Crossing Delancey

Tucked away on a quiet Lower East Side street is a place called Fontana's. I found out about it last spring when I was playing at Bull McCabe's and was studying the league division schedule they have posted there. Aside from not having heard of the bar, I was surprised when I saw its address, 105 Eldridge, which is very close to where I live (in SoDel, as I like to call it). The next day I went to check it out and I immediately liked what I saw: a striking purple-felted table that's bigger than most bar tables (I'm almost positive it's a 4x8). Located all the way in the back of the L-shaped space, near a second bar and below the DJ booth/loft, is the pool table, which is down in its own sort of sunken level. The table has excellent clearance and the only people near the table are players themselves or people using the restrooms. Fontana's does have a live music space in the basement, so a lot of people pass by the table on their way downstairs. I've mostly visited the place on weeknights, which are usually slow. So most of the times I visit I go in expecting to just get some solo practice. But on a handful of occasions I've played some really good people. The last time I visited, the table had been rotated 90 degrees due to a minor reconstruction of the entrance to the basement. I am not sure if they still have a team but it seems that it'd be a great place to host a league night. The top photo shows it the way it used to be and below is how it appeared a few weeks ago during a torrentially wet Monday night, when containers were set about to collect drips leaking from the ceiling. A photo gallery of pictures from the bar's website can be found here.


About 100 feet on the opposite side of Delancey is Lucky Jack's, a place that is very hard to miss. It's got two entrances, one on Allen and one on Orchard. I photographed the place for the Voice back in May of 2005, a couple weeks after I had just moved into an apartment nearby. Like Fontana's, the bar is very spacious and also has an underground space. The Allen Street entrance has a bright white sign outside, whereas the entrance from Orchard is much more understated. The first thing one notices walking by on Allen is the red pool table right there by the large windows, which are often open when it's nice out. I actually hung out there quite a bit in my first few months of living here. Thanks to fellow photog Pete Taylor for shooting this picture of me breaking with his camera phone way back when. I was actually with Pete when we came across the Whiskey Ward, where we started playing exclusively. At any rate, all the people at LJ's are cool, I actually got to know the bartenders and many regulars. A lot of excellent players to boot. But the place is just too narrow for a pool table. Granted, it's a common problem for bars in New York. But my general rule of thumb is that I stay away from places that require short cues. Still, I give kudos to LJ's for making the table so prominent near one of the entrances. That's got to be a fairly big draw. When it's crowded though, as it inevitably gets, forget trying to play a real game. Last I heard, LJ's league team (most of which came from Bull McCabe's) had disbanded and started a new team up at O'Hanlons. Below is a shot of a mischievous Jack Russell Terrier named Sprocket who managed to hop onto the table and get ahold of one of the balls.