I find it somewhat intriguing to uncover evidence of a place or entity that existed but of which no trace can be found on the public Internet. As late as November, 2006, P.J.’s Lounge in Astoria was a biker bar at 34th Avenue and 46th Street, in a space now occupied by a salon named Art of Hair, at what is today 45-19 34th Avenue. It’s unclear to me if P.J.’s would have used that same address.
P.J.’s Lounge on 34th Avenue in Astoria
I never entered P.J.’s but remember it as a biker bar, with a lot of motorcycles parked outside.
A motorcycle shop, J.L. Cycles, was and still is nearby.
Streetview only goes back to 2007 for that intersection, and it doesn’t look like 80s.nyc has it either. I also don’t find any entity by that name in the New York State business registry, but it’s common for names listed in that database to differ from what they did business as.
It’s one thing when the Internet has nothing on a place that closed in the 1980s. But a place still around as late as 2006 seems like it should have left some trace of its existence.
I posted a question about this to a Facebook group. It was a biker bar, and further comments reveal there used to be other pubs in that area: the 34th Avenue Inn, Grasshopper’s, and Magnum’s. It’s a small form of satisfaction in feeling like I rescued something from slipping into oblivion.
Also, P.J.’s in the 1970s was known as The Northern Pub. I find nothing on any of the above mentioned places, but still contend that P.J.’s, in business until 2006, should be expected to have some trace of online evidence that they existed.
Here’s to summoning the memory of P.J.’s Lounge in Astoria.
It’s enough to remind me of what at one point would have been my next big web endeavor: Creating a registry of what businesses occupied places in the past. Knowing that P.J.’s got replaced by a hair salon, for instance, is one of those hyperlocal bits of trivia that can, when the previous establishment is not known, lead to bar bets and black eyes.
