You come out of the Lorimer L station and do the inevitable two spins around to orient yourself.

It does not work. You look for street signs and landmarks, but amidst the commotion of a Friday night at the five way intersection, you are just plain lost. A bald man on his way to the subway sees you and asks, whereyoutrynago? In seconds, he points and says, around that corner and to the left, you can’t miss the sign then speeds off to catch his train. You never see him again but bring him up every time someone claims all New Yorkers are rude. But who is he? What sort of music did he pause his headphones to help you out?

Maybe the person you talked to is chef and self-proclaimed nuyorican Juan Berrios Jr. as he’s catching his morning train out of Williamsburg, where he’s lived his entire life and where his entire upbringing can be plotted along the New York City grid. (He says he’s probably listening to the Alabama Shakes.) 

As a kid, Berrios lived between Bedford and Bushwick Avenues and walked two blocks to go to school with his younger siblings. As he got older and was given his first pager, he and his friends would move deeper into Brooklyn, goofing around at Lindsay Park, also known as Sternberg Park, until he had to return to his grandmother’s apartment. With high school, Berrios got a blue Nokia classic for his commute to LaGuardia High School, where he studied classical music; baritone and trombone. He played baseball and his lifelong love for music grew, alongside classmates like Nora Lum, who would go on to become the popular rapper and actor Awkwafina. 

“I can only explain it because I’ve been living in Brooklyn for 30 years but as a culture, independence is a real strong thing to hold onto. We’re very rooted in family, in helping each other and being close to one another. Nobody goes anywhere without letting your parents know,” said Berrios, “First time I got to go to Manhattan, first time I got to ride the train by myself, first time I got to hang out with friends without parental supervision and just be jerks about it, that experience of being independent is sacred.”

After high school, he attended college at John Jay, got his first job as a Barnes and Noble bookseller by the World Trade Center and his second job as a manager at a Victoria’s Secret in the since-shuttered Manhattan Mall. 

“As much as Brooklyn’s changed, Manhattan and all of New York has changed, especially around 34th street. When I used to hang out at 34th street in high school, there wasn’t as much traffic laws. Everything was chaotic trying to cross the street, people running across. The buildings themself also looked old and depleted; they were always putting new stores and fixtures in there. One by one the streets started changing. They started having bus lanes, stores started popping up, dismantling all the old historic buildings on 34th street. The only building that’s still there is the Macys building itself. About 75% of that area has changed completely. No original buildings.”

In the wake of mall closures around the country, Berrios decided to pursue cooking. For a while, he studied the ins and outs of the kitchen, from blade work to pastry construction to seven different ways to use a can opener. He’s worked as a pastry chef and now works as the head chef at a nursing home.

The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Molly B. Healy: What’s your earliest memory of Williamsburg?

Juan Berrios Jr.: The earliest I can remember looking out my balcony is 1996, 1997. Everything was bright orange cause the buildings were orange brick, everything was orange brick. The building across from me was an old bank. Two banks, Dime bank, one of the oldest banks in the Jewish neighborhood.

MBH: What’s your perfect summer day?

JBJ: Actually, I had a good summer day. Got up around 7 o’clock, headed over to Coney Island at about 8:30, just be on the beach for like a good two hours on a nice sunny day. That would be a good two hours, walk the boardwalk, get a nice hot dog from Nathan’s. If there is a game, there’s usually one of those Staten Island Mets games, I would watch that. I would usually like to have good tickets, but like a few bucks and then come back home. It’d be like 7 or 8 o’clock.

MBH: What is your greatest strength?

JBJ: Direction.

MBH: What is your greatest weakness?

JBJ: Cake.

MBH: What inspires you?

JBJ: Music inspired me, especially in high school. My type of music was not what people would think my type of music would be. People think I have a very strong base rooted in tradition, in Puerto Rican, spanish music or being in Brooklyn, having hiphop roots, rap roots. I love all that music but my base is more folk, contemporary synth and space type.”

MBH: Top three artists?

JBJ: Daft Punk, The Pillows, and then Linkin Park. 

MBH: What sort of media do you consume the most?

JBJ: Now that I’m getting older, a podcast. More recently it’s this new wrestling podcast, wrestling history of the world. Older wrestling, current wrestling, wrestling that you’ve never heard of. 

MBH: What do you find most interesting about that?

JBJ: It’s such a fan appreciation sport. Not just for the fans, but to entertain the fans. It’s basically for the sole purpose of just making fans enjoy watching the entertainment. It’s all entertainment. People say, oh, why are we watching wrestling? Because it’s fake. Of course it’s fake. It’s entertainment work. 

MBH: What’s a cause that’s really important to you?

JBJ: Transgender rights. 

MBH: If you had a million dollars how would you spend it?

JBJ: I’ll be honest I’d be on the road. I don’t have a license but I will get a license. And I would learn, force myself to learn, to drive.Then I would buy an RV and hit the road to travel and take a lot of photos of places I’ve never been to. I want to experience new people, cultures, and other stuff as well. When you go into a new place you’re entering somebody else’s neighborhood. When I went to California, that was one of my experiences. It’s like, oh, this is how the other side lives.”

MBH: What do you remember about California?

JBJ: A lot of yards. That’s one of the things, like, I’ve never seen a lot of yards other than just walking in Long Island and just seeing yards but that’s it.”

MBH: What’s your coffee order?

JBJ: Caramel latte.

MBH: How do you start your day?

JBJ: Miserably.

MBH: What was your life like during the pandemic?

JBJ: Well, I loved my pastry job, I wanted to stay there. Unfortunately, March 2020 happened and about 80% of the restaurants closed down at the end of March or something. So me being the newest person, because I was still an intern, I was the person they let go. Everybody would be let go but I was the first so I was out of a job for six months. During the six months I was just helping my family, trying to get my mind around things. That’s how I got into photography. I purchased a camera, started just shooting outside, and before I knew it, I was like, oh my God, I feel inspired again. I think that’s what I kept doing. Every time I had something build up, I wouldn’t always blame the current situation but it kind of felt like, oh man, I’m not inspired again, because it’s been kind of taken away. So I had to find that inspiration again. And photography was the next inspiration after COVID hit.

MBH: What are three things you can’t live without?

JBJ: Headphones, a good pair of running sneakers and my cast-iron pot. 

MBH: What do you like to cook?

JBJ: So my main meal that I like to do is coconut curry chicken sautéed in coconut milk with any vegetable but mostly like sautéed blanched green beans so that’s a nice meal. At home that’s a little different. I’m more of a soul cooker. I like to cook heavy soul meals like collard greens, potato salad, different varieties of potato salad, steaks, fish meals. I actually cook good catfish.

MBH: What is your current favorite piece of clothing that you own?

JBJ: My sweater. I have a sweater that has a robot with the two fingers on it, that is my current favorite piece of clothing. Everybody loves it too.

MBH: What’s a movie that made you laugh?

JBJ: Now, it’s not a comedy movie, but this movie made me laugh a lot. There’s recently this movie called Trap [the M Night Shyamalan movie]. Yeah, it’s supposed to be a suspense movie, but it made me laugh because of how ridiculous it got. I’ve seen it twice. First time it was like, oh, it’s supposed to be like suspenseful. I watched it the second time with all the fixings and stuff. Yeah, yeah. Ridiculous. This movie was ridiculous.

MBH: What is your favorite time of day?

JBJ: 9 to 11. Especially in the summertime, 9 to 11 just seems like the perfect climate time. It’s around 70. It’s not too hot, not too cold. You can either wear a sweater, long-sleeved shirt, or a regular t-shirt, and you’ll feel comfortable.

MBH: What tattoos do you have?

JBJ: My smallest one is the first one I got. It’s a representation of a moon behind two mountains and it’s a Gemini inspiration because that’s my sign. Second one is a cartoon snake, again, because I’m a Gemini, but I just wanted something that looked a little cartoonish-y. And I like it, it’s my thing. My third one is more personal. It’s on my chest over here. It’s a purple rose but it spirals into a V in cursive and the V is for my mom. Her name was Vivian but I love her, I love her a lot, and she passed on now.

But that’s why I got it so I could always kind of have her to remember. Even if I’m not consciously remembering her, she’s always with me. And the fourth one is my most impressive one, it’s a half-sleeve tattoo with the skull that is taking a picture with the Canon camera and underneath is a snake crawling around underneath the chin area. I have a thing for snakes even though I don’t have one. I like snakes for some reason.

MBH: What about snakes do you like?

JBJ: It’s not scary. People are actually afraid of snakes. I’ve looked at a snake, I’ve held a snake, and I don’t see fear. Especially the slither and the hissing and all that. I see them as misunderstood creatures.

Meet Your Neighbors is a column dedicated to the strangers of North Brooklyn.

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Photos taken by Molly B. Healy for Grime Square.