Bars In The Area

Hi,

We're considering moving to Sunset Park and were wondering if anyone can recommend any good bars in the area? We prefer divey/low-key spots, so if anyone has any recommendations that would be great.

We're also very 'local' people and would be looking for somewhere we could walk to a few times a week, not take the subway up to Park Slope.

Thanks!

Unfortunately, unless you are willing to go to a bar that primarily caters to a Mexican/Latino audience (read: Spanish music only and bartenders/waitresses that speak almost no English), you are out of luck. You need to go to the bars that line greenwood heights on 5th avenue in the teens below Prospect Park expressway. What I do is just take a bus ride to Park Slope and call it a day. There are really no good coffee shops here either. Sunset Park Diner and Donuts is an O-k, "coffee shop" cum diner, but their food is sub-par, and their donuts are the stale type of prepackaged stuff you'd find in a bodega.

Other than what is mentioned, Irish Haven (57th and 4th) sounds like what you're looking for. Some of the Latin bars can be fun, but I haven't been for a LONG time. There's also a place on 5th and 61st (?), I want to say Feeny's - or something like that - that clearly tried to spruce up a little while ago. It looks good for a few beers.

Thanks. We'd heard about those two bars, but unfortunately the place we're considering is much further up around the park, so a near 20 block walk is a bit much!

Thanks

Irish Haven is pretty great, though, in its way. Don't count it out entirely, even if it is a haul from where you're thinking of living.

What streets do you think you'll be near? The low key bar selection is pretty great in Greenwood Heights, which will put you in the lower twenties.

Nobody's mentioned Rainbow? (on 5th at, uh, 39th?). I've only been in there a couple times, and only at slightly off hours. Definitely divey. Beer selection isn't great but it's cheap, as are the mixed drinks.

I've heard people hang out at the bowling alley, too.

Rainbow has been closed for a few weeks. The owner passed away. Otherwise it would definitely have been first on the list.

Thanks for all the advice and recommendations, but having searched around the area for a local bar and coffee shop within sensible walking distance we've decided to look elsewhere for a new apartment.

Sunset Park seems a great area during the day, just devoid of the type of evening activities you live in a big city for.

I love Irish Haven. My buddy used to live around the corner so I'd just bike down there, get waste faced and just crash at his spot. I still make the trip down there for Ft Greene occasionally and I'm sure I will continue to when I move to Greenpoint next week.

Subject: hello Friends..

If u want better place tha n you have to pay according to that...
Good luck!


Foreclosure

The Irish Haven is indeed a great place. Very low-key and down to earth. Cheap beer and good times. The Green Isle on 5th Avenue is also a fun place, assuming that it's still there.

A few years back, I actually convinced a buddy of mine, the most Manhattan-centric person to ever walk this earth, to go on a Sunset Park bar crawl and he had a wonderful time.

One time we went into Irish Haven with our guitars and started playing some folks songs, and the bartender kept giving us free beers. Then we started chattin with some of the regulars who were liking what we were playing and basically forced us to go with them down to another bar called Leif's in Bay Ridge to play for their friends there. More free beer ensued and we started having trouble playing. Eventually the night ended and we walked out realizing we had a hell of a walk back to Sunset Park (we had taken a cab to Leif's, since our new friends/fans paid for one). One of the most fun and certainly most random nights of my life.