Maracuja
279 Grand St., Brooklyn, NY 11211
between Roebling and Havemeyer Sts.
PHONE: 718.302.9023
HOURS: Mon-Thu, 6pm-2am; Fri-Sat, 6pm-4am; Sun, 4pm-midnight
CARDS: Cash Only
HAPPY HOUR: Daily, 6pm-8pm; $3 well drinks, $3 pints
MAP: Click Here
SUBWAY: L at Bedford Ave.
WEBSITE: www.maracujabar.com
VILLAGE VOICE SAYS: A classic, comfy pub that takes its name from the Brazilian word for passion fruit (maracuja), the bar features a house drink of, naturally, the Brazilian rum Cachaca with passion-fruit juice, alongside a reliable bar menu of cheap cheese fries and meaty sandwiches. The outdoor garden and the pool table in back beckon a bit more than the digital jukebox, stocked with as many misses (Evanescence) as hits (Blondie).
NY Mag Says
After lying dormant for over thirty years this Lithuanian bar was restored to its 1950s less-than-splendor by a Brazilian-born city inspector, Charles Kaim. In the kitchen, his Colombian wife Connie Ruiz, whose paintings of nudes adorn the mahogany walls, prepares empanadas and tostones in addition to the usual bar-and-grill fare. If a snack is all you need, Kaim will hook you up with free Slim Jims or toasted Pop Tarts, and if he has any passion fruit (i.e. maracuja') juice behind the 100-year-old mahogany bar, he’ll mix it with cachaca for a drink that, as far as sweetness and potency go, beats the many offerings from Brooklyn Brewery on tap. Although old cameras, phonographs, apothecary bottles, an upright piano salvaged from a Bronx basement, and a wooden rotary phone booth loosen up the stiff look of the circular tables, the best place to unwind is the backyard: With its trellises, an array of cooking herbs growing in marble sinks, and the branches of a decades-old rose bush sweeping over the tables, it can rightly be called a garden.
