1. The Fun Chicken At Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs
Remember the chicken? The one that laid a “toy in every egg!”? Well, what about all the video games? Nathan's Yonkers location finally did reopen last year after what turned out to be pretty extensive remodeling. While the menu's more or less the same, the ambience is nothing like how it used to be, and both the fun chicken and the arcade are ancient history.
2. Good Ol' Charlie Brown's
Charlie Brown's Steakhouse was a favorite amongst Yonkers kids of generations past, as onea of the first places where they were taken for dinner in a “real restaurant”. Ok, so it's fast casual, but at least it's got real silverware and plates and stuff, and you can get steaks as well as burgers.
One thing every kid remembers fondly is the balloon you were given on your way out the door, whether or not you'd cleaned your plate. Charlie Brown's still has a location in Staten Island and a few in New Jersey, but that's just too far to schlep a carload of kiddies.
3. Happy Trails To Roy Rogers
Ok, so Roy Rogers wasn't too different from any other fast-food joint, except for the fact that they sold fried chicken and burgers and roast beef and had a "fresh fixin's" bar. Whatever the reason, whether it be the tangy bbq sauce, or the faux-western theme Yonkersites still miss it dearly.
There are a few Roy's still around, but they're mostly just at rest stops on the Jersey Turnpike, so you have to hit the road to get a Double R Bar Burger these days.
4. Otis Elevators, Going Down, Down, Down
The Otis Elevator Company has deep Yonkers roots–it was founded there in 1853 by Elijah Otis, inventor of the safety elevator, and from there the company went up, up, up, installing its product in such famous landmarks as the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower.
In 1983, however, the Yonkers operation opened, then closed its doors for the very last time. The company is still in operation, but their ground floor is now in Farmington, Conn.
5. The Leprechaun Has Left The Building
The building in question being his home, at the corner of Nepperhan and Roberts, with its awesome garden and over-the-top holiday decorations.
And the leprechaun himself? Jess Buzzutto, a 5-foot-tall Irish-Italian who always dressed in shamrock-adorned green clothing and turned every day into St. Patty's Day, sadly passed away in December of 2012. However, the legions of fans who loved him are sure he's found a huge pot of gold at the end of his rainbow.
6. Ghetto Square Has Gone, Well, Square
Getty Square is still very much with Yonkers, but creeping gentrification has brought with it a reduction in the crime that plagued the area back in the naughty ‘90s. While it still has its share of liquor stores and dollar marts, these are slowly being pushed out in favor of businesses that cater to the new influx of young professionals with disposable income to burn.
Typical of these are several newly-opened high-end restaurants like Zuppa and X2O Xaviars on the Hudson. Getty Square even has several farmers markets selling organic produce, now. Yeah, that's about as ghetto as...Gwyneth Paltrow.
7. Clap Your Hands If You Still Believe In Ferries...
The New York Water Taxi company used to offer a ferry service between downtown Yonkers and the Financial District in Manhattan, but they stopped in 2009. No matter how hard you believe, or clap, if you want to get to Manhattan by water, guess you're just going to have to get wet.
8. Not Having To Bother With A Fake I.D. At Dicey Reilly's
Dicey Reilly's was a pretty dicey establishment, all right. Many a Yonkersite had his or her first beer here—at the tender age of 12. Even after Dicey's shut down, their address at 620 South Broadway proved to be something of a magnet for underaged troublemakers.
Today the space belongs to yet another classy establishment, the unambiguously-named Six20 Lounge. Yeah, they did have a shooting incident last summer, but at least it seems to have involved adults only. Yay?
9. An Adventure In Dining
No-one actually remembers the food at the old Adventurer's Inn restaurant, located at Cross County Shopping Center. That's because the main—perhaps the only—reason to eat there was because of its small outdoor amusement park.
The rides may have been a little ramshackle, or perhaps more than a little. In fact, the roof of the Scooter Ride actually collapsed back in 1973, although luckily no-one was hurt. Still, if you were a kid in Yonkers in the ‘70s, chances are you've got a few fond memories of the place.
10. Funnel Cake At The Raceway
Westchester County Fair used to be held at the raceway every summer, but it closed down in the ‘90s. Now Yonkersites jonesing for a funnel cake or corn dog followed by a relaxing spin on the tilt-a-puke have no other choice but to cruise the county looking for those pop-up parking lot carnivals. Now that's what I call unfair!
11. The Rising Sun Sets
Remember this place? The tuna can ashtrays? (Yes, kids, this was in the olden days before all public smoking was banned everywhere this side of France.) Talk about shabby chic. More than just a style-setter, though, this club also kick-started the careers of such acts as Metallica and Twisted Sister.
12. Mulford Gardens, Hip-Hop's Lost Housing Project
Mulford Gardens was Yonkers' largest public housing project, and also the oldest, dating back to 1939. Mulford Gardens achieved a certain level of fame in its later years as home to such seminal rappers as JLA, DJ Superior and Raw Rome, and was even used as the backdrop for several DMX videos and for the Samuel L. Jackson movie “Freedomland.”
This recognition alone wasn't enough to save the Gardens from the wreckers ball, however— the last tenant moved out in 2007, and by 2009 the whole thing was rubble.
13. Getting DIY Supplies At Pergament Home Center
Source Wikimedia user Akhabaiev
This former DIY mini-chain got put out of business by Home Depot, which offers the same kind of stuff, but hardly the same experience. I mean, where else are you gonna go where the chain's founder himself would periodically drop by to inspect the men's john? Pergament had to be the only home improvement store—in fact, one of the only businesses of any type—to declare their motto as: "If the bathroom is clean, then the store is being well run."
14. The Vintage Pool At Tibbetts Brook Park...
Ok, so everyone likes the brand new pool with its sprayground, lazy river, waterfalls and all. Still, though, childhood memories, decades of them, all gone! It's nice, but it ain't quite the same.
15. At Least They've Still Got A Pool, Unlike The YWCA
The YWCA, however, had the nerve to close their pool (which also dated back to the 1930s) for “renovations” back in '99. Well, it seems someone lied about those renovations, which was neither very ladylike nor very Christian of them, since they never did fix up that pool.
16. R.I.P. Ricky's
Ricky's Clam House was one of those Yonkers institutions, a modest, and moderately-priced, little seafood joint. Nothing fancy, just a good place to go for a night out, couple of cocktails, a nice lobster and maybe a steak.
It opened back in 1931, and closed down just a few years ago. Its replacement, Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, is an even older institution in its native New Haven, where the first restaurant opened in 1925. While Pepe's may be a far cry from Ricky's, at least they still have clams on the menu—a white clam pizza, to be exact, one which The Daily Meal has crowned as America's best pie.
17. Showtime At The Park Hill Theatre
This old-time movie house opened in 1926 as one of the area's first twin theaters, a year before it showed its first “talkie.” At that time the theater seated a whopping 500, although it was later converted into a triplex with a seating capacity of 1,105. The Park Hill closed down sometime in the ‘80s, and although there has been interest in seeing it re-open as an upscale arthouse cinema, it seems that has yet to happen. The Park Hill just sits there, silent once more.
18. You Can't Tangle With The Tanglewood Boys
Not because they're the biggest badasses in town, although at one point they may well have been. No, you can't take them on now, no matter what army's got your back, simply because, this one-time Italian-American street gang is no longer operating out of the Tanglewood Shopping Center. Or anywhere, in fact.
The former Mafia farm team kept in training with a good bit of armed robbery, arson, bookmaking and the occasional bar fight, but when one of them finally did some time for his crimes in '97, he turned stool pigeon. It seems his testimony took down not only the entire gang, but most of their Lucchese family scoutmasters, too.
19. Yonkers Fire Department Ladder 70, Gone But Not (Quite) Forgotten
Yonkers, like every other city in the recession-ridden late ‘00s, had some tough decisions to make. And by “decisions” I mean, of course, budget cuts. City services fell by the wayside—teachers were laid off, cuts were made in the police department, and even the fire department felt the pinch, with two of the 18 fire companies being eliminated entirely.
Ladder Number 70 may be gone, but their memory lingers on, at least on their Facebook page.
20. Roosevelt High Goes To College
Theodore Roosevelt High School, alma mater to such notable Yonkersites as Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Halberstam and Aerosmith lead singer-turned-”American Idol” judge Steven Tyler, graduated its last class in 2013.
The building isn't going anywhere, and it isn't even being re-purposed, but it is being re-branded, with a new logo, new colors, new mascot and a new name: Early College High School. Yes, all very nice and oh-so-academic sounding, but still, kind of a slap in the face for ol' Teddy R. Oh well, at least he's still got Mt. Rushmore.
21. What's The 411 On Mary J?
Roosevelt alum Mary J. Blige, whose first demo tape was recorded at the Galleria Mall, went through some tough years, growing up in a Yonkers housing project (not Mulford Gardens). While she's long since moved up and out (most recently to a multimillion-dollar estate in New Jersey), she returned to the Y-O in 2009 to dedicate the women's center that bears her name.
