Get a bottle of natural red and head down to the water. Animation: New York Magazine
When the Carroll Street Bridge reopened earlier this summer — now fully pedestrianized after a five-year rehabilitation effort — I saw something I hadn’t recalled ever noticing before: a group of people sipping a bottle of wine at sunset, perched on the bridge’s metal beams as if they were in an idyllic European capital. The real-estate developers who have turned the area into an expanse of half-completed skyscrapers are desperate to compare the neighborhood to Copenhagen, but over the past few months, snacking on steak-frites at Liar Liar with a glass of chilled VdF red, I had to admit it mostly reminded me of Paris.
Gabi Gimson, who opened the wine bar last year with three industry friends and spends summers in the Tenth, is flattered by the comparison and sees how someone might be tempted to think of the Canal Saint-Martin when looking at the Gowanus. “Every summer in Paris there are these, like, ‘brave people’ who swim the canal,” she says. Some Parisians react with typical horror: “Do you want to grow six toes?” (When the canal was last dredged in 2016, Parisian authorities found e-bikes, strollers, and a gun among the submerged detritus.) Even if you absolutely should not, under any circumstances, swim in the Gowanus, Gimson sees a connection: “It’s this nasty, infamous body of water, but in a city, it’s like the most desirable place ever.”
Against all odds, Gowanus has become desirable. At Liar Liar, customers spill out onto the corner of Nevins and Sackett whenever the weather is nice enough to be outdoors. “It’s fun in a postapocalyptic way — you’re outside, but it’s the opposite of being outside in Dimes Square, where you’re being seen,” Gimson says. In Gowanus, you’re surrounded by a fortress made of the nearby buildings’ glass and concrete exteriors. Gimson says there’s something appealing about this sense of seclusion. “People feel like they can get away with murder out there, for better or worse.”
Spurred on by the success of Liar Liar and other fresh arrivals such as Café Mars, other operators are moving in ahead of the thousands of new neighbors who will soon fill the new developments. Patrick Watson; his wife, Michele Pravda; and their business partner Dhruv Mohindra named their new bar Hidden Rivers after the streams that once ran through this part of Brooklyn before they were dammed, buried, or built over. They opened, serendipitously, on the same night as game four of this year’s NBA Finals. Mohindra had bought the building when the ground-floor retail space still housed a bike shop. “We went and had a drink in the backyard because he was so proud,” says Watson, who still operates Smith & Vine in Carroll Gardens after previously running the cheese shop Stinky and the bar JakeWalk with Pravda. “We joked that we should open a bar here one day and figured that was crazy — there’s nobody in Gowanus.” Rezoning changed that: “Fast-forward to the redevelopment, and about a year ago he said we really should do it.”
Unlike some nearby spots — Royal Palms, Insa, Public Records — Hidden Rivers’ partners say they’re catering to locals and not necessarily to groups of people who Uber in from Manhattan. “We have people that come before they go to dinner and have a drink with us,” Watson says. “And we love getting groups of 20, 30, 40, even 50 people taking over the backyard.” But even those earlier destinations have given way to new spots. Three former employees of Royal Palms opened Shania’s Max Bet on Third Avenue in late July. Its design is inspired by Atlantic City with mirrored ceilings, dramatic red curtains, a dice-resin bar, plush booths, and a space in the back that begs to become a low-key dance floor. It’s not exactly a discotheque, but it is nevertheless open until 4 a.m. Shockingly, neighborhood officials were thrilled by Shania’s late-night plans. “The community board said, word for word, ‘We’re going to be the community board that brings nightlife back to Brooklyn,’” says Mike Brown, a co-owner.
The extended hours mean Shania’s can be the last stop after an extended night out; Jericho Davidson, the GM of Shania’s, even has a suggested itinerary: “Happy hour at Canal Bar, some shuffleboard at Royal Palms, dinner at Liar Liar, then come dance the night away with us.” Brown says even he’s been surprised by how quickly the area has transformed, and how many people are now here. Davidson isn’t nostalgic for the old Gowanus: “Cab drivers wouldn’t stop on Union Street because they were scared of getting attacked,” he says. “That was 2012 — that wasn’t even that long ago.”
