Geffken's Bar

This is the former location of Geffken's Bar.

It is located at 9508 Flatlands Avenue in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.

Geffken's served as a hangout for mobster Paul Vario, who was a caporegime in the Lucchese crime family.

It was established in 1912 by the Geffken family, who had maintained a presence in Canarsie since 1874.

In 1971, the Geffken family sold the property to Vario's friend, Peter Abinanti, for $40,000.

Following the purchase, Vario and his crew turned the old German bar into one of their headquarters.

Vario conducted most of his criminal business at Geffken's and a nearby junkyard.

His crew's operations included hijackings, bookmaking, loansharking, and fencing stolen property.

During the 1980s, the FBI reportedly tapped the phones of a neighboring business on Flatlands Avenue in an attempt to record conversations happening inside the bar.

According to the book "Mob Boss: The Life of Little Al D'Arco", by Jerry Capeci and Tom Robbins, Vario moved to the house in Brooklyn after his wife kicked him out of their family home in Island Park:

"If he couldn’t give Al D'Arco his button, Paul Vario did the next best thing. On a snowy Sunday in late 1974, the captain told Al to come out to Canarsie to meet him at his headquarters, a bar called Geffken's on Flatlands Avenue. Vario was fifty-nine years old and feeling all of his years. A bear-sized man with glasses and multiple chins, he was living in an apartment above the tavern because his wife had kicked him out of his home in Island Park in Nassau County after discovering his dalliance with a mistress."

Vario was convicted of fraud in 1984 after his former associate Henry Hill agreed to turn state witness.

One year later, he was convicted of extortion and sentenced to an additional 10 years in prison.

On May 3rd, 1988, he died of respiratory failure in prison.