Floyd, NY

The bocce court started on Staten Island: co-owners Andy Templar and Jim and Pam Carden picked up two truckloads of red clay there and started building¹. It came out 40 feet by 5, with wooden borders¹, and Floyd's own site said the court hosted the city's only year-round bocce tournament, along with Union Hall².

The bar was named after Pam Carden's hometown of Floyd, Iowa, and opened on August 30, 2004¹. Time Out said it was modeled on the taverns there³, with a jukebox stocked with Hank Williams and the Bad Livers, tin ceilings, vintage signs and a salvaged 1870s bar³. Among its cheap options was the Crap-a-copia: for $12, a bucket holding a six-pack of cheap canned beer, Schlitz, Old Milwaukee and Miller High Life among them¹. Back then we told you to celebrate a win on the court with one.

Floyd closed at 131 Atlantic Avenue on December 22, 2024^{4, 5, 6}. The neighborhood press remembered it as the beloved Premier League pub with a bocce court⁵, which is a long way to come from Floyd, Iowa.

It didn't stay gone: in August 2025 Floyd announced its rebirth as The Black Bull, in the old Bohemian Bar space at 97 Atlantic Avenue, just down the street^{5, 7}. Vanessa Forster-Whalen, the familiar face of Floyd, leads it and has decorated it with plenty of British paraphernalia⁵; the pub's site says she draws on the original Black Bull, run by her family for generations in Newcastle upon Tyne⁸. It's geared towards Newcastle United supporters⁹. As The Infatuation put it, if Sunday morning soccer is your church, you should know about Black Bull⁹.