Flying Monkey Bar to Keep Beast Company on Vanderbilt

Some kind of food and beverage renaissance is once again happening in Prospect Heights: for starters, Brownstoner reported last week that a new bar is slated to open in the neighborhood sometime this summer. The 1500-square-foot space will be called Flying Monkey and is located at 706 Washington Avenue. The word from the Brooklynian boards is that the same people behind Bushwick’s whiskey-friendly Kings County are behind Flying Monkey.

Exhibit B is a new Prospect Heights corner bar called Washington Commons, which stealth opened with pretty much no advance press last Friday night at Washington Avenue and Park Place. Early reports indicate the bar was packed, pints cost $5-8, the focus seems to be Belgian beer, and there’s a big outdoor area in the back. Cozy Josie’s Brooklyn Beat reports “good ol’ bar food” will likely be served sometime in the future. Washington Commons' owners also operate the 4th Avenue Pub.

There's also Manhattans, opening on Friday at 769 Washington Avenue, which seeks to reclaim "the legacy" of owner Tracey Westmoreland's fabled dive Siberia. "This bar will draw the coolest people that live in Brooklyn," says Westmoreland. "I want the artists, I want the freaks, I want the drag queens.” Brooklyn sorely needs more drag queens.

Finally, the big news: apparently, the old hardware store on the corner of Vanderbilt and Bergen (across from tapas mainstay Beast) is being renovated and will reopen as a huge, 150-seat, old Brooklyn-style restaurant called The Vanderbilt (above), perhaps in the style of Williamsburg’s Dressler. A liquor license application for 570 Vanderbilt has been filed with the State Liquor Authority; 150 seats is a lot, even for the neighborhood. More details as they become available.