Brooklyn’s five best Bars
MIXOLOGY ONLINE delves into New York’s most hipster of boroughs and finds out which bars are worth a visit. Callia Amer took a close look for some exciting spots to have a decent drink.
Knowing that our readers expect more from their bar experience than having a can of PBR cracked open and a shot of cheap whiskey poured out while getting swallowed by a sea of beanies and flannels, MIXOLOGY asked Brooklyn bar-owners, mixologists, and international experts for their favorite Brooklyn cocktail hang-outs.
Oh, Donna
Designed by master-moulder design duo Evan and Oliver Haslegrave, this art deco, flying buttress-ceilinged watering hole has a heart to match its looks. Owner Leif Young Huckman tells MIXOLOGY that Donna seeks to be “a cocktail bar that you could cut loose and dance in, or a party bar you could get a well made drink in.”
While this may not seem like such a far-fetched goal, a New York City law dating back to 1926 requires venues with dancing to have a costly “Cabaret License”, making what would seem like a god-given-right to boogie while drinking a thing of the past in many NY bars. But for Huckman, who has spent over a decade in New York nightlife “those two elements didn’t need to be mutually exclusive.”
Donna’s menu is separated into song title-inspired categories which reflect the bars love of music: “Don’t think twice it’s allright” (approachable), “I wanna be sedated” (complex) and “Ride the lightning” (adventurous). Draught cocktails, and punches, as well as a selection of tacos and sides are also available. Try the “Life’s a peach (and then you die)” made up of Mezcal Vida, Plantation 3-star rum, Peach Habanero Shrub, and lime, served tall and topped with soda.
27 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY 11249
Decadent excellence
How can you go wrong with Absinthe and oysters? Maison Premiere’s antique clad inside sets the tone for its luxurious, vintage concept. The bar is an “Oyster House and Cocktail Den reflective of the staple establishments of New York, Paris and New Orleans.” Donna’s Leif Young Huckman is a fan of Mason Premier because “they are top of their game, and have some incredible talent behind their bar.” Praising the oyster house’s Maxwell Britten, Huckman calls him one of his favorite Brooklyn mixologists, pointing out that he is both a great drink maker and a fun guy to drink with.
MP’s menu boasts 30 varieties of oysters based on market availability as well as the largest collection of Absinthe in New York, to be imbibed with “the world’s most accurate working replica of the Absinthe fountain which once flowed in the Olde Absinthe House of New Orleans.” As one might expect from a Absinthery so rooted in tradition, classic NOLA cocktails are available, but so are some original Maison Premier concoctions including the “Vanderbilt holiday” made with green chartreuse, framboise eau de vie, lemon, raspberry, egg white, or the “Daybreak boys” consisting of tawny port, chamomile grappa, gentian, apricot, and tobacco tincture.
298 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Berry
“If you are looking for a place to have an amazing drink and leave the pretenses at the door, Huckleberry Bar is the place to be,” Huckleberry Bar’s general manager Jon Katayama tells MIXOLOGY. With these morals its no wonder why so many mixologist peers including Jacob Briar admire Huckleberry’s “particularly Brooklyn” personality citing it as a spot which is “really quite unique to the borough.” Owners Stephanie Schneider and Andrew Boggs opened the craft cocktail Williamsburg fixture seven years ago.#
According to GM Katayama, the bar’s focus is “on creating compelling, yet balanced flavor profiles by marrying a deep encyclopedia of spirits with fresh pressed juices and homemade syrups and infusions.” The menu’s 30 seasonally-rotating cocktails are split up into departments of “boozy”, “refreshing”, “adventurous”, and “classic.” Appealing creations include the “Cosby sweater” made with old overholt rye whiskey, stolen coffee and cigarettes spiced rum, lemon juice, gingerbread syrup, maple syrup, whole egg, and nutmeg and the “Drinking at the gym” a medley of brother’s bourbon, lemon juice, bell pepper syrup, honey syrup, peychaud’s bitters, and tapatio hot sauce creation. Delicious sandwiches, vittles, cured meats, cheeses, and cookies are also available.
588 Grand St, New York, NY 11211
Club pub
Clover Club borrows its name from a group of journalists who held monthly gatherings from 1882 until the Prohibition years at the Bellevue Hotel in Philadelphia. Celebrity guests were famously heckled when invited but never turned down invitations because of manager George Boldt’s impeccable perfectionist hosting abilities. Vintage couches, wood paneled walls, and a quaint fire-place lend Brooklyn’s Clover Club the cozy and refined aura of its original. But its quality also matches the eponymous Philly club. Jacob Briars, Global Director of Advocacy for Bacardi praises the bar as “the standout Brooklyn bar” adding that it is ”just a wonderful New York neighborhood bar, but also one of the best in the world, and has proven it year after year. “
The eight-category cocktail menu tells patrons a little bit about each grouping of drink and includes a seasonal section, currently “Autumn spice”, as well as five variations on the original century old “Clover Club” containing gin, lemon juice, raspberry syrup, egg white, and sometimes vermouth. Other categories include Punches, Sours & Cobblers, Collins & Fizzes, Royales, Rye Whiskey, and Cocktails, which as the menu explains is made up of drinks that do not fit into any of the other menu categories. Head bartender of The Gorbals, Christine Kang also tells us that the “cocktails are always lovely and perfectly executed.”
210 Smith St, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Back to Ba’siks
Industrial steel stools line the bar of this warmly lit interior whose décor, as its name would have you believe, does not go overboard. Ba’sik has Jacob Briars and Philip Duff to name a few impressed by its remarkable ability to focus on the essential. The venue is the first Brooklyn venture for former bar-manager/beverage director at The Standard, Jay Zimmerman and co-owner of GalleryBar, Derrek Vernon.
Duff admires Ba’sik for incepting the English gastro-pub concept, in which sous-chefs or junior chefs open a pub instead of a restaurant in order to continue to profit from alcohol sales while producing excellent food. The concept is a “revolution in dining principally because it does not alienate anybody.” There is no shortage of cocktail bars in Brooklyn but these sometimes pretentious often overpriced establishments tend to “intimidate as many people as they entice.”
The menu includes creations such as “Some kind of good-bye” with rum, cacao spirit, benedictine, and bitters and the mezcal, ancho pepper liqueur, lime, sugar, and grapefruit “Ghost rider.” Ba’sik bites include salads, sandwiches, artisinal hotdogs, and cookies. As Duff puts it, this “regular neighborhood bar, doesn’t go overboard, making it literally a breath of fresh air.“
323 Graham Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Brooklyn will always have its lemming crowd. As Donna’s Owner points out, “There’s always some pseudo-ironic drink/shot obsession of the moment that people flock towards.” But the borough is also full of gems, some of which have struck seemingly impossibly balances, allowing them to welcome the neighborhood crowd, attract tourists, encourage people to dance, and turn out excellent cocktails.
