Cool Brooklyn Bartender Alert: Lem of Flatbush Farm

Lem, the bartender at Flatbush Farm, plays the coolest music.  If that sounds a bit teenage and gushy, maybe it’s because his musical taste is not easy to define. Like the dark-haired boy who always sat in the back of the class in high school, I just know I likes it.  The music is a mix of everything from jazz to world music to guys who sound like they might be Ian Curtis’s older brother. When I stopped in to talk to Lem last Thursday, he was playing a dark swirl of moody-Englishman that reached out and enveloped me. It was a mellow tone that could have passed for a 1950’s cocktail lounge song that somehow did not make you immediately want to slit your wrists. Flatbush Farm has low lights, a gorgeous dark wood bar, organic beers and wines, slammin’ cocktails, plus delicious affordable bar food, so that doesn’t hurt either. 

Lem is a bit of a closed oyster -- a man who doesn't normally like to talk about himself -- so I was gratified when he agreed to have a chat.

How long have you been working here?

Six years, since Flatbush Farm opened.

Do you live in the nabe?

I live in Clinton Hill.

Where’d you grow up, and what music did you listen to?

I grew up in Chicago, listening to black radio and house music.  In high school, I got into dance music, reggae, punk and hardcore.

What do you play here, usually?

Sometimes whole albums.  Sometimes random cuts. 

What are you listening to these days?

My three favorite albums at the moment are a 19-year-old kid name Raja, kind of left-field hip-hop, very introspective...last week I was listening a lot to Chet Baker, and now Gal Costa, who’s been around since the 1960’s, in the Tropicália movement. [Brazilian musician and political activist] Caetano Veloso is also one of my heroes.  I once even went to Brazil to find him but I couldn’t.

One thing I love about coming here is that the music sounds really present, but it’s never ultra-loud.  And you can hear all the instruments really well.  

I have an app to control the volume.  I’m very conscious of that. I’ll adjust the balance of the instruments.  I used to DJ a long time ago.

What?  Where?

A bunch of different places. Some in the East Village…This place called Moomba -- it was pretentious, a bit Page Six, which I hated.  A little bar called Global 33 that a friend of mine owned.  I was doing movie premieres…parties. But I found it boring.  All those songs at [standard disco tempo] 120 beats per minute.  I like waves of music.

Your taste is so eclectic that I rarely have any idea what you’re playing. I always want to bother you when you’re really busy and bug you about it.  Does it drive you crazy when people do that?

People do ask. I’m cool with people asking. Or they’ll just use Shazam.

[Side note: I’ve heard of this app before but can’t remember exactly what it is.  Lem kindly explains that it identifies songs and artists when your phone picks up a sample that it “hears” and matches it to its massive database.  He attempts to show me on his phone, but Shazie is stumped, which I find oddly comforting.  After all, isn’t learning about music from someone else half the fun of discovery? 

As if to illustrate this, two attractive women to my left have engaged Lem in a conversation. One is telling him she was in here a year and a half ago and asked him what he was playing and he told her but she didn’t write it down and can he tell her what it was since she liked it so much?  Astonishingly, he can.  It was Caetono Voloso.  She’s a cellist, Marika Hughes, whose genre-bending band Marika Hughes and Bottom Heavy is playing at Joe’s Pub in February.  I TOLD YOU SO, people.  He has the music mojo.]

What days are you here?

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Did I mention that Lem also makes a wicked Mo’Stormy (Ginger Juice, Ginger ale, Dark Rum, Mint and Lime)?  Two or three of those go well with any type of music. See you there!