THEN
Photo courtesy of Massa’s Tavern
LAST CALL for Massa’s Tavern Regulars and relatives say good-bye to a beloved bar By Tara Ryazansky
M
assa’s Tavern is a small bar. You might pass by without noticing it. But it holds a lot of Bayonne history. Now, the owners, bartenders, and regulars get ready to say goodbye. “It’s too bad that Bayonne is losing the corner bars,” says bartender Mike Lisk, a cousin of the owner. “I’ve heard people throw out numbers, like at one time Bayonne had maybe a 100 corner bars. I can’t really vouch for that number, but they are dwindling. Massa’s is a major casualty. The customers will talk about other bars. They’ll sort of share the lore.” The lore of Massa’s starts just after the end of Prohibition. “In 1934 my great grandfather, Joe Massa, applied for the liquor license,” says John DeCesare who owns the bar with his wife Erin. “He happened to be second in line that day, so he got the second license. We still have
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that. I’ve been told that we’re the oldest continually family-owned business in Bayonne,” Erin says, “They used to have all these ordinances about women being in the bar, so they would sit downstairs. The backroom downstairs, which is a storeroom now, was where the women had to drink. They had to ring a bell to have the drinks brought to them. There’s so much history here.”
No Food, No Frills The building is older than the bar, which was once a candy store. John’s family purchased it around 1908 when they first immigrated to the United States from Northern Italy. It’s been updated over the years and is currently for sale. “It’s been hard for us to walk away from it,” John says. “We were closed for eight months because of COVID. My mother is aging and needs more care. It
just seems like the right time for so many reasons. It’s hard to be the person to step away from it because it has been here for so long. When I walk in here, even after being away for a long time, it just seems like it’s timeless. No matter what goes on out there you still have the same crowd of guys in here just having a drink. It’s a blue-collar bar, all locals.” “There’s nothing like it anymore,” Erin adds. “That’s why it’s such a loss that we are closing. It’s no frills, no food, just good friends coming in to drink. It’s like being at home in your living room. Everyone knows each other. It’s just such a wonderful vibe and such camaraderie. There’s loyalty. People have been coming for years and decades and decades.” “I’m not planning on selling the liquor license,” she says. “That’s not part of the sale. My dream and my goal is to bring it back at some point.”
