The Times' Thursday Style section comes to the rescue of Williamsburg's Latin nightclub Alma, which was greeted with "sarcastic sneering" by websites like ours when it debuted at the beginning of April. The Times cheers the upscale club as a much-needed nightlife alternative for the predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood, which has been recently besieged by a wave of upscale bars and restaurants catering to... different tastes? When we noted Alma's arrival the morning after the grand opening—heralded by velvet ropes, a red carpet, and giant searchlights—we didn't really get that it was a Latin nightclub; from the outside it just looked like an over-the-top Meatpacking District skin graft. But after a recent visit, the Times had a more nuanced take:
Alma felt like a meatpacking district club reimagined for Brooklyn: Women from the neighborhood (or Queens, or the Bronx) passed hookah hoses and danced; men in baggy jeans and stiff Yankee hats ordered bottle service and flirted with waitresses. Lights pulsed, bartenders poured vodka shots and a bouncer stood guard over the second-floor V.I.P. section.
So good for them. If the locals like it, then who are we to sneer? (We have friends who are Latino!) Alma for some, Rye for others, and everyone's happy! Well, almost everyone. One local resident sneers at both options, telling the Times, "We need a fish market" and a more affordable supermarket. "We don't need more bars."
