DIRTY WORDS
New book uncovers Brooklyn’s garbage-filled island
COURIER L 44 IFE, NOV. 22-28, 2019
THE BIG
CHEESE Down and dirty: A new book examines the history of a garbage-filled island that once
By Bill Roundy Now everyone can get a seat at the Table!
Beloved pizza joint Table 87 has more than
doubled the size of its original Atlantic Avenue
location. The mini-chain, which also has spots in
Gowanus and in Industry City, has taken over the office
space next door, giving it room for another coal oven, 70
new seats, and a 23-tap bar serving beer and wine.
The expansion was sorely needed, said the pizzeria’s
owner, because the space had become intolerably busy,
with customers facing waits of up to 90 minutes for a pie.
“People would wait, but for me, it was nauseating to
make people wait that long,” said Thomas Cucco, a Bay
Ridge native who now lives in Midwood.
With the new space and a new oven, he says, the
wait for a pizza is never more than 30 minutes, and the
restaurant can accommodate a lot more people at one
time. Its original dining room could only hold about 20
people, said Cucco — and it filled up quick.
“We were known as a boutique place — if you got a
seat, you were lucky,” he said.
The new space can hold up to 90 people, and the extra
dining area can also be reserved for special occasions and
for kids’ birthday parties, said Cucco, something that was
difficult to accommodate before.
The pizzeria’s new bar, which serves mostly Brooklynmade
brews, caters to those looking to stop in for a quick
beer and a slice, noted Robert Cucco, operations manager
for the chain and Thomas’s son.
Table 87, named for its location at 87 Atlantic Avenue,
opened in 2012, when that stretch of the avenue was fairly
desolate, noted Thomas Cucco. But the completion of
Brooklyn Bridge Park, just a few blocks away, led to an
increase in foot traffic, and with new residential buildings
set to open soon on the Park’s Pier Six and in several other
locations nearby, he expects business to keep increasing.
“I love the expansion of the neighborhood,” said the
elder Cucco. “When we opened, I knew that Brooklyn
Bridge Park was coming, and when the Park came, the
people came.”
Visit the newly expanded Table 87 87 Atlantic Ave.
between Hicks and Henry streets in Brooklyn Heights,
(718) 797–9300, www.table87.com. Open Sun–The, 11:30
am–10 pm; Fri–Sat, 11:30 am–11 pm.
By Bill Roundy Have an ice time!
Prospect Park opened its
ice skating rink this week,
letting Brooklynites strap on their
skates for the first glide of the
season. The frozen water rink at the
LeFrak Center at Lakeside officially
opened at 10 am on Nov. 20, and will
remain open every day — including
Thanksgiving and Christmas — until
Spring melts it away, said one Park
spokeswoman.
“Prospect Park Alliance is excited
to welcome the public for another
winter season on the ice at Lakeside,”
said Deborah Kirschner.
The LeFrak Center features two
ice rinks — one covered, and one
fully out-of-doors, but for now, only
the covered circle of ice is open.
The outdoor rink is expected to open
in early December, but the weather
makes an exact date difficult to pin
down, said a Park rep.
Along with skate stars gliding
along the ice, the winter season will
also feature several sports on the
Prospect Park ice rinks, including
curling, hockey and broomball.
Classes and leagues for the sports
will begin in December, and the rinks
should remain open until mid-April,
depending on the weather.
For those who feel a little unsteady
on their blades, “booster” classes are
available this Saturday and Sunday at
10:30 am. The class costs $40 for one,
or $70 for two.
Prospect Park’s full “Skate School”
will begin in December, and this year
the classes will offer some real expert
instruction: Leading the team will be
Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov,
skaters who represented the United
States in the 2006 Winter Olympics
in Torino, Italy.
“We are delighted to have
Olympians Melissa Gregory and
Denis Petukhov co-directing the
Skate School, and bring their talents
in developing innovative sports
programming and youth development
to Lakeside,” said Kirschner.
Go skating at LeFrak Center at
Lakeside (171 E. Drive in Prospect
Park, enter on Ocean Avenue between
Parkside Avenue and Lincoln Road,
www.prospectpark.org). Open Fri, 10
am–8 pm; Sat, noon–9 pm; Sun, noon–
5 pm. Weekday hours vary. Admission
$7.50 weekdays, $11 Sat, Sun, Friday
nights, and holidays. Skate rental $8.
HBy Rose Adams istory has never been so
trashy!
A new book dives into the
Brooklyn’s filthy past, unearthing the
story of those who handled — and
lived among — New York City’s
garbage. The author of “Brooklyn’s
Barren Island: A Forgotten History,”
said that the immigrant and African-
American workers who lived on the
trash-filled island in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries were overlooked
even while thousands of them toiled
in service to the city.
“People kind of ignored them —
they were seen as part of the garbage,”
said Miriam Sicherman, who will
read from her book at a Williamsburg
bookstore on Nov. 24.
The historian and elementary
school teacher first learned about
Barren Island from a book about
garbage disposal, and dug through
old newspaper articles, city records,
and oral histories to bring the island’s
history to life.
Barren Island once floated off of
Marine Park, in the area still known
today as Dead Horse Bay. Black
workers began traveling to the island
in the 1850s to process trash, and
soon, their families moved with them.
Irish, German, and Eastern European
sanitation workers followed, and by
1910, about 18,000 residents lived
across the locale, census data reports.
Life in Barren Island was not easy
— most of the inhabitants worked
in garbage and fishing factories,
where they processed dead horses,
household trash, and fish products,
the book describes. Government
agencies turned up their noses at the
inhabitants, and with no running
water or city fire department, blazes
would frequently devastate the
community.
There were some upsides to
living off the grid, noted Sicherman.
Locals took advantage of the lack of
government oversight to sell booze
without regard for liquor laws,
and they owned semi-feral hogs
decades after the city had banned
the animals, which served both
garbage-disposals and a source of
bacon — at least, until government
officials gunned down most of the
porcine beasts in 1909. And the
island immigrants had more space
than those crowded into tenements
in the Lower East Side.
“On the bright side, they had a lot
of freedom,” Sicherman argued.
That freedom lasted until the
1930s, when the water around the
island was filled in, connecting the
area to the mainland and creating
Floyd Bennet Field. In 1936, city
planner Robert Moses kicked out the
last remaining residents to build the
Marine Parkway Bridge, and Barren
Island was soon forgotten.
“Brooklyn’s Barren Island” launch
party at Spoonbill and Sugartown 218
Bedford Ave. between N. Fourth and
N. Fifth streets in Williamsburg, (718)
387 –7322, www.spoonbillbooks.com.
Nov. 24 at 5 pm. Free.
Table 87 expands
on Atlantic Avenue
housed a vibrant community. Miriam Sicherman
Blade runners: The ice skating rinks at
Lefrak Center in Prospect Park will be open
all winter. Photo by Stefano Giovannini
Robert and Thomas Cucco stand in the new dining room of Table
87 on Atlantic Avenue. Photo by Bill Roundy
Skate o’clock!
/www.table87.com
/www.prospectpark.org
/www.spoonbillbooks.com
/www.table87.com
/www.prospectpark.org)
/www.spoonbillbooks.com
