‘Nobody will ever replace him’

Friends and family said they will miss the caring personality and great humor of Joseph “Joey” Dowling, 58, a longtime Inwood resident and bartender at The Den in Inwood, who died on June 10.

Marianne, Dowling’s wife of 37 years, said Dowling was a bartender for almost 40 years. He worked at the Ye Olde Tavern in Far Rockaway from 1972 until he bought the bar in 1982 with his brother Gary and friend John Duggan and operated it until it closed in 1995.

Marianne met her husband through a longtime friend and the couple was married in 1975 at St. Mary’s Church in Far Rockaway. They had three children, Joseph Jr., 35, Daniel, 31, and Lauren, 29. “He worked nights and slept during the day so we always enjoyed Sundays and Mondays as those were his days off,” Marianne said. “He was good natured and would do anything for anybody.”

After closing the Ye Olde Tavern, Dowling began bartending at The Den, a landmark bar in Inwood, in 1995. Jimmy Boyle, who owns the nearly 50-year-old bar, said Dowling was his best friend. “I knew him for 35 years and he even came in [to The Den] on his wedding day before he got married,” Boyle said. “When I heard he was closing the Ye Olde Tavern, I invited him to come work here.”

During the 16 years that Dowling bartended at The Den, Boyle said he was always dependable and reliable. “He took a day off here and there but he never took a vacation,” Boyle said. “He was a great person.”

Bob Keenan, a 22-year Inwood resident and The Den patron, knew Dowling since he began bartending at the bar. “I got to know a lot of his family and they became my friends as well,” Keenan said. “[Dowling] became like a brother to me and his pride and joy was his family.”

One of The Den bartenders, Randy Dunn, worked for Dowling at the Ye Olde Tavern in Far Rockaway in 1992 until it closed and began working at The Den in 1994. The two were reunited a year later. “He was a great man,” Dunn said. “He’ll be missed.”

Marianne knew something was wrong when Dowling failed to return home from a bike ride in Long Beach in the afternoon of June 10. Though Dowling rode 80 minutes a day on his bike, he knew his grandchildren, Daniel Jr. and Casey Nicole, were coming to his home. “He adored his grandchildren,” Marianne said.

When detectives came to the Dowling home, the family was shocked to learn of his death. “He was in great shape and lost 50 pounds recently,” Marianne said. “The autopsy is still pending but the doctor told me he had coronary heart disease.”

After learning of Dowling’s death, Keenan said he couldn’t believe it and felt for Dowling’s family as his daughter, Lauren, is getting married this summer. “As a father myself, he was supposed to walk his daughter down the aisle in August and it’s heartbreaking to know that that’s not going to happen,” Keenan said.

Though The Den will have to carry on without Dowling, Boyle said the bar would never be the same. “He would want us to continue on and I hope to find [a bartender] that is half as decent of a person as he was,” Boyle said. “In my eyes, nobody will ever replace him.”

Services for Dowling were held at Perry’s Funeral Home in Lynbrook on June 13 and a funeral mass took place at St. Joachim Church in Cedarhurst on June 14. Dowling was interred at Rockville Centre Cemetery.

He is survived by his brothers Edward (Joyce), John (Rona), George (Barbara), James (Carolyn), Tommy and Gary (Donna), sisters Joan (Victor), Doris and Mary Anne, wife Marianne, children Joseph Jr. (April), Daniel (Filomena) and Lauren (Nicholas), and grandchildren Daniel Jr. and Casey Nicole. His brothers Richard, Douglas and Kevin predeceased him.