Red Hook Bar Crawl

Red Hook is a lot like the IKEA that landed there: sometimes you have to amass a certain number of things to check out before you can motivate for the trip. With new places like Anselmo’s Pizzeria and Fort Defiance opening recently, however, the time is nigh to hike it to Red Hook for a night on the town. We took the B61 down to Van Brunt Street and started with some fancy cocktails.

Fort Defiance

This new cocktail bar takes up a sliver of an old storefront on Van Brunt Street, right across from where LeNell’s used to be. Though the bartenders don’t have handlebar mustaches or suspenders, the drinks were just as good as a handlebar-suspender cocktail lounge, if not better. Our bar man thwacked a bunch of fresh mint against the counter to bring out the minty taste in an mint julep made with cognac and rye from David Wondrich’s recipe ($10). Watermelon tasted much better and more refreshing paired with gin and mint instead of the usual vodka in their Watermelon Gin Punch ($8), which was loaded with bittersweet flavor.

Fort Defiance’s version of a dark and stormy, the Barbados Buck ($8), below, has zingy homemade ginger syrup and Mount Gay instead of the usual dark rum. It’s actually an improvement on the original Dark and Stormy of Bermuda—sorry, Goslings.

Distressed by the declining quality of Pimm’s these days, the Fort Defiance folks decided to make their own, steeping gin and vermouth with herbs and mixing it with bitters, fruit and cucumber for a very good, savory Colonial Cooler ($8).

The food part of the menu is brief, but they do have a hearty bluefish spread and a number of snacks, like the muffaletta made with mortadella, sopressata, and coppa. Muffaletta sandwiches are shaping up to be the new banh mi—and we’re not complaining. Now all Fort Defiance needs to do is dim the achingly bright lights a little, so the lighting is less like Farrell’s Bar and more like the sophisticated place it is.

Fort Defiance
365 Van Brunt Street at Dikeman Street
Red Hook
Brooklyn, NY
718-522-7996

Anselmo’s

There’s nothing ironic about the poster of Sinatra in the back or the stereo playing “when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie”: At Anselmo’s, they really mean it. This new but old-school pizza shop is a bare-bones set up with plain wooden tables and chairs and not much in the way of décor.

Get your 10 or 14-inch ($8.50, $16) pizza with daily toppings like pepperoni or mushrooms.

Anselmo’s will fuel you with enough starch to make it through a Red Hook bar crawl, but it’s not really a destination pizza place like Lucali’s. The stiff crust lacked any airiness, and the toppings, while good, weren’t anything to write home about. It reportedly changes by the night, however, so maybe you’ll have better luck than we did.

Anselmo’s
354 Van Brunt Street at Sullivan Street
Red Hook
Brooklyn, NY
718-313-0169
no liquor license as of 8/30/09

Note: for another dinner spot in the area, try the new O Barone, pictured below, in the old 360 space.

Botanica

A beacon of light on an otherwise dark block, Botanica is a beautifully designed, inviting space with soaring ceilings and frosted glass chandeliers.

Specializing in absinthe drinks, this bewitching bar will lull you into a trance with good music and concoctions like Death in the Afternoon, the prosecco and absinthe cocktail created by Hemingway.

There’s a certain amount of artsy pretense at work here, including a video installation on the back wall, but while away enough time playing Clue by the huge French windows, and you too may consider lounging away the rest of your days in true Hemingway style.

Botanica
220 Conover Street
Red Hook
Brooklyn, NY
718-797-2297

Sunny’s Bar

No Red Hook bar crawl would be complete without a trip to Sunny’s, the veritable town hall of the neighborhood. Forget fancy cocktails in favor of beer, like Bitburger or Hoegarden, which may not be on tap, but the bartender will pour it into a glass and put in a lemon for you. Bands play in the back room and aging pleather banquettes line the front. Sunny himself is often on the scene, as are many regulars who’ve been coming here since the pre-IKEA era.

Sunny’s
253 Conover Street between Beard and Reed Streets
Red Hook
Brooklyn, NY
718-625-8211