Brooklyn Colony
“The weekend chef for the brunch I'm sorry I forgot your name but you are just talented.”
“And there's a shuffleboard table, which is one of the greatest drunken timekillers ever.”
“Awesome bar in Brooklyn with a perfect mix of sports, space to chill, and great people.”
Brooklyn Colony
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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I was sucked in at first by the games at the door. Electronic beer pong, shuffle hockey, pac man. More games in the back area. A HUGE FREAKING SPACE that has so much potential! But ultimately was dismayed because there was nothing to drink on tap. NOTHING. Nearly. Everything non happy hour priced will run you $6-8. They have a couple of good German beers – none of which they had. Finally was able to get a Sam Adams Winter draft. But really? I'm coming into a bar to drink Sam Adams for $7? Who am I?! The bartender said there was a party the other day. But I also read other reviews from Yelpers that commented on how all of the beer kegs were empty upon attendance. Need to refill those kegs if not with anything else if this is a reoccurring problem. Happy hour is decent sounding. Granted, I came here on a late Saturday night. But they have $3 drafts, $4 wells, and $1 Jello Shots on weekdays. Bartender was pretty nice though, he hit on my friend and gave her an on the house beer.
Tried a few of their appetizers because we were ravenous. Mac and cheese bites were solid. Gooey, carb inducing artery clogging yellow nuggets of glory. Disco fries were much left to be desired. There wasn't much cheese on them and soggy shoestring fries drowned in brown gravy was not so appealing. My friend's boyfriend also ordered both chicken tenders and buffalo wings for himself. Lol. He ate them at record lightening speed so maybe they weren't all that bad.
I actually had initially bookmarked this place awhile back to check out with it both being a new bar and saw that they had an unlimited drink brunch. One of my favorite things to do. Though, looking at their online website even their brunch sounds dismaying. You have a set prix-fixe of twenty some dollars for your general pub food brunch but have to additionally purchase an entire pitcher of mimosa/or bloodys per table to get the unlimited drink deal. Uh. . . . . walks slowly away.
This is definitely a unique place, and I have to say if it weren't for the owner being a five star lady, this review would be one star and potential profanity. Going in, I had no idea what to expect, we had just heard there was a holiday market going on there and someone read off the menu to me. So going mainly off the menu, I expected pretty much the same hipster type of place that is everywhere, with pretty spot on service and consistent food, nice decor, etc… If you are expecting that, you may very well not get it. It was kind of divey, several TV's showing wrestling… In fact, we ended up with nothing that we had originally ordered – rather, we got kind of a smorgasbord of random stuff. My friend nailed it when he said "But this place is more like being welcomed into someone's home. Nothing is going to be totally perfect, but it's welcoming and unique"
And that was totally true. I ordered a beer and a water. I got the wrong beer and no water. We ordered steak sandwiches. We were told they were out of the rolls, so they would have to use pretzel buns. No problem. Then about ten minutes later the owner comes out and says they are out of steak, and do we have a back up? She said she was having a hectic day, hence no steak, and pointed out that was why she was wearing her pajamas and slippers. (and OMG, she totally WAS!!!) Then she says she has these awesome chicken skewers and says " I'm just going to give you those". For a second I thought she meant she had just decided for us what to order. Then she says "We have a great pork chop and rice…do you like Mexican food?" (and this was weird because neither of those things were on the menu).
Anyway, we order chicken BLT's. She comes back out a second later and said she didn't have chicken skewers, but put down some beef empanadas, some banana bread sliced up and half a loaf wrapped up to take home. Then she brought out some house made Puerto Rican egg nog for us to try. It was so delicious she happily wrote down the recipe. We did honestly wonder though if she was just cleaning out her fridge or something…
Shortly after she brought out the Chicken BLT's and they were good. I asked for water from someone else again and never got it. I felt like $14 for it was a bit steep, but not completely out of line.
Overall, If she had not been overly apologetic, generous, and so eager to make things right, and I were judging it against the average bar/cafe I would have left the second after she said no steak (because no water, wrong beer, out of buns, then the delayed realization of no steak). I would have advised nobody to go there ever. But she was absolutely great and really cared (and now coming to yelp I see that she responds to criticism very well and really goes all out to make the place a great experience.)
Now knowing the vibe of the place, I would absolutely go back if I were in the neighborhood. I even checked out the website and see that they have a painting event which could be fun. Looking at the place in a different light than what I had originally thought I was in for, it's a great place to go if you are looking for a laid back vibe, a quirky kind of place with really nice people that are just doing their own thing. Just don't go there expecting everything to be spot on. Expect the unexpected and be in that kind of mood, it'll be fine.
Review for Valentine's Day Special Paint Nite.
What is better than hanging with your best girlfriends on Valentine's Day and leaving the boys home until dinner?! Paint Nite! My most beloved girlfriends and I came here for a Paint Nite session. The event was held towards the back of the restaurant. I would suggest to arrive 15 to 20 minutes earlier than the scheduled start time to pick seats. I prefer sitting in the front where the artist is demonstrating – no need to turn your backs and the view is up close!
I agree that they set up plenty of seat spaces between each student. The decor was very clean and bright which makes it a comfortable space to learn to paint. Our instructor was pretty witty with his jokes and his instructions are very easy to follow. He encourages us to do our own thing as well. I am not artsy whatsoever myself but I was able to follow through and I had a great experience overall for my first time.
I came here for karaoke so my review is only based on that. It's a bit of a walk from the subway but the venue here is very nice. They have games here and a tiny stage where the screen to read lyrics from is at your feet. The Kings of Karaoke do this on Friday nights but it seems here it's usually kind of dead. You'll get to sing a lot if you want to but if you wanted a big crowd to hear you, you'll have to supply your own. The venue itself is VERY nice & spacious, though (a far cry from the karaoke place I used to go to).
Food – not good. Got the wings & nachos. Wings were dry and nachos were more like loaded nacho chips instead of actual nachos. Can't imagine coming back here to try other menu items.
Happy hour deals – awesome. Came here when I was off for the holidays and forgot it was a weekday – to my surprise, my beer rang up as $3.
The people that worked here were incredible sweet and friendly. One of the bartenders gave out homemade mini cupcakes (sans frosting) for free! 🙂
Wouldn't come back for the food but WILL for the HH deals & the nice staff.
Went in to see Sunday football and was greeted by bartender friendly bartender. Everything is ordered at the bar. Cool no problem
I think if you're going to hang out and watch the game and have a few drinks you'll be okay. But I wouldn't go with an empty stomach. Overpriced food for the quality. I mean I get it don't expect much but the steak sandwich we ordered wasn't worth the price. Mac and cheese bites were okay but the marinara sauce looked orange and almost so cold it could have been frozen. Fries were alright but super greasy. Like I said OK for drinks and a game DO IT but not a good place for food. Don't go hungry.
P.S. I asked for some mustard and mayo and bottles were so dusty and gross I couldn't believe they would give them to people to use (careless)
I'll give this place 5 stars b/c 1. There was a yelp deal 2. good yelp reviews lead me here 3. It was close to where we were staying (after I finally found it) and there is a subway stop a block away. 4. The bartender was really cool and talkative 5. The space was nice and there was shuffleboard and a skeeball machine.
The food was good, and it seems like a cool place to hang out at night. We stopped by for lunch and there weren't many people there.
There was also a check in deal for a bogo beer, but we didn't use it.
Came here for two reasons, A.) Ingrid S. and I (I think) both had this place bookmarked on Yelp and B.) Our mutual friend was having her birthday gathering that night at Union Hall nearby so we came here to grab some quick food, drinks and kill time until then.
Upon walking in I immediately loved their overall vibe. It's open and a much larger space than you think it's going to be when you walk in. To the left of the entrance door there is a "beer pong" arcade machine and I immediately hit 'start' and began to play since it looks like someone put money in and just walked away. I swear my first ball went into the front solo cup and then it went downhill from there, lol. Free game upon walking in? Hell yeah!
The bartender was friendly to our group…he also thought I was pretty and that made my Black Velvet (Guinness and Cider together) complimentary. Free drink upon walking in? Hell yeah!
I'm usually more of a Black & Tan or Black & Blue kind of gal, but the bartender convinced me to try a Black Velvet after I told him I had never had one. It wasn't bad, but the carbonation with the Guinness was a little weird to me…I'll stick to the two aforementioned beer cocktails from now on :).
For eats we ordered a variety of different things. We tried their buffalo wings, Disco Fries (fries with cheese & gravy), Chicken Tenders (came served with a honey dijon dipping sauce) and their deep fried "Mac N Cheez Bites" bites.
The wings looked yummy, they belonged to my friend's boyfriend and he happily scarfed them all down so I can't speak from experience, but he seemed happy so I assume they were tasty and not too spicy since he doesn't handle spicy food well.
The Disco Fries were oooookkkkkkaaaaaay…nothing too special here. The fries were a bit soggy under the weight of copious amounts of gravy and not nearly enough cheese. What saved this dish for me a bit is that the fries were thick as fries served with gravy should be.
The Chicken Tenders were nicely breaded with Italian seasoned-tasting breadcrumbs and they were very pump and juicy. The honey dijon mustard tasted as if it was made in-house and this was a win for Brooklyn Colony.
The MVP of our food line-up was most definitely their "Mac N Cheez Bites". These were deliciously "cheesy", deep fried but not too greasy and super flavorful. I could totally eat my weight in these (as unhealthy as that would be sooooooo…yeah…I wouldn't do it, lol). If you every find yourself here and having the muchies, DO IT. I doubt you'll regret it.
Overall this place is a solid bar. Aside from a comfortable seating area that works for small and larger groups, they also host Live Music, DJ, Sports, Comedy, Spoken Word, Burlesque, Karaoke, PaintNite, Artists Gallery, Community and Cultural Events. I also liked how they decorated with literary nerd t-shirts. Team English Literature Nerd, team.
If you're in the neighborhood and there's a game on they also feature 10 screens and if you want to do something with friends (like monopolize the bar music!) they have a jukebox and fun, time-consuming things like Beer-pong, Shuffleboard, Darts and Billiards.
All the makings of a one-stop fun weekday night – no weekend happy hour was a little bit of a downer. So sans happy hour, beers are all $7 except for Guinness which I think is like $8. A little steep when people are planning to have more than 1 beer in one sitting, dontcha think?
This is where 1 star explodes leaving Brooklyn Colony with a rating of 3 stars…although I feel like if I could do halfsies, I would really rate this bar 3.5 stars because they were also out of most of their beers on tap which was frustrating for my friend Ingy (another star is swiped here being that this seems to be a problem that several Yelpers have expressed concern over) – and I don't blame her being annoyed over the limited about of beers considering that they were kind of empty on a Saturday (early) night. But I also don't know what the situation was and I came in wanting a Guinness (and was in luck!).
I would come back here again though and not just because my first drink was on the house :). I also hear that they have a boozy brunch in the summer…I look forward to trying it.