I Like Food Is Still Turning Out Bar Food Bangers in Ridgewood

I spent a good chunk of the early '80s blasting hardcore records in the room of my friends Tom and Pete in Booth House at Bennington College, during an era there that very much became an IYKYK sort of situation. In heavy rotation back then, along with the likes of Minor Threat, Adolescents, Teen Idles, and Agent Orange, was the Descendents's borderline-novelty "Fat" EP, with its "hit single," the 17-second-long "I Like Food."

Longtime Ridgewood resident Fernando Strohmeyer, though considerably younger than me, was also a punk rock kid and a big Descendents fan. Like many others apparently, the guy's got a tattoo of the band's mascot on his forearm—so when, after suffering through a sales job at Sysco for a few years, he chased a dream and launched a pop-up business, he called his venture I Like Food.   

"All I had was a folding table, a steam table, and a granny cart for transportation, so I could set up anywhere as long as it wasn't too far from my apartment," Strohmeyer told Hell Gate. "Old Stanley's, Footlight, Dromedary Bar, a few other places that are now closed...I did them all until I got the kitchen at Aunt Ginny's." 

Aunt Ginny's sits on the corner of Woodward and Linden and, even though it's only been around for nine years, it vibes like a battered (but beloved!) neighborhood dive, complete with wood paneling, dim recesses, dense layers of graffiti, and a pool table in the back. Also back there is the I Like Food ordering window, next to an improbably lengthy menu filled with bar food bangers.