to me in my taxi (B) I find little weird corners of the city like Broad Channel where things are totally different from where I live.
And I'm not ashamed to admit that bagel sandwiches are freaking delicious. I had no idea there would be such a backlash to bagel sandwiches. But that's just it. This city is full of all sorts of people, even that exotic race who thinks bagel sandwiches are gross.
I've never been outside India in my life, but I enjoy the sort of food THC describes. I should say I enjoy READING about it, because it would surely kill me if I ate it. And THC has a great attitude to life and eating, which is frequently the whole point.
"The places I review are always recommended to me by the people in my cab who live in the neighborhood " .. what is difficult to understand about that? Find out what the locals like to eat, go there, eat it, write about it. What could be simpler to understand?
If you keep on writing, then I'll keep on reading.
I went to the Wildlife Refuge yesterday and was looking to go to Baygull Shoppe except I didn't bring the address, and couldn't get it from 411. I love THC's posts on the little-known corners of NYC. You can get all the well-known restaurant picks and Manhattan eats from other guides. THC offers a alternative perspective on the culinary experience. There are 8 million people in the city and only 3 million live in Manhattan, the outter boroughs definitely deserve more attention for their culinary chops. So, right on THC, keep up the good work!
Whoa!!Dave !!!
Dude better take a closer Much Closer look!!!When you say and I Quote :...
"The first thing I noticed when I went to Broad Channel was that here, inside the most ethnically diverse city in the world, is a neighborhood in which every single person I saw on the street was white. I’ve been back many times, and not only have I never seen a black person in Broad Channel, I’ve never seen a Hispanic, an Arab, an Asian, or a Pacific Islander. Nearly the entire population is of Irish descent, although I did meet an Italian girl tending bar at Grassy's who hailed from neighboring Howard Beach....."
You havent noticed while you were looking that we have.. Yemenese,Guyanese,Russian,Chinese,Austrian,Hungarian,Afro- American,PuertoRican,Euro-Spanish along with our pretty well balanced predominance of Irish,German,Polish , Italian and many combinations of the aforementioned ethnic groups.