Oh no! Okay, I haven't been to the Brooklyn Inn in a long time, so maybe I'm somehow to blame for this, but I always liked that bar. Now comes word that the bar is to be repurposed into a bistro. What the fuck is a bistro, anyway? This sounds suspiciously like what happened to the Sweetwater Tavern in Williamsburg. It used to be a foul-smelling, graffitied-up liquor barn with a surly clientele, and then one day I walked by and it was a 'cute' little restaurant, with curtains and quaint lettering on the window. Eww.
The Brooklyn Inn wasn't all that special, but it had the sense to it that it had been exactly the same for decades. I don't even think it was all that cheap. But I used ot meet a friend of mine there after work, as it was equidistant from our respective homes. So now it's gonna be a frickin' bistro, I've moved to the other end of the boro, and my friend moved back to Cleveland. Is nothing sacred?
UPDATE: The bistro may not be true after all! What? Something on the Internet turns out to be false? What a world. Here's an Eater Update, sounds like it will remain a bar, albeit a lame one like Magician and Tile Bar. Whooppee.
One Comment
It's funny anyone would get upset about the Brooklyn Inn being turned into a bistro ( and I know that threat was two years ago) because in the eighties when I lived on Pacific St it was a bistro.
It was great place run by a french guy that served basic zinc bar fare and only wine and beer. When one became a regular sometimes an illegal predinner shot of vodka was offered.
This was back when all Smith St. had to offer was Red Rose, dirty laundromats and lard bread. When I returned in the early nineties and discovered it had become a tacky bar I cried.