Can't seem to sink The Frying Pan

By David Freedlander | dfreedlander@am-ny.com

6:27 PM EDT, June 24, 2008

The Frying Pan along the Hudson River was temporarily closed as the owners were unable to obtain the proper leasing permits. Now that the permits have been submitted Frying Pan workers prepare minor renovations at its location at Pier 66 along the West Side Highway in preparation for its opening by the end of the week. (Jefferson Siegel, Jefferson Siegel / June 24, 2008)

A piece of the city's maritime past -- and a beloved nightlife spot -- is set to reopen this week, despite what its fans say was a considerable effort to sink it.

The Frying Pan, a historic lightship-cum-bar, has been essentially dry-docked by the Hudson River Park Trust for the past year-and-a-half.

"They have their vision of this stainless-steel park," said John Krevey, the bar's owner. "They have designed the park for a particular aesthetic and they don't want us there."

The Frying Pan was a lightship, a kind of floating lighthouse, that used to protect the Frying Pan Shoals off of Cape Fear in North Carolina. It fell into disuse and spent three years at the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay before Krevey salvaged it and brought it to the shores of Chelsea.

For 10 years it was docked at Pier 63 alongside the John J. Harvey Fireboat, and hosted dance parties, screened old movies, and became a favorite spot along the water for a burger and a beer. Last year it moved a few piers north to Pier 66, but was abruptly shut down in the middle of the summer when it could not obtain a lease and permits. Krevey says he has cleared most of the hoops and got the OK to reopen it.

Krevey said the trust, a quasi-governmental agency responsible for overseeing the park, did everything it could to keep him from opening.

"It's been horrible," he said. "I'm never going to convince them that an old rusty boat is something worth saving."

Chris Martin, a spokesman for the trust, denied that the agency had put up resistance.

"We want The Frying Pan to open. We just have to do it in accordance with New York City and New York state regulations," he said."

But Julie Nadel, a waterfront activist and member of the trust's board, said the lightship didn't fit in with their view of the area.

"It's almost too real for the government bureaucrat's and landscape architect's taste," she said. "If you want to sanitize the park and add a lot of Disney World elements, it doesn't fit in."

She added that the Hudson River waterfront used to have a Wild West, forgotten feel to it, and it was only things like the Frying Pan that lured people over there.

Now, she said the maritime history of the area is in danger of being erased.

"Enough with the shrubbery and bushes and lawns," she said. "You look at Hudson River Park now and it looks completely landlocked."

The Frying Pan's legion of fans says they can't wait to watch the sun set over the Jersey hills again while sipping beer with their friends.

Frank Apsia, 71, called it "one of the nicest places in New York."

He said he wrote dozens of letters to city officials in support of the bar, and trekked over weekly to the city from his home in New Jersey to check in on progress.

"My wife keeps telling that it's one thing to compete with another woman, but she feels like she's been competing with a bar," he said. "But when it closed, it really bugged me. I can't wait for it to reopen."