Rockaway Athletic Club, 2719 Rosewood Drive: 17 January 2024 6 comments
Well, that was quick, dang it!
I had some inchoate plans to finally get to Rockaway either for supper last Friday, or lunch last Saturday, but in the event the news of the closing spread so quickly, and the crowds were so thick that the club ran out of supplies several days in advance of their announced 21 January closing date.
Rockaway Athletic Club was one of those places I would think about two or three times a year and decide: Oh yeah, I've finally got to try that place out, but in the event I managed to go decades without ever stopping by and having the famous Pimento Burger, and now it's too late.
The State has the story, as does The Free Times.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
(Hat tip to commenter Heath)
6 Responses to 'Rockaway Athletic Club, 2719 Rosewood Drive: 17 January 2024'
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Tom
23 Jan 24 at 10:09 am
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Tom, I believe you are right about Group.
During the '80s Rockaway was a common post-game hangout for a number of city league softball teams. Great memories with good ball players.
Sorry about tracking mud in on our cleats.Joe Shlabotnik
24 Jan 24 at 12:00 am
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Loved going to this place here and there. They had a Zoltar fortune teller machine there and from my knowledge the one in Columbia area. They also had some really cool pinball machines there. Gonna miss this place =(
Brandon
25 Jan 24 at 9:39 am
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I never ate at the original one before it burned ca. 2002 (I remember when it happened as I would've been HS age at the time) and remember it being a pretty intense fire during the night. I remember the building was demolished and rebuilt and they were planning to open with no fanfare and see who shows up and they continued for another 20 years until the property was sold. I also remember George W. Bush eating here when he came to town a time or two during his presidency.
I remember eating with my folks there somewhere in the 2005-08 timeframe once...then during the 2015-17 timeframe I was part of a monthly young adult thing dinner and we had it at Rockaway's several times and that is my best memory of eating there...of the main 3 places I remember us going the most, the only one still around now is British Bulldog since Yesterday's is gone.
Andrew
25 Jan 24 at 10:13 pm
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Does anyone know if the rockaway burger recipe will be continued at another location? This is such a loss for me personally as that burger is literally the best I've ever had, would regularly cross town to get my fix at least once a month. Even though it would lose something not being on the same griddle etc, a copy at another location would at least be a passing facsimile.
BrianC
1 Feb 24 at 9:20 am
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Wonder if anyone was able to rescue the Galaga Arcade Cabinet?
Rick
12 Feb 24 at 7:02 am
Back in the 1980s, it was my favorite hangout after a USC football game. In the late 1980s former USC football player Del Wilkes, who would later wrestle as The Patriot in the WCW and WWF worked as a bouncer.
With this closing I think Group Therapy is the only bar I went to in college still standing.