By Dr. Ink
If you’ve never experienced Brooklyn Girl on less than a full house, then go for happy hour. The bustling hotspot, which fills to capacity on most nights, feels bigger before the supper rush, like an open playground with easy access to all the amusements.
In this case, we’re talking about landing a seat at the central U-shaped bar without competition and then receiving your own personal bowl of buttery, spiced popcorn for free.
Less congestion also allows you to chat uninterrupted with the person overseeing the marble-top oyster bar about the day’s fresh selection. Seize them while you can within this precious time slot because they’re discounted to $8 for a half dozen or $15 for a full dozen.
The restaurant uses the term “social hour” to attract bargain hunters to its $6 specialty cocktails and $5 draft beers. But it more so frames the mellow mood that prevails as customers fluidly cross-converse with one another compared to peak times when gaggles of dinner guests stick mainly to themselves while feasting on the lauded cuisine.
In a recent visit, while washing down handfuls of garlic-paprika popcorn with a fabulous “honeypot” cocktail, I was somehow pulled in to a lively conversation by two women at a high-top table who arrived rather thirsty from a nearby hair salon. They were celebrating their “new summer colors.”
One was a blonde sporting fresh strawberry streaks; the other a brunette loving her added soft-brown highlights. We toasted a couple of times, and after they discussed the latest, innovative developer their stylists used, I came away more hair aware – and buzzed.
My tequila-based cocktail jived also to the dawning of summer. So fresh and citrusy, it smelled as though someone had just peeled an orange behind my back. Its flavor matched the aroma due to the fruity house-blended curacao in the construct along with a big, fat orange peel floating on top. Honey and a pinch of salt tied it together.
Among the other $6 cocktails are the gin-based “bright & basil” with celery bitters; a “back pocket mule” that mixes vodka with strawberries, cucumbers and lemons; and “chai me a river” using aged rum and chai tea.
Because of a late lunch and the large volume of popcorn I consumed, I skipped the oysters and discounted “noshables,” which range from $5 to $11 for dishes such as hummus with plantain crisps, shrimp tacos, and bacon-wrapped Vietnamese meatballs that wowed me in a past dinner visit.
Social hour at Brooklyn Girl occurs at the bar and its surrounding communal high tops, under the gaze of New York artists and actors captured in large paintings. Trying to identify each of them makes for fun conversation, that is if your hair doesn’t warrant discussion.
