Red Hook Tavern Opens a Dark, Moody Cocktail Bar with The Best Burger in Town

By Scott Lynch

The Tavern Next Door is located at 327 Van Brunt Street, between Sullivan and King Streets, and is currently open for drinks and dinner starting at 5:00 p.m. daily, with the kitchen closing at 9:30 

Let’s get this out of the way quick and early: Billy Durney’s brand new cocktail bar Tavern Next Door serves the exact same burger—huge, juicy, dry-aged, beefy, blanketed with melted American, bottomed with a thick slice of onion—as his famously line-plagued Red Hook Tavern, which is located, as the name of the new spot suggests, right next door.

In fact, the two places share the same kitchen, so precisely the same people will cook your burger (a non-negotiable medium-rare, obviously), no matter which side of the wall you’re sitting on. And as of last Tuesday, when my buddy Mike and I sidled into our comfy banquette at Tavern Next Door, we were surrounded by multiple empty seats even as the usual line ran down the block at the OG Tavern.

Dry-aged Red Hook Tavern burger, $34 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

You may have read elsewhere that the Tavern Next Door version of the fabled burger is actually a pair of sliders, but that’s no longer true. According to Conor Johns, the bar director here, the sliders were more of a “friends and family” early experiment and have since been 86ed. Everyone at both establishments now gets the same cheeseburger.

(Photo by Scott Lynch)

So that’s the burger part of this story, but there’s a lot of other awesome stuff going on here too. At its core, Tavern Next Door is, as Durney put it, “a sexy cocktail bar,” the vibe based on what he called “one of the great nights of my whole life,” at a dark, moody spot in Paris almost 20 years ago, during which, among other things, he said he drank “an exorbitant amount of green chartreuse.”

Johns takes the cocktail menu event further back in time, loaded with what he calls “1970s-era disco drinks, reimagined.” In the “Strong and Stiff” category, for example, you’ll find a tweaked White Russian (made with mezcal, white rum, and a malted whip float), and a bourbon-based Rusty Nail. The “Shaken and Refreshing” section features such nostalgia-inducers as a Singapore Sling and a Blue Hawaii with smoked pineapple rum. “Everything is recognizable, but we’re doing things that are really cool,” said Johns. “It’s an easy way to enjoy craft cocktails.” The average price for a drink is around $19. Glasses of wine (about $18) and beer (about $9) are also available.

Cavatelli with oxtail ragu, $28 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Despite its boozy leanings, Tavern Next Door also functions as a full restaurant, with a lengthy menu of both dishes exclusive to the new spot as well as favorites from next door, all from executive chef Bun Cheam (who’s currently working on raising the gates of his own spot down the street after a test drive in Park Slope earlier this year). So in addition to the burger, you can also get the smoked pork chop, or the fish and chips, or the excellent wedge salad, or—sleeper hit alert—a fantastic plate of chewy cavatelli drowning in a punchy oxtail ragu.

Billy’s breakfast corndogs, $18 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Fried artichoke poppers, $18 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

The five Tavern Next Door newbies are all on the snacky side, and all of them hit the spot. Two particularly whimsical ones stand out: Billy’s Breakfast Corndogs, a trio of breakfast sausages buried in cornmeal batter and drizzled with spicy maple syrup (when I asked Durney what inspired him to create these puppies, he simply said, “I smoke a lot of weed”), and the fried artichoke poppers, with a crackling cornflake shell that oozes a homemade pimento cheese.

Disco fries with smoked brisket queso, $18 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Charcuterie, $24 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Marsala nuts with fried curry leaves, $8 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

The disco cottage fries, drenched in both a smoked brisket queso and brown gravy, make for some solid stoner food as well. For something a bit more refined, the charcuterie plate features funky meats, perky pickles, and a warm banquette with lots of butter. And crisp-fried curry leaves make the bowl of marsala nuts feel like a special treat.

And here’s a scoop unrelated to Brooklyn: Durney told us he’s opening a Chinatown location of Red Hook Tavern on Centre Street in Manhattan.