By Lillian Rizzo
Behind the counter at the Kettle Black hangs a small bell. Rusty, with a worn thread, the bell announces good news.
The Kettle Black is a sports bar which means that the good news depends on who is playing – and more importantly, working that day. At the Kettle Black, on Third Avenue in Bay Ridge, the bartenders hold the power of the bell.
On a Sunday when both the New York Jets and New York Giants were on television the bar was divided by blue and green. Even the bartenders wore team colors. The Jets played the Cleveland Browns in the early game, followed by the Giants at 4 p.m. The bartenders in Giant jerseys had the first go at using the bell to their advantage. They rarely smiled at anyone wearing Jet green.
Except when Cleveland scored.
“Ha, ha Jets!” yelled one as Jets kicker Nick Folk missed a field goal. He and his bartending partner took turns mockingly ringing the bell meant to be sounded only for a New York score.
Standing in a corner, a group of Jets fans looked pleadingly at the bartenders after a touchdown or field goal. But all they heard was a “yeah,” in unison. The bell hung untouched.
When the bartenders did break down and ring the bell, they sounded it only once, taunting the Jets faithful who longed to celebrate with a continuous jingle.
The Jets could not pull away from the underdog Browns and the fans were left to cheer when a referee threw a penalty flag.
“Can you believe these guys cheer for flags?” a patron wearing a Giants jersey asked a bartender. The Jets scored. A group of fans called out, “Hey boys how about ringing that bell now?” Reluctantly one of the bartenders tapped the rusty bell and turned back to pouring a Coors Light.
With the fourth quarter approaching, the bar began to fill with Giants fans, whose team would play the suddenly woeful Dallas Cowboys. Cleveland tied the score and fans in blue patted Jet fans on the back. “Same old Jets, huh?” they asked.
The Jets and Browns were tied at the end of regulation and the overtime was on every television in the bar, but one, where the Giants took the field. Now the bartenders were silent as they raced to fill so many more orders.
Even when the Jets won with seconds left in overtime, the bell barely rung as the Jets fans chanted in celebration. The focus shifted to the Giants.
But this was not to be their day. They fell behind early, and their rallies fell short. Dallas led. There was so little reason to ring the bell that the bartenders were left to ring it on those rare occasions when the Cowboys looked bad.
The Jets fans who stuck around were not oblivious to this. They began circulating the bar and spewing snide remarks to anyone, male or female, in blue.
The bell was silent. It was payback time.
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