Brooklyn Beer Bar Guide: Crown Victoria
Deep in the guts of South Williamsburg, right by the water, Crown Victoria provides something that’s a premium in Brooklyn — wide-open space. See what you’ve been missing after the jump…
Number of Taps: They’ve got 24 beers on tap, which is nice, because everyone loves options. The draft list isn’t all that adventurous, but it’s always nice to see the Lagunitas Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ on tap. Plus, they do pitchers, which is a rarity in these parts.
Bottle Selection: Fairly standard, but in the summer they do a can special. Usually it’s Shiner’s Ruby Redbird, at $5 a can, which isn’t a bad deal at all. They also have an impressive whiskey selection if thats more your thing.
Vibes: Crown Victoria is the Jekyll and Hyde of bars. By day, parents drink beer while their progeny fling handfuls of sand at each other by the bocce court. By night, rising NYU juniors scream lyrics to Missy Elliot songs in the front and wobble in high heels in the backyard gravel. The bar gets really busy at night, but there are cocktail waitresses in the back, which makes things a little easier.
Music: There’s a DJ on the weekends that spins some decent mainstream rap and dance-y music — the kind of stuff that gets a crowd moving.
Seating: One thing the bar excels at is seating. There’s a ton of space in the front and back yard, as well as tables, booths and a long bar inside. Even still, it tends to fill up pretty quick, so if you actually want to have a seat, get there early.
Price: Reasonable.
Outdoor Space: This is the reason so many people come to Crown Vic. This bar has more outdoor space than I’ve seen in bars in cities where it does not cost an arm, a leg and your cat’s kidney to rent an apartment bigger than a shoebox. There’s a front yard lined with picnic tables that closes around midnight in addition to a huge backyard, replete with ping-pong tables, bocce ball courts and a broken-down tractor. There’s a ton of space here, so no matter how hellish it is inside, there’s always some room for you to hang outdoors.
Food: Delicious, standard pub fare, including a fried green tomato sandwich and killer fries.
Typical Crowd: Weeknights tend to draw people who live in and around the area, while on weekends, its anything from parents having birthday parties for baby Hamilton and intrepid Manhattanites who rarely venture south of Catbird.
Dog Friendly: Sadly, nope.