Summer Weekend Guide: Gowanus
Bars
The neighborhood’s real strength, if you ask me. The sprawling (at least for New York) layout of the area means that a way higher-than-usual percentage of the bars have huge outdoor areas, making it especially good for warm-weather bar hopping. And there are enough of them to suit every specific drinking need. For low-key beers, a loose, dog-friendly pet policy, and a dark, cool place to take a break from the heat, there’s Lowlands. “Joiners” will be into the Sunday night trivia (and BYO-food policy) at Pacific Standard, and for the more cocktail-oriented there’s Lavender Lake, which has a completely perfect gin-and-lavender concoction called the River’s Edge that should be any visitor’s first priority. And then there’s the Zombie Hut. Again, something I’m not sure everyone is equally vehement about, but I feel pretty strongly that fruity, absurdly decorated, overpoweringly strong tiki drinks are sorely underrepresented in Brooklyn’s bar culture. Which means you have to be efficient, I’m pretty sure? And there aren’t a whole lot of things more efficient than this place’s cornerstone beverage, The Zombie Bowl, a four person drink so intense—the straws are filled with 151—it’ll sate any and all tropical drinking needs for, oh, a good year or so. Or at least until the next time you come back to Gowanus.
Lowlands, 543 3rd Ave.
Lavendar Lake, 383 Carroll St.
Zombie Hut, 273 Smith St.
Pacific Standard, 82 4th Ave.
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.