“Tee Off”? They don’t call it that any more. And the stabbing happened in the parking lot, not the bar.
That was the defense given by two regulars Monday afternoon at the one-room drinking hole at 124 East Pearl St.
Ricky Rivera (pictured), who cleans the floors and cheers for the bar’s softball team, said his establishment was unfairly blamed for the latest outbreak of violence that has made the location notorious.
An initial police report said that two men, ages 31 and 42, were stabbed Saturday night in a fight “at 124 East Pearl St., The Tee Off Cafe.”
The report came just days after a Superior Court judge snickered while sentencing a man who allegedly bought sex from a prostitute he met at that bar.
“Even I know about the Tee Cafe,” said Judge Richard Damiani.
Monday, Rivera and a bartender on duty Monday said it’s all a mistake.
For starters, their joint’s not even called the “Tee Off” anymore.
Rivera, a friendly guy wearing a cartoon T‑shirt, hugged a woman goodbye as she left the bar on a quiet Monday afternoon just past 4 o’clock. He told her to hug her kids for him, too. He sat back down and sipped a drink with a silent, droopy man at the U‑shaped wooden bar. Three men remained in the bar, including the bartender, who gave his name only as Jos√©.
Jos√© and Rivera, both lifelong Fair Haveners, defended their neighborhood hangout from what they called “a bad rap.”
They made their case as two men recovered from serious knife wounds from Saturday’s fight in the parking lot outside the establishment, which sits in a small strip mall at the site of a former post office at the corner of Grand Avenue and East Pearl Street.
The fight took place shortly before 10:30 p.m. Saturday, police said. One man was stabbed in the chest; the other one was stabbed multiple times in the “upper and lower abdomen area.” Both victims were listed in stable condition Monday, according to police.
Initial news reports echoed a police report, that the fight took place at the “Tee Off Caf√©.”
José got angry when he saw those reports.
“That’s false!” he said. He said he passed by the fight on his way to the bar.
“The stabbing wasn’t in the bar!” he declared, pounding his fist on the bar for emphasis. The fight took place in the parking lot, he insisted. “There’s blood outside!”
“It’s not Tee Off no more,” added Rivera. It’s called the Grand Caf√©.
Police spokesman Joe Avery confirmed that police believe the fight took place in the parking lot; police have no reason at this point to link the stabbing to something that happened in the bar. He also corrected the name of the bar to the Grand Café.
People jump to conclusions about the bar, said Jos√©, because it “has a bad reputation from back in the day.”
A “Nexus Of Crime”
The bar changed ownership in February 2008, not long after cops busted a bartender for allegedly selling crack cocaine to an undercover cop. Police also found crack cocaine stashed in the basement, said Lt. Luiz Casanova, Fair Haven’s district manager.
At the time, then-Police Chief Francisco Ortiz called the bar “a nexus of crime.”
“This is clearly a situation in which the owners of the bar are not making an earnest attempt to work with the police and the community to eliminate criminal elements,” Ortiz said in a press statement.
The man caught in the bust, Jaime Sanchez, pleaded guilty to narcotics charges and is now serving five years in jail.
Cops also seized two packets of cocaine and made four arrests at the bar during an ID-NET sweep in March 2006.
Grand Reopening
Jos√© said those days are “in the past.”
In February 2008, a man named Cruz Vazquez got a city liquor license and opened the bar under new ownership.
“The bar is run differently now,” said Jos√©.
“It’s not like before,” agreed Rivera. “It used to be a bunch of knuckleheads” who would come in and drink.
Rivera, who’s 48, described himself a regular who doubles as a bar back, mops the floors in the mornings, and occasionally tends bar.
The “knuckleheads” who used to come in the bar don’t come there anymore, he said. “Everyone’s cool here. We don’t start no trouble.”
If any troublemakers show up, he said, “I throw them out.”
José added that one of the two men who were stabbed Saturday is a familiar face in the neighborhood. The man is banned from the Grand Café, he said, because he was caught bringing in liquor from outside.
Lt. Casanova said he isn’t aware of any major crime at the establishment since it opened under new ownership. He said he’s only heard noise complaints.
A state liquor commission spokeswoman said the state is investigating the establishment, but she wouldn’t say why. There have been “no prior issues” with the current permittee, she said.
Meanwhile, Jos√© and Rivera are focused on a separate challenge, one that will take place Wednesday on the turf of Fair Haven’s Criscuolo Park. The challenge concerns the bar’s softball team, called Lloyd Street, whose photo is proudly pinned to the bar’s bulletin board. They’ll face off against a Dominican team in a playoff game of a Puerto Rican softball league.
Rivera said he doesn’t play. He called himself the unofficial waterboy.
“I represent,” he said, tipping forward his bright red hat with the team’s letters, L.S.
... [T]his bar has been nothing but trouble and just because it has a new name it is still the same should of been closed down years ago.