Worth it? Two-fer Cocktails Across BKLYN This Summer

Image via bklynpassport.comSummer is fantastic. Despite the sweltering subway platforms and high electricity bills, people are simply happier when the weather is nice. You meet your friends for poolside sangrias, Coronas at Jacob Riis Beach, steins in high-spirited biergartens or just some bad chardonnay out of a plastic cup in The Park. Yep, the summer season with all its jubilant imbibing is upon us. Whenever I want a professional cocktail though, it’s still the only city commodity whose sticker shock hasn’t really worn off: 12 bucks and up still makes me wince. Luckily there’s a company out there looking to put a little extra shine on my summer but still keep some cash in my pocket.

This is the Brooklyn Passport. No, we’re not seceding, it’s a promotional item that gives you two-for one drinks at 20 bars across Brooklyn for the duration of the summer, from Labor Day to Memorial Day. I first read about this in the Village Voice, and what they neglected to mention, which rather dampened my initial rush of enthusiasm, is that you can only use the passport once at each bar (‘Only one special per venue!’ their website cheerfully declares). Dammit.

The chaps who started this venture launched it in Denver and are now rolling it out to other American cities. At $20 it’s not a bad deal, and they’ll even mail it directly to you, though I fail to see why it needs to be the unwieldy size of an actual passport (and when did abbreviating Brooklyn to BKLYN become hip by the way – the first iteration of the program wasn’t called DNVR; are we too hip for VWLS?). They also do pub crawls and will add you to their mailing list for further promos, events and deals. Predictably, half of the bars are second-rate joints in Williamsburg, and while one might see this as just classed-up couponing to get people in the door in an over-saturated market (which is probably true to a certain degree), there are actually some good bars on this list including Fort Defiance in Red Hook, Brooklyn Social in Carroll Gardens and its superb sister bar in Brooklyn Heights, Henry Public. This would seem to bode well for the project as a whole, which is slated for expansion, if it’s popular.

For Slopers, the closest spots aside from Brooklyn Social are Lowlands in the South Slope, The Way Station in Prospect Heights and the distinctly smile-inducing Lavender Lake in Gowanus, which I highly recommend. Need motivation to try out some new watering holes? Check out more of the details on their website.