You Can Pick Your Bar But You Can't Pick Your Nose

Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. Cheers & shit, y'know? For years, being poor or antisocial or "fiscally responsible" meant that I didn't go out enough to establish a regular Brooklyn haunt. Then, a few years back, I threw fiscal responsibility out the window and found myself going out a lot more, allowing me to start becoming a regular at places. I'm fickle though, so when it comes to my watering holes, I go through phases.

It all started with Sea Witch, the South Slope bar that opened almost two years ago and quickly became a favorite of mine. Each time I visited, there was still the same mix of awesome music & food & always at least one new beer on tap. The giant fish tank behind the bar gave me the opportunity to ponder life, as I scanned the tank to see which fish had died since my last visit.

More recently, I became more Union St-centric and, as a result, found myself hanging out a lot at the end of the bar at the 5th Ave Zito's, sipping on Sixpoint & paying attention to some NBA game I had no stake in whatsoever.

Over the past few months, I moved down the street a bit and started spending a lot of time sampling the craft beer selection at High Dive. When picking a place to call my own, I'm always going to gravitate toward places with a good beer selection.

Sometimes I have blind spots though and, until this past Tuesday, had never stepped foot inside The Owl Farm, the relatively-new 9th St bar that opened up back in June of 2012, replacing er...beloved (?) neighborhood mainstay Harry Boland's Pub.

Named for Hunter S Thompson's Colorado compound, The Owl Farm is a beer nerd bar from the owners of Mission Dolores, Carroll Gardens' Bar Great Harry & Bed-Stuy's Glorietta Baldy. Unfortunately, unlike at Thompson’s Colorado compound, Park Slope's version doesn't let you go out back & shoot guns at propane tanks. LAME.

I'm not sure why I'd never made it to The Owl Farm. I mean, they have twenty-eight beers on tap, a bunch of which are unique craft beers for the Park Slope area. What finally got me there was some manner of internet wormhole, where on early Tuesday I'd learned that that night would be Founders Brewing night at The Owl Farm, a night where they'd be featuring a mix of ten rare & regular beers from a damn good craft brewer out of Michigan, all for $5 a piece.

It turns out that they do events of that ilk almost every week, with an evening of beers from Queens' Finback Brewery coming up on the 22nd & a February with nights showcasing beers from Bell's Brewing (2/13), Two Roads (2/20) & Bunker Brewing (2/27). They apparently also host a regular "Vinyl Night," where you can bring in records from home & play DJ for a few songs. That's cool because I've got a copy of The Psychedelic Furs' Talk Talk Talk that I've never even listened to.

On that note, when I arrived shortly before 7pm, the first song I heard was "Nodding Off" by Wavves. By the time I'd left, I heard a full play list of indie faves, including f'n "River Phoenix" by Japanther. Even if they didn't have the aforementioned twenty-eight beers on tap, they had me at the music.

The cute bartender kinda helped too, as did the general non-douchiness of the clientele buzzing around me as I drank my barrel-aged Founders Boyl'r Mayk'r.

...& I went back the following evening & since I'm the type who loves jumping into relationships, I'm pretty sure I'll be back again real soon. Hell, I might have to friend The Owl Farm's mom on Facebook & drop by at weird hours unannounced & leave a toothbrush in the bathroom, just to make things all official & shit.

The Owl Farm, 297 9th St (between 4th & 5th Ave)

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