STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — On Friday nights along Canal Street, just off Tappen Park, a narrow storefront at 219 Canal Street drew lines out the door. The building—a rabbit warren of rooms stitched together over time—housed the Paramount Bar & Grill, where a mercurial bartender held court over judges and neighborhood regulars while merchant marines sketched ships on tablecloths.
Welcome back to the Paramount—also known as Joe’s Paramount—once a key stop along Stapleton’s raucous nightlife circuit and immortalized in a back‑in‑the‑day image by New Brighton artist Bill Murphy. This was the era of the Choir Loft, the caves of Demyan’s Hoffbrau, Bay Street joints like the Narrows Tavern, the Green Lantern by the Stapleton train stop, and, yes, as Staten Islanders of the time called it, the “topless bar” known as the Bard of London.
Between 1979 and about 1984, the borough’s stories were traded as freely as the 35‑cent beers. Some might also remember Pete Piffins, a restaurant and bar with shocking sapphire‑colored walls and weekend entertainment, including performances by Tommy Bowes of Tower of Power lead‑singer fame.
With that vibrant backdrop, let’s focus on the Paramount Bar & Grill itself, now a vinyl‑sided building for sale, still standing amid a row of shabby, time‑worn structures…