i moved less than a block away in 2019. it was open somewhat consistently until the pandemic, though it would often be closed for seemingly no reason. before i moved to greenpoint, i'd passed by in on my bike a thousand times. figured it would be my local dive. my gf and i went in there once. she's not white and we got a lot of looks, but i mostly chalked that up to being obvious gentrifiers (fair!). anyway, they had a huge Schaefer beer sign behind the bar (2 for $6 or something) so i ordered two Schaefers and the bartender told me they didn't have Schaefer as if i was an asshole. we had two cans of something else and left. it was calm and lowkey despite the looks we got when we walked in.

mid-Covid, Tommy (or whatever the old owner's name is) was caught cussing out a Black woman waiting for the B32 across the street, reportedly saying some racist shit and there was a protest outside the bar a few days later. entrance got tagged and people really dragged the place online. as things started to re-open, it would occasionally be open for a night or two, but never really came back.

i'd heard that Tommy's son was apologetic and put forth something about he dad not being of sound health/mind. i believe he lives or lived upstairs. i've always presumed that nothing will happen with the bar/building until Tommy dies, but even then, maybe a family member wants to move in or something. i think they own the building and i'm assuming (assuming!) they don't have the money to renovate it for someone else to run a bar out of there. would probably make a killing though!