* Huckleberry Bar
image c/o NY Mag
CUISINE: A fancy cocktail bar with sandwiches, cheeses, and appertizers
LOCATION: 588 Grand Street, Brooklyn NY 11211
between Leonard and Lorimer
PHONE: 718.218.8555
HOURS: 4pm-4am every day
CARDS: all major
MAP: Click Here
SUBWAY: L Train to Lorimer
MENU: click here
WEB: www.huckleberrybar.com
MYSPACE: www.myspace.com/huckleberrybar
EATER SAYS: Bars are a dime a dozen in Williamsburg, but the pedigree of the team behind Huckleberry Bar sets it apart from the pack (two clichés in one sentence!). Owners Stephanie Schneider and Andrew Boggs and chef Seth Johnson have all done time in one or more of Danny Meyer's joints. They are offering, per Lady Strongbuzz, 'well-valued wines by the glass, inventive seasonal cocktails and carefully chosen imported and domestic beers' as well as small plates (natch). It all seems a bit fancy for East Williamsburg, but hey, if Wombat can survive over there...
NY MAG SAYS
The classic-cocktail movement has yet to make many inroads into Williamsburg, that hipster nexus where PBR and its ilk remain the sentimentally ironic quaff of choice. Sensing a void, and eager to deploy the mixology skills she honed at Hearth and Blue Smoke, Stephanie Schneider seeks to raise the neighborhood's mixed-drink-and-small-plate standards at the just-opened Huckleberry Bar. Schneider and her partner, Andrew Boggs, are both seasoned veterans of Danny Meyer Enterprises, so it's no wonder their speech is peppered with gastro-cultural signifiers like "seasonal," "high-quality ingredients," and "hospitality-driven."Apply those buzzwords to an ambitious, high-minded bar, and you end up with house-made grenadine in your Agave Sunrise, fennel marmalade on your homemade English muffin, and red and yellow beets pickled in gin and plated with Stilton and walnuts. A distinct southern accent is evident in chef Seth Johnson's boiled peanuts and hard-boiled eggs garnished with red-eye gravy or Winston-Salem hot sauce. The obligatory meat-and-cheese plates are on offer, too, as are desserts like chocolate cooked cream with huckleberry jam, and the plan is to keep the kitchen open late into the night. Classic and seasonal cocktails may take center stage, but the owners claim as much pride in their carefully selected wines and beers and invite you to enjoy them, as long as this temperate weather holds, in the serene garden out back.
CITY SEARCH SAYS
Though you might not expect much from its desolate Grand Street digs, Huckleberry Bar gussies up the neighborhood with a mix of modern style and throwback cocktails. With three main seating areas and a back garden, there are tables a'plenty, but the many specialties behind the bar--homemade grenadine and infused vodka, rum, and vermouth--tend to keep the crowd perched at the high-backed bar stools. The overall vibe of boozy warmth also persuades drinkers to sample the eclectic goods from the kitchen. Hits: Classics such as the sherry flip, sidecar, and Gibson ground the cocktail menu, but imaginative bartenders flex their skill with seasonal ingredients such as fennel, ginger, and lapsang souchong tea. Misses: Beer drinkers should find the back garden spacious and low-key, but the wood chip-strewn yard leads to wobbles that those with precious cocktails--or stiletto heels--may not appreciate.
Comments
this place is cute and all, but i'm sorry - isn't $8.00 a little much to pay for a jack daniel's on the rocks? here? on grand street? on the other hand, that was a delicious manhattan.
Posted by: bryan | April 6, 2008 04:27 AM