We couldn’t be happier to see Alameda open since the Greenpoint Ave. stop definitely needs more food options.

from eater:

Evan and Oliver Haslegrave, the brothers behind the Home design company, are opening a new bar and restaurant in Greenpoint called Alameda. Brooklyn Star veterans Nick Padilla and Waine Longwell are also partners in this project. Nick will be the chef and Waine will be in charge of the bar. Alameda will inhabit the corner space that formerly housed The Greenpoint Coffee Shop and The Garden Spot Cafe.

Padilla describes this as “an American Bistro.” The chef tells Eater: “The idea is to provide a set list of raw bar itmes, salads and sandwiches and supplement it with chalkboard specials that are seasonal and frequently changing.” The restaurant will serve Blue Bottle Coffee, and the team hopes to offer dollar oysters during happy hour. Expect a full list of beer, wine, and cocktails.

The Haslegrave brothers designed Paulie Gee’s, The Manhattan Inn, Donna, Goat Town, and Torst, but this is their first time building and running a place of their own.

More information about Alameda and a full menu can be found in our listings.

Photo via Google Satellite

The roof of Williamsburg nightclub Output (Wythe and N.12th) will become a 2,500 foot outdoor bar starting on Sunday. From Commercial Observer:

“It’s in the heart of Williamsburg with an amazing skyline view, and we have a feeling that we’re all going to [be] spending lots of time there this summer,” reads the ReSolute announcement. Plans for a penthouse and roof deck were included in the original Department of Buildings application

- @joshmorrissey

After the short-lived stay of light and airy restaurant Bellwether, the vacancy at 594 Union Ave. is to yet again be filled by a drink swilling newcomer.

These walls are haunted by the sweaty dance parties of Williamsburg ‘yore and Over The Eight promises to tip its proverbial hat to what once made this space so successful — “readings, art shows, dance parties, and straight up-and-down good food and music.”

Here’s hoping Over The Eight can tap into the bygone spirit of Royal Oak — the way we all choose to remember it, and not its inevitably douche-filled end. And if Saturday night’s party is any indication, the OTE team is off to a promising start.

Via DNA

Bushwick’s Community Board 4 has started a Sunday no-booze-after-midnight policy for businesses vying for liquor licenses in the neighborhood. The board issued the rule to its first batch of watering holes this month, both for new licenses and for existing spots renewing their permits.

“We’re asking that everyone close at midnight on Sunday,” stated the board’s district manager Nadine Whitted….

Jeff Pan, who owns the cafe and bar Skytown, said that even though he opens early in the morning and offers cocktails all day long, he does most of his business in the late-night hours.

“It would affect me significantly since I have a 4 a.m. liquor license,” said Pan, owner of the bar by the JMZ Myrtle-Broadway subway station. “The majority of our alcohol sales occur after midnight.”

“They’d have a tough time implementing the midnight rule for our location if the argument was protecting the neighborhood from noise from Skytown,” he said of his location on Broadway, an already bustling street. “With us being under the elevated JMZ train, it’s actually the other way around!”

And Ben Warren, who owns local bars The Bodega and Heavy Woods, said he could understand board members’ concerns, but hoped they didn’t try to “overstep their power.”
“I know they’re very concerned about Sundays because they’re churchgoing women and they’re worried about noise,” said Warren, who has attended several community board meetings for his license requests.

“Bushwick has a lot of residential blocks that are planted between the bars springing up in the neighborhood and I know it’s easy to hear a group of people leaving late at night on a Sunday.”

Previously: The War on Brunch

OTB (c/o Eater)

From Eater

Earlier this month, Post Office owner Alla Lapushchik opened OTB, a Williamsburg tavern with a race track theme. The drinks menu includes classic cocktails like Old Fashioneds, Manhattans, and Hemingway Daquiris, plus original cocktails, beer, and wine. The food menu from Ssäm Bar alum Sam Glinn is slated to debut later this week. It will feature bistro dishes like oysters, escargot, frog legs, French onion soup, steak frites, and coq au vin.

OTB Menu

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photo via Thrillist

I noticed a few articles about a new sports bar opening in Williamsburg called Roebling Sporting Club located at 225 North 8th. I was immediately intrigued as I am an avid sports fan who lives in the neighborhood. As it turned out they were remaking one of my favorite ‘burg standbys K&M into a sports bar. I got a little nervous about what it would become after reading this quote from one of the owners to Observer:

“I’m the new Williamsburg,” he boasted. “I’m the type of guy moving here. Those $3,000-to-$4,000 apartments? Those aren’t for hipsters. Those are for guys like me who like to watch sports at 6:30.”

Spoken like an Entourage character, I pictured the place being ripped to shreds and replaced with beer pong tables and filled with the fratty crowds that now form a line out the door of The Whiskey Brooklyn on weekends.

However, I stopped by and was happy to see the laid-back vibe appeared to be still firmly intact. In actuality every write-up should just be the six words “they put some TVs in K&M’”, because the place looks almost exactly the same as it was. A couple nice HD TVs are now behind the bar, and the projector displays sports instead of the old movies they used to show. No word yet if the occasional weekend dance parties that included Mark the dancing Hasidic Jew are still happening, but I sure hope so. On a side note I was inspired by the club and have started referring to my living room as a sporting club since I added an HD TV. The laid-back vibe also appears to still be firmly intact.

Passenger (c/o Thrillist)

Passenger
229 Roebling St, nr S 3rd St; Williamsburg
718.218.7869

http://passengerbar.com/

via

When Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead and The Band traveled across Canada by train in 1970 in the wake of Woodstock, the spontaneous collaborations and rollicking party atmosphere inspired what became the 2003 documentary “Festival Express.”

It also became the inspiration for two music-industry stalwarts, who are about to mark the grand opening of their Williamsburg watering hole, Passenger Bar, on Wednesday Jan. 9, with a roster of well-known performers set to take the stage.

The railroad-themed bar, located at 229 Roebling St. at South Third Street, is intended to reimagine the traveling jam session, hosting musicians from around the city as well as around the world to drink together, play together and perhaps form new creative collaborations, according to the team behind the bar.

“When I saw ["Festival Express"] years ago, it just always stuck in my head,” said music-industry veteran Melissa Aubert, who manages musicians like Andy Rourke of The Smiths, and opened the bar with partner Jay Weilminster, a drummer who has toured with bands like The Kills and bartended on the Lower East Side for a decade. [...]

The railroad-themed venue, formerly a dance club, is packed with subtle details inside its two-story space. The upstairs level overlooking the main room is decorated with a sleeper-car theme, with a high shelf along the wall like old luggage racks.

The bathroom toilet paper rolls rest on train nail spikes, beneath old, weathered postcards on the bathroom walls. The liquor shelves behind the bar are shaped like a train tunnel, and railroad lanterns are scattered around the space.

The reclaimed-wood bar is hugged by a 1,100-pound train rail, which serves as a footrest to heighten the feel of drinking at an old railroad station or saloon, the creators explained.
“The whole design concept has that railroad feel, but it’s very hidden — like you don’t notice that you have your foot on a train rail until someone points it out or you look down,” said Aubert, noting the bar is filled with that sort of “hidden, little detail.”

The grand opening on Wednesday will include an open bar from 8 to 9 p.m., with a set by banjo player Morgan O’Kane at 10 p.m. and a DJ set by actor/comedian David Cross and Jaleel Bunton of TV on the Radio at 11 p.m. As part of its mission, the bar plans to hold a series of live performances funded by Cross and Les Savy Fav bass player Syd Butler. The sessions will be recorded and released as “The Passenger” tapes, giving people who missed hearing the performances in person an opportunity to hear them.

Here’s the film that inspired the concept, “Festival Express.”

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Via:

The Water Table is Brooklyn’s very first dinner boat! Founded by Captain Kelli Farwell, formally of Rye, Dumont, Craft and Gramercy Tavern, it’s a New England style restaurant on the water. For a fixed price, guests of The Water Table will enjoy a three-hour cruise originating at one of the many new piers opening in Greenpoint, and a selection of two of our classic dishes, such as lobster rolls, oysters on the half shell, clam chowder, and delicious veggies, whipped up by our on-board chef. Enjoy classic craft cocktails mixed by our bartender, or try one of our selection of amazing New England craft beers or seasonal wine selections.

While Captain Farwell steams the boat around New York Harbor, you’ll be enjoying quality food and drinks, and drifting away with the gorgeous views of the city that we all love. Grab a date or some friends to join one of two nightly dinner tours!

They need some help launching this thing. Find out how you can help (and win free dinners) here.

Greenpoint is becoming an essential stop for beer snobs. We’re looking forward to this opening from Momofuku alum Daniel Burns!

Before working as the head of research and development for the Momofuku restaurants, chef Daniel Burns cooked at The Fat Duck in England, and he built and ran the pastry program at Noma in Copenhagen. Somewhere along the way, he connected with Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, an acclaimed Danish brewer who has created beer for some of the world’s best restaurants. Now Daniel and Jeppe are teaming up to open a new Brooklyn project that they hope will be the best beer bar in the country.

The bar is called Tørst (the Danish word for “thirst”), and it will open at 615 Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint, just around the corner from the Nassau Avenue G-train station.Jeppe is curating the beer list, which will feature about 20 beers on tap. Jeppe owns both a brewing company, Evil Twin Brewing, and a beer distribution company, so he has deep connections in the world of European craft beer. The menu is still a work in progress, but expect a few selections that have never been served before in the United States. The bar will also have a special beer storage system, where the ales will be kept at different temperatures — serious beer nerd stuff.

In addition to the barroom up front, the space will also have a 25-seat restaurant in the back called Luksus (the Danish word for “luxury”) where Burns will serve a menu of Scandinavian-influenced American fare, all paired with beer. Burns notes: “We want to focus on food that will go well with the beer.” The restaurant will open a few months after the bar up front

Dear Bushwick

Village Voice Says:

Inside the long, narrow dining room, couples talk quietly and a cyclist massages a cramp from his bare, tattooed calf. A small kitchen relays smells of meat and vegetables sizzling in duck fat, of hot oil meeting battered shrimp. Jessica Wilson is the chef. She used to run the kitchen at Goat Town, in the East Village. Here, she cooks English-inspired dishes with American ingredients: A grand pork chop ($20), the centerpiece of the menu, sits on shaved brussels sprouts in a bacon-y vinaigrette. The sprouts pack flavor without adding weight to the dish. This is the sort of simple, seasonal food that might change your mind about contemporary English cooking. Tiny appetizers are ideal with the cocktails (all priced at $10) that make use of many gins and exciting tinctures. Fried potato peels ($4) are a tangle of see-through fairy wings, dusted with salt and vinegar. There’s a fine duck-sausage roll ($6) with ginger-cranberry chutney, but it has a sad, soggy bottom of undercooked pastry (no, this does not make it more traditional). Halved, smoked eggs ($6) with creamy yolks and horseradish butter are squeaky and wonderfully messy. As prices go up, so do portions. A slab of crisp-skinned pork belly on wilted beet leaves ($12) could make a light meal paired with dressed roasted carrots ($5) or a shaved vegetable salad ($9) studded with cheddar. Big, juicy oysters ($11) are hot under a blanket of bread crumbs, spooning with fennel stuffing. A blob of goose terrine ($12) tastes precisely of Christmas: racy game, pickled plums, and enough clove to numb the tongue—Wilson is not shy with spices. A mutton shoulder ($21), though cooked inconsistently, was terrific when it was served tender and pink in the middle. Service is scatterbrained but caring. Twice, something my party ordered simply never arrived (on both occasions, apologies were genuine). Despite this, and the long waits that can draw out between dishes, it’s easy to see why locals like to gather at Dear Bushwick: They can eat and drink well without much fuss.

More information here.