Joshua D. Fischer - Meet the Regulars: People of Brooklyn and the Places They Love

Copyright 2016 by Joshua D. Fischer

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Some of these interviews appeared in a different form online in Bedford + Bowery and are reprinted by permission.

Photos by Nicole Disser ,

Photos by Calli Higgins ,

Photos by Caitlin McGarry ,

Photos by Phil Provencio ,

Photos by Nina Westervelt ,

Illustrations by Brendan Leach ,

Front cover design by Joyce Lin , linwjoyce.com

Title lettering by John Wha

Jacket design by Jane Sheppard

*Images featured on jacket

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-0385-8

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-0386-5

Printed in China

Note

Interviews are excerpts from the conversation that have been edited and condensed for space and clarity.

Disclaimer

Every effort has been made to ensure that the information on the restaurants, bars, and other venues featured in this book is as up-to-date as possible at press time. However, many details are liable to change. The publisher and author cannot accept responsibility for any consequences arising from the use of this book.

To meet more regulars, visit:

www.MeetTheRegulars.us

twitter.com/MeetTheRegulars

facebook.com/MeetTheRegulars

instagram.com/Meet_The_Regulars

Its a sense of continuity. You thread your history through a place. And when you enter that place, its not that youre just living in the moment; youre living in all the moments that came before. And thats a wonderful feeling in a place like New York where you can feel like a little particle, a little pinball bouncing around. Its nice to feel like, No, this is actually a network of my former self. It runs all through these different places. Thats what makes me a regular.

Jad Abumrad, host of public radios Radiolab

Once you have the cell phone number of the bar owner, then youre a regular.

The Lucas Brothers, twin comics seen on Fox, TruTV, and Comedy Central

Contents

How Do You Find These People?

Im asked that all the time. There are a few ways: I ask the owner of a place to suggest a good regular; I reach out to an interesting person to see if theyre a regular anywhere; I just ask anybody and everybody if they know somebody. However, finding people isnt the hardest part. Whats really tough is sitting down with a total stranger and shooting the shit in a way that you dont weird them out, you gain their trust, and hopefully you get them to say something interesting or meaningful, or at least wild or fun. I find people. Finding their story is what Im really after.

Thats what brought me to the regulars. I wanted to uncover the stories the people around me carry with them from the places they love. I wanted to tell the stories that they might not have told or even recognized they had inside them. And that happens a lot: at the end of the interviews, so many regulars will say they never thought about the things we discussed before. They never had to put into words how they think and feel about the bar, the restaurant, the shop where they spend so much of their lives. I also learned quickly that when you talk to somebody in a place where they feel most comfortable, youd be surprised at how many intimate, personal, and human details they divulge.

I moved to Brooklyn twelve years ago, and I still have mixed feelings about the place. Too many people. Too overwhelming. Too much constant change. And yet, I still havent figured out anywhere else I want to be. One way or another, this has become my home. And in this time, Ive learned I like connecting with Brooklyn. To the rest of the world trying to catch a glimpse of whats become known as Hipster Heaven, the scene became the story. I wanted to reveal the deeper and even more entertaining stories of the real people living in this scene.

I wanted to show where and how these folks lived. Where they drank coffee, threw back beers, partied, and played music. Where they brunched, blogged, broke up, and fell back in love. Where they danced, laughed, punched, puked, and cried. The same thing happened in cities all over the United States and all over the world. But only these stories happened in Brooklyn, where I also danced, laughed, punched, puked, and cried. And only these stories happened in a time when Brooklyn became infamous. Brooklyn is now the cool industry, just as Hollywood is the film industry, and Detroit is the auto industry. And nearly every single blog, magazine, and TV show wants a piece of the action.

When I got here, this new Brooklyn was already on the map. The word gentrification was thrown around well before I arrived. And I believe with my presence alone, Im part of the shift. That made it all the more important and interesting to seek out people like me as well as people older, younger, and definitely different than me to learn their experience, their feelings about the places in their native or adopted neighborhoods. You learn a lot about a person when you hear them talk about the place they call their own.

So why would you want to be a regular? Its about belonging somewhere and having somewhere belong to you. Its about privilege and status. And in New York, thats high currency. This is also a town where you can always be alone in a crowd. And being a regular gives you something even more personal: a sense of home. These are stories about people finding a home in an ephemeral world of bars, restaurants, shops, and clubs that open, explode, and burn out like so many stars hidden in that bright and sleepless New York night sky. Its easy to hide in plain sight here. Its not easy to make real human connections.

I like talking to regulars. I like good conversations. I believe thats really all we have in this worldthe feeling that you get someone, the sudden connection of understanding someone. Even if its shared with someone you dont know, someone you wont know, someone youll only sort of know over a beer, a cup of coffee, a walk among the cool but ultimately forgettable items in a hip neighborhood shop. Thats what these stories are all about: a brief, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant connection with a person who really knows a place in what many refer to as the coolest part of the world. I think youll want to meet the regulars, too.