February 25, 2008
Sneak Peak: Greenpoint's t.b.d.
Any Greenpoint residents still speculating about renovations to the cavernous space on the corner of Franklin and Green – the one with the big silver garage door and the new lights along the northern wall – now have their answer: A bar called t.b.d. Co-owner Diane Foley explains that she finally gave up trying to come up with a name and just went with what she was using for all the paperwork.
The future residents of the Magic Johnson’s 130-unit condo down the block are sure to flock to the sleek 2,500 square feet lounge, which features three flatscreen TVs (intended for video art, not sports, according to Foley). There are twelve beers on tap and some catered comfort food, like mac ‘n’ cheese and zucchini pie. $15 gets you their “bucket of crap” – the old six pack of cheap beer trick.
Foley and co-owner Allen Welch, former manager at Long Island City’s Lounge 47, hope to open at the end of the week; they have the liquor license ready to go and are just waiting on the corner for the Man to dispense the Certificate of Occupancy. No sweat, right?
t.b.d.
224 Franklin Street, Greenpoint Brooklyn
(718) 349-6727
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it seems so... trendy for the nabe.
yuck
sports > video art
and i'm not even a sports fan.
I think it looks nice. If I bought a condo in greenpoint I wouldn't want to be forced to go to a dive whenever I wanted a drink.
matty, where do you actually live? i was clicking around the "elsewhere" post and noticed that you coment on almost every -ist blog.
Chicago. Though i travel a lot and love new york, la, shanghai and toronto so i post on their boards. I didn't read in the rule book that I can only post in my home city's site.
I walked by the other night when they were having a privateparty. Must say it looks really cool. It'll be nice to not have to go 5 blocks to a get a drink.
even though it's decidedly not a dive bar, 6 beers for $15 is still a good deal-- less than many of the places in the 'hood.
Greenpoint definitely needs more places like this. Makes me want to visit my old nabe.
that looks like a place down in Tribeca on Greenwich that tried to pass as a restaurant. If there's a DJ booth then it's a really close facsimile.
I live next door to this place (unfortunately ). I met the owners a while back who seemed really nice, but damn, this just looks all wrong on the inside. I'm sure the future Magic Johnson condo dwellers will love it. There goes the neighborhood....
I dig the decor. This is what my living room will look like when I quit renting.
"If I bought a condo in greenpoint I wouldn't want to be forced to go to a dive whenever I wanted a drink."
You wouldn't be forced to even without this place. Just within a few blocks of this location, off the top of my head: Red Star Bar, Black Rabbit, Jack O'Neill's, Pencil Factory, Coco66, 68, Mark Bar... all target somewhere from "upscale" on down, but none are "dive bars" and all are within easy walking distance from that corner. And that's without even thinking about "clubs" or "restaurants" where you could go for a drink.
Great. So now the inconsiderate hipster trash that comes screaming out of Studio B every night is going to do so all the way down Franklin to this place. Just what the neighborhood needs.
The problem when you post about neighborhoods you know nothing about is that you end up looking incredibly stupid.
Do you people have nothing better to do all day than bitch about everything? The place isn't even open yet - give it a chance. It doesn't even look like it's finished. One bar is not going to change the neighborhood (the sky is not falling, Chicken Little). Blame for any change should be addressed to the real estate vultures, but remember, this is NY & nothing is stagnant. If you don't like change, shut your mouth & pack up your art supplies & go back to Peoria. And the bars around here are indeed dives, including some of the ones mentioned above.
Do you people have nothing better to do all day than bitch about everything? The place isn't even open yet - give it a chance. It doesn't even look like it's finished. One bar is not going to change the neighborhood (the sky is not falling, Chicken Little). Blame for any change should be addressed to the real estate vultures, but remember, this is NY & nothing is stagnant. If you don't like change, shut your mouth & pack up your art supplies & go back to Peoria. And the bars around here are indeed dives, including some of the ones mentioned above.
Not specific to Franklin Ave, but just down the road on Manhattan Ave a cozy little bar looks like it is opening soon. The flyer in the window says The Habitat.
entropy, have you even been to greenpoint? (btw, people may be bitching, but you seem to be the only one with such a nasty attitude.) I would say at most 2 of those bars listed above could be considered dives. I am a bartender at one of the hood's bars, and i gotta say in the last year like 5 new places have opened up and only one is really doing well. so good luck to ya tbd, you're gonna need it.
Agreed, no need for nastiness. Question is... does this hood really need another bar? A decent laundromat would have really been great. You know, things for living. But hey business is business.
There goes the neighborhood....
Don't you think the Polish community said the same thing when the Pencil Factory opened? Why does every new business harken the downfall of the neighbohood?
p.s. to hellogreg: A laundromat just open on the corner of Manhattan & Huron a couple of months ago.
matty: i was just curious. more power to you, broham.
@ Jenn H:
I'm sure the poles said the exact same thing. I understand that NYC is one long history of displacement.
My point is I'd rather walk a distance to get a beer, that have to haul my dirty clothes back and forth the same distance. Call me crazy. Or lazy. Whatev.
MsBathory:
I was not being nasty, merely sarcastic & ironic. I thought that's what you hipsters thrived on. Not only do I indeed live in Greenpoint, but I am a 4th generation native New Yorker. My family actually had farmland in Flatbush in the late 1800's. Imagine them saying, "there goes the neighborhood". I doubt you're from the area, and by your employment & use of the phrase "like 5 places", I imagine you're fairly, like, immature. Good luck with your career.
hellogreg:
You're the one who started with the nasty comment that the new place "looks all wrong on the inside"!
What does that even mean? What's wrong & what's right? And who are you to determine these matters? Again, as I mentioned, the place isn't even finished or open yet!!! And then you added the insidious vitriol of "there goes the neighborhood". I doubt you've lived here very long anyway, so why don't you take your premature verbal ejaculation & leave the neighborhood. We won't miss you.
And if you can't understand why there are few laundromats & grocery stores, then you don't understand simple business concepts (profit per square foot).
OK.
What I meant is it looks out of place. This is a forum, and that's my opinion.
"there goes the neighborhood": toungue-in-cheek cliche...MY BAD. I will refrain from attempts at humor moving forward.
ANYWAYS... I do plan on giving it a try. I'll buy the first round as a peace offering.
:)
OK,
Well the first time anything new opens somewhere, it could seem out-of-place. My only point is: give it a chance. I'm sure the owners are mom-and-pop small business people, just trying to offer new entertainment options in the neighborhood. It's not a mob-run dance club or strip-joint or neon-lit corporate TGI McFunsters - just a low-key loungy-bar.
If anything, I wish the 'hood had a movie theater - preferably an indie / art house - but due to the low profit margin vs. high rent for such a large structure, that may never happen.
And I'll buy the second round.
I agree with Entropy - just give it a shot. Looks pretty clean & swanky from pic - it'll be nice to have a place that's not all dark & dank. The same-old same-old gets tiring after a while. Wonder if they'll have brunch.
Funny you should mention the indie / art house movie theater. I met a guy in the Greenpoint Coffee House last week and we got to talking and he mentioned that he was opening just such a place in Williamsburg on Metropolitan and.....well I can't remember the cross street, but it wasn't that far (unless you're carrying laundry.....just kidding hellogreg). He was a really nice guy and hopefully he will be able to make it work.
I hope the proprietors of the biz endeavor to keep that corner clean -- it's a notorious for dog poop -- and that activity there discourages the irresponsible petowners from making it their go-to shitcorner.
I walk there a lot too, & have seen the dogs running loose - they belong to the eurotrash hipsters in the red building between the new bar & the big condo constrution (this is all on the south side of Green St.)
entropy:
wow, you really are a lovely human being... congrats to you for being so above those of us who are not native to new york.
Ohmigosh! A new biz instead of a deserted garage. There goes the neighborhood! Not all change is bad. Give the place a chance and see it's vibe.
Or go write a letter to Magic Johnson condemning his condo. Better yet, start a drive to keep neighborhoods dingy and non-progressive. If YOU didn't move there in the first place, maybe it wouldn't have become so trendy! Let's hear from some peeps that have lived in Greenpoint, oh, more than 5 or 8 years.
Seriously, it's just a bar. And it looks pretty nice and people are saying the owners seem nice, so maybe it will be a good addition to the 'hood.
For the record, I was born and raised in Brooklyn. I wish some of this gentrification came to a few other areas that are long forgotten and dismal right now.