Foodstuffs:

Just kidding about that new bistro’s competition - Gowanus Lounge is reporting that both Kitchen Bar and Little D Eatery are for sale.  SAD.  Both of these places were quite good for different reasons: KB for their brunches and good service and Little D for their delicious (but pricey) dishes. 

A Safe Haven for Booze. Jury’s Still Out on the Food…

Went to the opening night of Safe Haven Bar & Grill on Thursday night.  The entire experience was, in a word, unremarkable.  The new venue, replacing the beloved Bar BQ, could have held off just a little longer before opening.  The place still smelled like the fresh coat of bright red paint they gave the walls, and the back space near the kitchen, formerly used for live music, had a couple of tables but not much else.  It made me yearn for Bar BQ’s live blues shows of yore.

(A peak at those bright red walls on the righthand side.  Fully (overly?) stocked bar.  Requisite flatscreen TV.)

So the interior decorating suffered a bit, but the management was certainly trying hard.  The owner, Patrick, rushed back and forth from the kitchen to serve guests the promised free food - including but not limited to a corn dog and hush puppies.  The food was passable for bar grub, but again - nothing remarkable.  Apparently they are waiting their food license and then they’ll be operating at full speed.

(The free grub.  Meh.)

The selection at the bar was much more varied.  They had (hah) 6 Six Point Craft beers on tap…don’t know if that was intentional.  The crowd was clearly glad to have a spot to get sloshed and didn’t care about much else.  In that regard, Safe Haven’s opening night was a wild success.

(6 Six Point Craft Ales, through drunk goggles.)

Clearly the place was suffering from a case of opening night jitters, but some aspects of the operation were just sloppy - in order to get the free food, the bartender had to direct you to Patrick (“that guy in the white t-shirt”), who would then fetch the food from the kitchen in plain view.  Patrick’s modesty in his delivery of the food matched the haphazard feel of the evening: “It’s not much, but…”  Indeed it wasn’t, but I’ll wait and see.  I’ll be sure to do battle with them again once they are armed with their food license.

English chic for the Bridge & Tunnel crowd

Last night I was oh so lucky (…) to attend the media party for the new cocktail lounge called…Country Club.  I brought Jamie’s Stomach along for the ride.  My review, written through a haze of four bellinis and a vodka gimlet.

(The stage: Loveseat + flatscreen + chandelier = Country Club?)

A little-known perk of Country Club’s exclusive opening was its redirection of both the PATH and LIRR trains straight to the venue’s front door.  Luckily for its liquor-deprived clientele, Country Club had plenty of free booze for everyone.

Country Club offered 4 exclusive bellinis, their signature drink - a pulpy peach, a sour pear, a cloying pomegranate-cranberry, and the night’s winner: blood orange.  Additionally, they served a basil vodka gimlet, a mashup of vodka, triple-sec and a few stray basil leaves - not, as anticipated, basil-infused vodka.

(From left to right: Blood orange, peach, pomegranate-cranberry, blood orange again, pear, and the vodka gimlet.)

As for the atmosphere, the crowd fit right into the Meatpacking District.  Gelled hair and eau-de-bleh for the men, mumus and fake tans for the ladies.  Direct quote from one aforementioned man: “We need to get ourselves some laaaay-dies!” This stuff could not be made up by a healthy mind.  The crowd’s style was reiterated by the waitstaff, clad in stripper gear and showing their trashy, trashy ass cleavage.  The stand-out was the server wearing a black corset, miniskirt, and knee-high platform boots.  Had they not all been wearing black, the servers would have blended right in with the B&T crowd.  They were all very friendly (some overly so…one definitely sat next to me and put her arm around me while I placed my order), and though the service started out spotty, it improved over the evening.

(The horror.)

As would be expected in this neighborhood, the gays, the women who love them, and the tools who buy the women drinks all made appearances.  Of note among the gays were Gawker’s favorite lolgay Kristian Laliberte and SATC’s Mario Cantone.

The crowd received an atmosphere to match their style.  The single-person bathrooms affixed with full mirrors will surely please the nose-candy enthusiasts.  While the designer envisioned the interior as “The Rolling Stones recording an album at a traditional English manor,” the result was a confused space that exuded a burlesque vibe with its mahogany paneling, deep red lighting, and crystal chandeliers, but also included a huge flatscreen TV behind the stage.  Is this a sports bar or a speakeasy or… a country club?  The evening’s soundtrack provided few answers.  Flip-flopping between early-90’s R&B, Stevie Wonder, Justin Timberlake and Blur, the DJ’s set only further verified that we were in fact located in the Meatpacking District.

Eater summed up my report pretty well.

Boozey Brunch @ Perry Street

Thank you Jean-Georges, for your calamari, mozzarella and rhubarb plate, and salmon. Your hanger steak entree, however, could have been a bit more substantial.

Perry Street was good because it was slow for a Saturday brunch, it’s in this building, and the interior design was almost perfect. Oh, and the food. Oh, and the rosé. Oh, and the raspberry-lychee bellini.

Even the bathrooms were pretty.

Whilst out and about this evening, I noticed construction workers closing up the site of what used to be my favorite bodega.

I miss this bodega for a number of reasons.  Firstly, they had a friendly staff who wouldn’t pester you but remembered your face and would make small talk, especially if you spoke Spanish.  What’s more, they would willingly give you to-go cups for Prospect Park boozin’, no questions asked.  That and the ATM dispensed $10 bills.

So now we have shots of what the poster called the “Slope’s Bistro Restaurant Bar & Grill,” which is kind of like saying “Slope’s Shop Store Shoppe.”

French doors galore!  Manhattan’s CB2 would be mortified.  It looks small and relatively cozy, but only time will tell how this all plays out.  I’ll reiterate that this location is within four blocks of Kitchen Bar, Bar Toto, 12th Street Bar & Grill, and Little D Eatery, all places with big fan bases and follow variations of a “bistro” formula.

Also, the construction of this place has moved forward suspiciously close to the “grand” opening of  the neighboring “Athena” restaurant, which is the newest incarnation of the odd “Spanish-American Tex-Mex” restaurant on the northeastern corner of the same intersection.