After being forced out of Prospect Heights, the legendary Freddy's Bar sets up shop in Park Slope
(Originally published on Patch.com) Brooklyn, NY
After a brief hiatus,
Freddy's is back.
By month's end, if all goes
according to bar co-owner Donald O'Finn's hopes, Fifth Avenue's South Slope
will be graced with an amped up version Freddy's Bar and Backroom, which
earlier this year was forced from its longstanding Prospect Heights home on
Dean Street by Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project.
This legendary community hangout
was always for the people, but its new incarnation is also by the people. Many
of Freddy's regulars—builders, artists—are chipping in to help shape the space.
"Freddy's is very much about
community, but now its also being built by the community," O'Finn said in
between working with plumbers and painters at the bar's new location.
"That's what Freddy's was always about. Community."
But the Freddy's, which O'Finn
dreams will pour its first drink at the strike of midnight on New Year's Eve,
won't just be a replica of its old, iconic self. It will be bigger, and,
possibly, even better.
"I see it as Freddy's on
steroids; everything is amped up a bit," said O'Finn, who was once the
spot's manager, but is now co-owner, along with Matt Kuhn and Matt Kimmett,
both former Freddy's bartenders.
Ownership isn't the only thing
that's changed. For the first time, Freddy's Bar will serve food and Kuhn will
hold the reins on fare. "It'll be Freddy's-appropriate, pub grub, nothing
fancy, something to fill the hole in your stomach," Kuhn said. "We
just knew we had to take advantage of the kitchen in this space."
Much, of course, will also remain
the same at Freddy's new South Slope location between 17th and 18th streets,
where the short-lived Ellis Bar used to make its home.
According to O'Finn, the
distinctive 1940s red mahogany bar, the booths and bar stools that gave the
place its saloon-like quality will continue as central fixtures. And of course,
Freddy's' famous backroom will continue to let artists, musicians, and
installationists show off their creative works
But the road to South Slope has
been bumpy. First, after an unsuccessful fight against the wrecking ball of
eminent domain, which lasted some seven years, O'Finn, Kuhn and Kimmett, had to
clear out the over 70 year-old bar in just two weeks. On the bars website the
trio affectionately refer to the Atlantic Yards project as the "Death
Star."
"I used to say I
couldn't get my emotions out of that building in just two weeks," said
O'Finn, let alone all the tchotchkes that made Freddy's, well, Freddy's.
"The last thing I did was literally kissed that building … and then
punched it."
Finding an affordable new space
wasn't easy–and the venue they've settled on is still three or four times as
expensive as their old location, according to Kuhn and O'Finn. The trio
inspected at least 15 locales and got serious about half of them, according to
Kuhn, but they all fell through for one reason or another–costs were too high,
the spaces were too bare-bones for their budget (which Kuhn likes to joke is 39
cents), the steps weren't high enough to be approved for a liquor license.
They liked South Slope for being
more affordable and less developed than its northern Park Slope neighbor, yet
built-up enough so that they wouldn't have to start from scratch with wiring,
plumbing, heating. Also, they liked its diversity. "It's a mixed
neighborhood. There's and ethnic quotient, but also people who have been here
for generations," said O'Finn. "There are doctors, lawyers, artists,
blue-collar workers."
Kuhn predicts that many Freddy's
regulars will follow they're move, at least initially, to the Slope. But then
it'll be time to shake new hands and make new friends.
"We can lay down some
roots here and be a go-to spot in the neighborhood; there aren't that many
bars," Kuhn said. "We'll make this block a destination block."
Much of Freddy's essence they
attribute to the flurry of followers who are helping them out. "There are
so many fine folks who have stepped up," said Kuhn.
"Whether builders or
artists, whether we give them half bar tab and half money, we're working it
out. As Donald always says, 'now the inmates run the asylum.'" And what he
means, of course, is that it's a win-win to have people who know the place
create the place.
"Freddy's just bled soul.
When Ratner and boys threw us out, we moved everything, every yellow paper
taped behind the bar," Kuhn said with a hint of disbelief.
Still, for the bar, life goes on.
"We're doing a good job so far of capturing the essence of what Freddy's
was."
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