It’s late afternoon on the day after Labor Day, and Smithereens drummer Dennis Diken is at Center Bar and Pizzeria, a two-story, brick-faced building without identifying signage that’s surrounded by houses in the New Jersey community of Port Reading.
Diken — who was raised in nearby Carteret — has a history of sorts with Center Bar, describing it as a hangout of his in the 1970s. As the no-frills dining room’s air conditioners hum and with a glass of Kona Big Wave on the table in front of him, Diken transitions to recollections of other bars from his early adulthood, most of them long gone.
About 10 minutes later, Smithereens guitarist (and fellow Carteret High School graduate) Jim Babjak enters with a sheepish smile, apologizing for his traffic-delayed arrival. After greeting Diken and claiming the chair to his left, Babjak orders a beer and quickly finds his place in the ongoing conversation, reacting to Diken’s memories of bygone businesses with details and anecdotes of his own.
