October 2019 – 168 Marcy Ave, Brooklyn, New York
Man, did we ever have high hopes for this place. It seemed to be THE metal bar in New York. And Type O Negative used to hang out there! It was a huuuuuge disappointment, only coming in at number 8 on the list. Here again is the list so far:
- The Hipster Bars: Arlene’s Grocery, Bowery Electric & Rocka Rolla
- The Dive Bars: American Trash, Iggy’s Keltic Lounge & 7B Horseshoe Bar
- Duff’s
Given the amount of fairy lights in the place, it feels pretty weird to be saying I didn’t like it. Fairy lights in a metal bar is pretty much my dream, right?
But the place just felt kind of plastic. Every available inch of wall and ceiling was covered in gig posters or records, or some other crap.
Even the damn table tops were covered! I know I’ve talked about other bars that were covered in crap favourably (The Dev in London, for example) but this was just different somehow.
It was all just too clean, and honestly seemed to be trying too hard. It came across like a harder version of the Hard Rock Cafe.
Music wise, they had on what I assume was a satellite radio station or something, which seemed like a really odd choice in general but especially for a Saturday night. I don’t recall what music there was, if any, (this is where those notes that I lost would have come in handy) but there was a lot of talking.
Another thing I wasn’t crazy about was that they had no draught beer. The selection in bottles and cans was pretty basic too.
We arrived here earlier in the evening planning to hang out the whole night, but we wound up staying for just one beer and jumping in a cab to another bar we hadn’t even really planned on going to. More on that later.
I read that is the third incarnation of this bar as it keeps having to move locations for various reasons. I’m going to assume that this third version is probably a shadow of the original?
So, our main reason for going to Brooklyn, other than the bridge of course, was to go to Prospect Park. Prior to Type O Negative, Peter Steele worked in the Park and after his death a memorial tree was planted, and bench dedicated in his honour.
The park is designed by the same team as Central Park, and is just as beautiful if on a smaller scale. It’s not somewhere we would have otherwise gone, so this was an positive unexpected surprise, in contrast with Duff’s. 😁
And now here are some photos of Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline, cause that was pretty awesome. Except for the walking across the bridge part, that was just ridiculously crowded and kinda scary if you’re not a huge fan of heights. Everything else was great though. And there’s more posts about Brooklyn to come!
Fairy Lights and Vines 