Schweizer Nurseries

Photograph: Dave Sanders

“We don’t have a lot of cool things here,” warns the first Grant City resident I meet off the train. Like much of Staten Island, the neighborhood doesn’t scream cosmopolitanism: Though Russians, Albanians and Chinese have joined its long-standing Italian and Irish populations, it retains an Anytown, USA, feel, with clipped lawns, clapboard houses and Old Glorys aplenty. There are cool things, though—they’ve just been around so long the locals take them for granted.

After a moment’s consideration, I’m pointed toward Schweizer Nurseries (2051 Richmond Rd at Midland Ave, Staten Island; 718-351-0917), a family-owned holdout on the increasingly strip-malled Richmond Road. It dates from 1932, when current owner Conrad Schweizer’s father hand-dug the terraces that cascade spectacularly down its hillside. Fruit and vegetables are specialities: Last year, the Schweizers produced a banana in their personal greenhouse. The project cost $300—that’s an expensive banana. “Yeah,” Conrad’s wife, Leona, agrees. “But it’s the only Staten Island banana.”

Leona points me up Todt Hill Road, toward the Moravian Cemetery (2205 Richmond Rd at Todt Hill Rd, 718-351-0136) and its azaleas, rhododendrons and Japanese maples. The graveyard includes the Vanderbilts’ first mausoleum, and headstones go as far back as 1740, commemorating the dead of the Revolution, the Civil War and September 11. The cemetery’s official historian, Richard L. Simpson, who offers walking tours, insists it’s “more than a cemetery, it’s an outdoor museum”—and, with 113 acres of bird-speckled lakes and undulating lawns, it’s also one of New York’s most peaceful gardens.

Midland Beach

Photograph: Dave Sanders

On Simpson’s recommendation, I visit the tavern opposite the train station. Open since 1939, the Corner House (102 Lincoln Ave at N Railroad Ave, 718-667-9856) is a traditional locals’ bar—jukebox, neon Bud sign, police-shield motifs on the woodwork. “My grandfather brought me here when I was a boy, and now I bring my own grandkids,” one patron reports. “It’s pretty much the same.” The dining room’s burgers, neighborhood favorites, start at eight bucks; seafood entrées are pricier.

Tom, the Corner House’s barman, says that last century the road from the station to Midland Beach (south of Father Capodanno Blvd at Midland Ave) was crowded with bars servicing vacationers. These days, Midland Avenue is residential, and the roller coasters have left the shore. A well-kept boardwalk and fishing jetty remain, as does the clean, orangey sand that stretches almost to the distant Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. In summer there’s handball and shuffleboard, and the playground and Sea Turtle Fountain are reliable kid-pleasers.

Buses run the couple of miles from the sea to the Staten Island Railway station, but if you walk back you can treat yourself at Nunzio’s Pizzeria (2155 Hylan Blvd at Midland Ave, 718-667-9647). Staten Island’s best-loved slice with its firm, pliant dough, layered with fresh ingredients—zingy tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil—makes you want a pie all to yourself. Manager Robert Dellacamera is confident of its quality. “I went to Italy,” he says. “I was disappointed.”

NEXT STOP: Staten Island ferry to St George