In 2005 it offered its antique ships for adoption, asking New Yorkers to pay for maintenance of a favorite ship.
What they see inside is a formal lobby with a floor of tiled marble and a handsome table of carved wood dressed with an antique model ship.
Marc Swanson has constructed a near life-size mast of an antique sailing ship with a square sail of stitched-together old white T-shirts.
Its roaring fire, soft music, antique breakfront, ship models, candles and flowers were in sharp contrast with the tavern's hubbub.
"I know there's something I do that's very John Lee Beatty," he continued, adding that the office in "Dinner" -- with its antique desk, ship models and swivel rocker -- is one quintessential example: "I just see it, and I smile".
No one has ever asked me to do a love scene, and I thought, 'If I'm going to do one, I'd better do it quick.' " The Master Rigger Gordon Laco is a self-described "shellback," as antique sailing ship enthusiasts call themselves, employing an equally antique slang term for veteran seamen.
Behind her hangs a nautical museum's worth of antique model ships and a large gaping swordfish.
There are scores of small businesses on the adjoining streets: bakeries, butchers, grocers, greengrocers, three pharmacies including a pharmacy for pets, an antique shop specialising in old ship models, and many restaurants, including the only Jewish-owned, Kosher Indian restaurant in Paris.
