New York Brooklyn City Guide

New York is not just Manhattan. Brooklyn manages to maintain its own distinct culture, feel and identity – still part of the Big Apple, but fiercely independent too. All too often the borough is an afterthought, particularly to visitors, but in fact it’s home to a thriving and original bar scene.

Cross the East River and, amid the large swathes of industrialisation, warehouses, factories and utilitarian suburbs that inevitably surround such an urban Mecca as Manhattan, Brooklyn's comparatively low-rise skyline is home to some fantastic and charming communities, from pretty leafy residential streets where each building is a quirky individual, to shopping areas that feel analogous to small-town America.

And hidden among these neighbourhoods, though often none too secret, is perhaps the city's most dynamic bar scene. In Brooklyn, the bartenders are just as confident in their cocktail prowess as their big brothers in Manhattan, but work out of friendly bars that pleasingly lack any big city pretence. Try the following:

Blueprint
196 Fifth Avenue (btwn Union & Sackett Sts), Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY, 11217

Building on Bond
112 Bond Street (btwn Dean St & Atlantic Ave), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, NY 11217

Casablanca
300 Malcolm X Boulevard (nr MacDonough St), Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY 11233

Char No. 4
196 Smith Street, (btwn Baltic & Warren Sts) Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Clover Club
210 Smith Street (btwn Butler & Baltic Sts), Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Dear Bushwick
41 Wilson Avenue (btwn Melrose & George St), Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY 11237

Donna
27 Broadway (at Dunham Pl), South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11249

Dram
177 South 4th Street (btwn Driggs & Bedford Aves), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211

Erv's on Beekman
2122 Beekman Place (at Flatbush Av), Prospect Lefferts Gardens, NY 11225

Extra Fancy
302 Metropolitan Avenue (btwn Driggs Ave & Roebling St), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211

Grand Army
336 State Street, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Grand Ferry Tavern
229 Kent Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11249

The Ides Bar at Wythe Hotel
80 Wythe Avenue, (@ North 11th), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11249

The Jakewalk
282 Smith Street, (btwn Degraw & Sackett Sts) Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, NY 11231

Leyenda
This new bar by Ivy Mix and Julie Reiner opened mid-May 2015 and celebrates Latin American.
221 Smith Street (btwn Butler & Baltic Sts), Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Long Island Bar
110 Atlantic Avenue (btwn Henry & Hicks Sts), Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Maison Premiere
298 Bedford Avenue (btwn Grand & South 1st Sts), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 11211

Prime Meats
465 Court Street (btwn 4th Pl & Luquer Street) Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, NY 11231

Ramona
113 Franklin Street (btwn Kent St & Greenpoint Ave) Greenpoint), Brooklyn, NY 11222

The Richardson
451 Graham Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11222

The Shanty
79 Richardson Street (btwn Lorimer & Leonard Sts) Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211

Tooker Alley
793 Washington Avenue (btwn St. John & Lincoln Place), Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, NY 11238

Tørst
615 Manhattan Avenue, (btwn Nassau & Driggs Aves), Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY 11222

Weather Up
589 Vanderbilt Avenue, (btwn St Marks Ave & Dean St), Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, NY 11238