He played a huge New Year’s Eve show there. He was also a multi-instrumentalist who would perform shows at Casino in the Park and the Ukrainian Center on Fleet St. He loved the restaurants Robison’s (also in JSQ) Ilvento’s restaurant on West Side Ave (now a school) and White Mana Hamburgers (where girls on roller skates brought out your meals and you could get a steak sandwich for 30 cents). He said he used to love seeing shows at the Stanley Theater in Journal Square. He hung out a lot in Jersey City growing up, so it’s like things have come full circle now that I live here. My 86 year old Grandfather, Bernard Safner, was born and raised in Bayonne.
