The NYC Footy Neighborhood Guide: Grover Cleveland Playground (Ridgewood)

Need a funky field vibe? Ridgewood is the neighborhood for you!

Get Stuck In At Grover Cleveland!

There's plenty to be said for pristine surfaces and glossy facilities, but soccer is a rough-and-ready sport at heart - and Grover Cleveland Playground doesn't pretend otherwise.

Tucked into the heart of Ridgewood, this is Footy at its most authentic: a proper neighbourhood pitch in a neighbourhood bursting with character.

A View With Neighbors

Grover Cleveland Playground occupies one of Ridgewood's higher points, and from here the view is unexpectedly good - the Manhattan skyline sitting on the horizon beyond a foreground of two cemeteries, Ahawith Chesed and Linden Hill, that flank the park on either side.

It's an unexpectedly poetic outlook for five-and-a-bit acres of playground, pitches and basketball courts - and having two sprawling cemeteries as your nearest neighbours certainly isn't something you encounter at many soccer venues.

Some History

The land was acquired by the city in 1924 and developed a few years later as Anawanda Park, named for the Anawanda Democratic Club - one of the small, Tammany Hall-style political outfits that ran neighbourhood politics in early twentieth-century Queens.

Their rivals across the local political scene happened to be a rather more direct outfit called the Grover Cleveland Democratic Club. So, in December 1939, when the city renamed it Grover Cleveland Park, the Anawanda faithful were not happy. Losing their own park's name to their opponents' chosen president was a bitter pill to swallow.

Getting There

The L train to Dekalb Avenue is the most straightforward option for most players, while Citibike is another excellent choice if you're coming from North Brooklyn. The M train to Seneca Avenue also serves the area, though it's a little less convenient for most journeys.

The ride in by bike is quick and flat, making this one of the easier venues to reach once you've clocked the route.

Top tip: Grover Cleveland Playground is separate from the nearby Grover Cleveland High School field, which catches out plenty of first-time visitors. Make sure you're heading to the playground rather than the school pitch.

The Facility

A synthetic field shared with baseball and softball, hosting NYC Footy's 8v8 leagues alongside pickup basketball and volleyball right next door. This isn't a pitch that's been buffed for Instagram - it's a proper, well-used neighbourhood ground with a local crowd who treat it like their own backyard.

Thousands of local players have passed through Grover Cleveland over the years, and plenty of NYC Footy regulars now know every bobble and bounce of the surface. It feels lived in - in the best possible sense. There's a playground for younger siblings and future signings too, and enough activity around the edges that the park stays lively well beyond kick-off.

Pre-Game

Ridgewood has quietly become one of Queens' most interesting neighbourhoods, with old-school bakeries sitting alongside independent cafés, beer bars and restaurants that draw visitors from well beyond the borough.

Fresh Pond Road is the obvious destination. Pupusas Ridgewood serves genuinely excellent Salvadoran pupusas - try the loroco flower filling if you want something you won't find everywhere - while Burek's Pizza does exactly what it says on the tin.

Post-Game

Windjammer, on Grandview Avenue, is one of the closest spots for a post-match drink. Better still, it's something of a local tradition to order a pizza over from nearby Fazio's while you're there - the ideal reward after 60 minutes on the field.

If you're after something with a bit more food behind the bar, The Seneca on Seneca Avenue does a smash burger regulars rave about, and has a pool table and a beer list that might just tempt you into more than one post-match pint.

Team Bonding

Head to Nowadays, the sprawling indoor-outdoor venue that sits somewhere between beer garden and nightlife hotspot. Expect picnic tables, hammocks, food vendors and plenty of room for the team to spread out before DJs take over later in the evening. It's flexible enough for a squad that can't quite agree on how big a night it wants.

Stoppage Time

Though competitive, our NYC Footy leagues are law-abiding affairs - but this neighborhood's sporting history involves bending the rules a little.

The Brooklyn Bridegrooms - forerunners of the Brooklyn (and later Los Angeles) Dodgers - used to play their Sunday home games just around the corner at Ridgewood Park, a long-vanished ground near Wyckoff and Halsey.

Brooklyn enforced its Sunday blue laws strictly, while Queens, just over the county line, didn't. Playing baseball for money on the Sabbath was illegal only a few blocks south, but here you could (mostly!) get away with it until Sunday baseball was finally legalised citywide in 1919.

Grover Cleveland Playground has never seemed too concerned with doing things the tidy, official way - and neither, on a good Sunday, does Footy.