Here are a few scenes from the memorial today for Dennis Zentek, the co-founder and owner of d.b.a. who died on March 23. The afternoon began at the Marble Cemetery on East Second Street followed by a New Orleans-style Second Line Parade …
By EventPhotosNYC
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Photo by peter radley
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Photo by Bobby Williams
As a tenant whose back window looks down on the DBA beer garden - I am going to miss Ray and Dennis. When they came, the building was greatly improve. After they themselves rolled up their sleeves and went down into the sub basement and cleaned it out (and it was a mess too), we never had another cockroach. After the beer garden opened, nobody got burglarized again. Yes, sometimes it got a little noisy back there, but it was live and let live. They didn't bother me about feeding the birds and I didn't complain about the sometimes noise. Compared to the other monsters who owned and ran the bar under other names, they were two angels. No more murders in the bar or the building. No more drug turf war (like when it was the Port O Call). Dennis and Ray are gone too soon and will be sorely missed by all who knew them. Rest In Peace you guys. You will not be forgotten any time soon.
ReplyDeleteAnne! My friends and I always thought you fed the pigeons as a way of annoying the patrons/owners -- bringing them onto the "roof" of the back area. You know, sometimes the pigeons got stuck in the area where the roof-thing joined the building.
ReplyDeleteWonderfully joyful pics......thank-you.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry you thought I was feeding the pigeons to annoy Dennis and Ray. I ADORED them both and they knew it too. Ask all the bartenders. I RARELY complained about any noise at the beer garden. Maybe two or three times in all the years they were there (I was cranky LOL). The pigeons got/get fed because they're very hungry. Especially during the winter cold, they suffer without some assistance from people. In captivity, that is, being fed and well cared for, a pigeon can live twenty some years. Feral NYC street pigeons are lucky if they even last eighteen MONTHS. The pigeons got trapped in the area you speak of because of those plastic sheets which were eventually replaced (thank goodness). I originally fed the pigeons at the cemetery but it eventually got to be too much for me to lug all that bird seed back and forth. It was easier to just go up to the roof. Anyway, I hope we got that straightened out. I am very sorry about Dennis and Ray and am very worried about the future of the DBA. I'm crossing my fingers a way can be found to keep it going.
ReplyDeleteOh as for feeding them on the beer garden roof, that's not where I fed them. I fed them on my building's roof. That was a different tenant who used to dump bird seen on the beer garden roof but he stopped eventually and you're right - I believe it was a spite thing but it had nothing to do with myself..
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