Union Hall-Blessing or Curse?

shishkab wrote: [quote="Jack [aka Guest]"] Congrats on having Gawker pick up on the innanity! It's the cyber-equivalent of a bunch of yentas sitting in front of a building and kvetching about nonsense... BUT IN CYBER FORM!

Subject: Re: Stop crying park slopers!

MichaelKeys wrote: [quote=Waaa-ambulance Police]Listen, for those that have a problem with this bar, make a comment and move one. The posters who blatantly mislead or fabricate or spend, what seems like, days responding to each and every post - you have to realize that your credibility as a patron of any bar or any non-virtual existence is called into question somewhat when you have this much time to spend online, no? Seriously, who has that much time to come up with pithy retorts to every comment.

pieinthesky wrote: ...I'll take 500 well-reasoned, thoughtful words over 25 snippy and myopic ones any day. I'd spend 500 words to defend an institution I patronize and admire, if it would quell 125 previous ill-informed and damaging posts--not that it ever would, on this board.

Anonymous wrote: if you don't like the place for legitimate reasons, cool. but i just couldn't sit idly by while some of you made up garbage.

"Even Carden favors a chill Monday night at his own bar to the
weekend fray. That’s because on Friday and Saturday “crowds make it
crazy, especially around the bocce-ball court,”

TimeOut NY wrote:
Thanks to hordes of carpet-bagging booze hounds, Brooklyn bars are
fast becoming weekend no-fly zones.

By Joshua M. Bernstein

On a recent Saturday at midnight, foot traffic and taxis were scarce
on Brooklyn’s Court Street. But inside Abilene, a narrow corner
saloon in Carroll Gardens, a Manhattan-worthy cattle-car bar scene
thrives. Guys in silk-screened tees and pretty girls in ballet flats
stand elbow to elbow, jostling for pints, their requests deafened by
an indie-rock soundtrack.

“This,” says regular Ben Haas, 32, “is why I usually avoid Fridays
and Saturdays. Give me Sundays with seven people at the bar.”

A common annoyance in the East Village or the Lower East Side, the
weekend crush is a new phenomenon in Brooklyn. Just a few years ago,
the borough’s Tuesday and Saturday bargoing experiences were nearly
identical: Drinkers could go out with a fair amount of certainty that
a night of tippling would be a calm one. Want mayhem? Go to
Manhattan. Want to relax? Stay in Brooklyn.

“As a Brooklynite going into the city on weekends, I was like, ‘What
are we doing? Let’s just go back and hit our favorite bars,’” says
Jim Carden, co-owner of Floyd, NY and Union Hall, a Park Slope spot
notorious for attracting Meatpacking-scale throngs (a line to enter
the two-story space is not uncommon).

It’s no secret that Brooklyn is swelling with trendy, single
residents who would have opted for a downtown Manhattan address a
decade ago (or today, if they had the funds). In step with the
migration, there’s been a wellspring of destination hangouts with
eclectic jukeboxes and hipster brews (Pabst, Brooklyn Lager on tap).
Spots like Williamsburg’s Union Pool, Great Lakes and Buttermilk in
Park Slope, and Gowanus Yacht Club and Brooklyn Social (Carroll
Gardens) have not only provided Brooklyn’s weekend partyers with a
reason to stay local, they’re luring Manhattanites across the East
River.

With dual bocce courts, bands playing on the basement stage and
couches galore, Carden’s Union Hall is irresistible to early week
patrons who use the space to read, booze and kick back. Even Carden
favors a chill Monday night at his own bar to the weekend fray.

That’s because on Friday and Saturday “crowds make it crazy,
especially around the bocce-ball court,” says Carden. The lines to
play are so long, with arguments sometimes erupting about whose turn
it is, that “we should rent a lifeguard to sit on a ladder and call
out people’s names.”

While bocce players overwhelm Union Hall, the twin lures at
Williamsburg’s warehouse-size Barcade—vintage arcade games and
unusual microbrews—foster a perfect storm for weekend mob scenes. The
cavernous space can feel empty on a Wednesday even with 40 people at
the bar, but weekend visitors, beware. “The last time I was there on
the weekend, we couldn’t play any games,” says Geoff Stearns, 28,
East Village resident and a Barcade fan. “Even the crappy games were
taken.”
But this isn’t about special attractions—even conventional bars have
become overwhelmed. When Boat opened on Smith Street in 2000, Justin
Trout, 35, of Clinton Hill, laid claim to the comfy dive. “We made
Wednesday nights our long-standing, no-phone-calls-necessary
hangout,” says Trout, who also drank there on Fridays. Nowadays, he
keeps his Wednesday tradition, but says “prime weekend hours are
definitely times to flee.”

Ryan Pederson of Prospect Heights echoes the sentiment. The 29-year-
old rarely patronizes beer-and-burger bar Soda, because “it’s changed
from a beloved neighborhood hangout to a place that’s packed
regardless of the service. Good luck getting a drink if you’re
sitting at a table when Soda’s busy.”

Other places are tolerable only at capacity. Since opening last fall,
Greenpoint’s Studio B has become a mecca for rock concerts and dance
parties. “The more people there, the better,” says Rebecca Smeyne,
editor-in-chief of myopenbar.com. “No one’s forcing you to stand on
the dance floor.”

And who can fault revelers for patronizing decent bars? Even crammed
Brooklyn hangs may be better than the alternative.

“I was recently in the Lower East Side during a weekend, and I was
like, ‘What am I doing?’ It looked like New Orleans during Mardi
Gras,” says Barcade’s co-owner Paul Kermizian. “I wanted to go back
to Brooklyn.”

paulybrklynny wrote: i think the over-the-top anti reactions to the place have almost turned me in favor of this too precious Disney-fied barn.

next time my on the block living friends suggest it, i won't recoil.