Summer Weekend Guide: Greenpoint
- Photo via Mighty Sweet
Drink
Another area in which the neighborhood has a sort of overwhelming array of options (and yes, more food). Tørst has gotten an onslaught of glowing publicity since opening up this spring, and rightfully so. Nowhere else is it possible to drink a staggering number of rare, temperature-controlled beers served in custom-designed glasses alongside a perfectly designed tasting menu from the attached restaurant, Luksus. At least, nowhere we’ve been.
But even before the opening of the greatest beer bar that ever was, Greenpoint’s long been an undeniably great, unpretentious place to bar hop, with a solid range of tried and true dives, upscale cocktails, and places that fall comfortably in the middle. For the former there’s, Irene’s Place, a Polish-run staple known for its $1 jello shots and jukebox full of Polish disco, as well as Palace Cafe, another longtime neighborhood spot whose demographic skews a bit more towards metalheads. If you just want to sit in a cool, dark room with a beer with a couple friends and not be hassled by anyone, Pencil Factory has been a neighborhood go-to for years, and if you do want to get hassled by someone, the late night dance floor at Enid’s is as friendly as it is sweaty (they’ve got a great brunch, too).
There are also a surprising number of bars with incredibly on-point food options, from the newly-opened Alameda (they’ve got strong, classic cocktails and a foie gras breakfast sandwich), to Manhattan Inn (which, it’s worth noting, also has a perfect, sweaty dance floor after midnight). And then there’s No Name Bar, a recent addition to the neighborhood that serves up ramen (an unexpectedly perfect drunk food), and which locals seem to like so much that we’ve actually gotten yelled at in the comments for publicizing it. No such luck, guys. The people need to know.
Torst, 615 Manhattan Ave.
Irene’s Place, 623 Manhattan Ave.
Palace Cafe, 206 Nassau Ave.
Alameda, 195 Franklin Ave.
Pencil Factory, 142 Franklin Ave.
Enid’s, 560 Manhattan Ave.
No Name Bar, 597 Manhattan Ave.
Manhattan Inn, 632 Manhattan Ave.
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.