It’s not very often that I go drinking in east Midtown, but when I do, … you might just find me at Strangelove, located just a few steps to the east of East 53rd and Third Avenue.
Insufferable music geeks of a certain stripe will doubtlessly recognize that address as the location of one of the Ramones’ more infamous songs. Back in the mid-to-late 70’s, 53rd & Third was a notorious strip of real estate for male, teenaged hustlers looking to turn tricks for quick cash from a very specific demographic. As documented in the prose of late junkie-turned-poet-turned-author-turned-punk rocker Jim Carroll and in song by Dee Dee Ramone, the furtive business transactions of 53rd and Third provided them both with the financial wherewithall to feed their respective drug habits and the inspiration for their art, so to speak, although while Carroll was quite candid about his doings with the cruisers, Dee Dee couched his with a bit of poetic license. While he expresed in Legs McNeil & Gillian McCain’s “Please Kill Me” that he could only write songs through personal experience, the protagonist of “53rd & Third” claims to be a Green Beret that served in Vietnam before he stabs his John to prove he’s not a “sissy.” I can’t honestly say if Dee Dee ever stabbed anyone, but he certainly never served in Vietnam. But anyway…
To stand on the corner of 53rd and Third Avenue today, you’d never know such activities ever took place there. But continue walking towards Second Avenue, and you will eventually pass the stoop of Strangelove. I can’t honestly remember when they first opened their doors, but they’ve probably been open for about ten years, maybe? (If you know, do write in). Taking their name, presumably, from either the Depeche Mode single or Stanley Kubrick’s fabled anti-war satire (or possibly both), Strangelove has a raison d'être that is pretty straightforward – “Cheap Beer/Punk Rock.” Being that I’m an avowed connoisseur of both, you can imagine why the place might be a favorite of mine, albeit in a neighborhood I’m less likely to be hanging around in.
I actually drove past Strangelove earlier this week during a woefully expensive yellow cab ride (learn from my mistakes, people), and was suddenly struck by something.
Back in 2012, I’d come across a photograph of the legendary Johnny Thunders, the former guitarist of the New York Dolls and The Heartbreakers, (whose birthday it was yesterday), stepping off of a stoop on a midtown street (although the original source material wrongly identified that street as St. Marks Place). After my initial post, my comrade Bob Egan of PopSpots weighed in with usual authoritative aplomb and extensive photo documentation to support his declaration that the building Thunders was depicted exiting was 229 East 53rd Street. See that post here.
In 2012, 229 East 53rd Street was a wine bar called Cello. Here in 2024, however, Cello has since moved across the street, and 229 East 53rd Street is now … wait for it … Strangelove.
If they don’t already, I’m pretty sure the folks at Strangelove would love to know that. Here’s that picture now:
Meanwhile....
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