A Tale of Two Bars

Bars bars bars bars bars bars bars. Every time you blink there's a new friggin bar in Park Slope. I wish I could keep up but I just can't, or more specifically, my liver wallet can't. Does that make me sad? I guess. Case in point: two new bars opened up last week. Both places--a wine bar/Turkish tapas spot called Pierre Loti & a "cocktail bar" named Parish--are TOTALLY CLASSY. Since I love class & need to keep up & can never find enough places in which to consume alcohol, I paid both a visit over the past week.

First up was Pierre Loti, a NYC mini-chain with locales in Chelsea, Midtown & Union Sq. It's named after some French dude. DON'T CARE. Now they've got a bar on 5th Ave & St Marks, in the space that used to host the failed Canaille wine bar. Park Slope is Pierre’s Loti's first trek across the bridge & let's be honest here...if you're a bar/restaurant expanding out of Manhattan into Brooklyn for the first time, you're likely looking at Williamsburg or Park Slope. Park Slope LOVES a good wine bar. Wine bars are TOTALLY CLASSY...an environment where breeders can freely mingle with ballers. It kind of makes sense that Pierre Loti would open up their first Brooklyn joint here.

I stopped by last Thursday for their grand opening event & I'm pretty sure I was their first customer of the eve. When I arrived, it was all workers & owners & close friends in a spot with a tiny four-person bar & a half-dozen tables. That initial vibe was weird but it's all good. I'll probably give off a weird vibe too when my first customer walks into the opening night of my never-to-happen bar.

With my choice of seats, I grabbed one at the bar & ordered up a glass of 2012 Bob's Pinotage, a South African wine. After some conversation at the bar with a few of the partners & some lovely girl who was the second customer to enter the door, I had a glass of 2010 Project Paso (CA) Cabernet Sauvignon, solely based on the fact that I heard the gal tending bar suggest it as her favorite. I was hoping to be able to call bullshit but I actually though it was aight.

Though the $11/glass price point is a bit steep, I could see enjoying a glass of wine there on a quiet night. As I had my two glasses though, the place slowly started to fill up & given the tiny dimensions, I could definitely see it getting very claustrophobic.

As for Parish, a rare-for-these-days bar (as opposed to restaurant/bar) on 7th Ave that opened last Wednesday, their space is anything but claustrophobic, with high ceilings, a long bar in the front & a separate seating area featuring a projector screen in the back. Since there's nothing like getting schnookered good & early in the week, I decided to check it out this past Monday night.

Originally, I'd heard Parish described as a "cocktail bar," so I grabbed a seat at the bar & opted for an $11 "Brooklyn on the Bayou," a drink that the bartender described as "a twist on a Sazerac." We're talking Makers, Hennessy, absinthe, Psychauds bitters, Sugar-in-the-Raw & Creole bitters. Kinda tasted like a Sazerac, I suppose. 'Twas fine but I kinda wanted to drink half of it & then throw it back at the bartender just to see if he’d say "Sazerac? You gotta be kidding. Nobody throws a Sazerac."...but I digress.

Whilst sipping on my drink & watching the Buffalo Sabres get schooled by Alex Ovechkin, the owner dispatched a complementary plate of charcuterie to me, as he did to all the patrons throughout my time there. While they currently don't have a menu, they'll be serving charcuterie & snacks & shit. Let's be honest here...charcuterie is TOTALLY CLASSY. So is being able to order up a way-too-expensive drink & follow it up with a pint of Bronx Brewery Pale Ale.

Will either of these new bars become places I'll find myself in again & again? Not bloody likely. I'll go back to both for sure. Other people will have to step up & become the "regulars." To those folks...I guess somebody has to do it.

Pierre Loti, 78 5th Ave (btwn St Marks & Prospect Pl) / Parish, 223 7th Ave (Btwn 3rd St & 4th St)

Read way more from Shawn at eatdrinksnack.com and eatdrinktaco.com.