Bed-Stuy's 'Do or Dine' Transforms Into 'Do or Dive' Neighborhood Bar

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — Stephen Pandolfi said he had just started abstaining from alcohol for "Sober October" last year when Salvatore Fristensky invited him over for a drink.

It had been about a month since popular Bed-Stuy restaurant Do or Dine had closed its doors, and Fristensky — an owner of Williamsburg bar Skinny Dennis, where Pandolfi worked — had a proposition. He wanted to open a new bar in the restaurant's footprint, and he wanted Pandolfi to be a co-owner.

Fast-forward 11 months, and Do or Dive, located at 1108 Bedford Ave., has arrived, the bar's awning sporting black electrical tape changing "Dine" to "Dive" (a last-minute call, Pandolfi said with a smile).

Stephen Pandolfi outside Do or Dive

"We're not trying to reinvent the wheel here," Pandolfi explained. "We're here to be a really friendly neighborhood bar." The goal, he said, was to get a guy with a briefcase sitting at the bar after work next to a "surfer hippy" and "a girl with 18 nose rings."

"From trashy to classy," Pandolfi said. "It's all about good vibes."

"We try not to pigeonhole ourselves," Fristensky said, adding his vote for a diverse clientele. "To me, that's what makes a great bar."

The vintage interior of Do or Dive is festooned with decades of bar accouterments, from old fashioned beer signs, to a shark on the wall, to a jukebox playing the soundtrack for a Martin Scorsese movie, as Pandolfi put it — in other words, everything "from Sinatra to David Bowie."

There are two ancient TVs, including a JVS 1970 Videosphere that Pandolfi tracked down, and which (he noted) predated Apple's sphere-ish millennial iMacs by decades. Each night at 7 p.m., the boxes will light up with the day's episode of "Jeopardy!" in the hope of getting everyone to play along — a good conversation starter, the owner said.

There's an outside seating area that hasn't opened yet, but probably will in September, assuming city approval.

And the drinks? A signature beverage is Do or Dive's frozen coffee, a $7 mixture of milk, sugar, bourbon, brandy, vanilla, and beans from Williamsburg's Oslo Coffee Roasters.

You can also get a 32-ounce vat of Budweiser for $5. All bottles and drafts are a dollar off during happy hour, which runs from noon to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. There are margaritas, 18 draft lines, and a variety of liquors.

Another perk: Do or Dive is a pro-dog establishment. All pups welcome.

On Thursday, Patch's tour was briefly interrupted when a neighbor popped in to tell Pandolfi that his motorcycle, parked adjacent to a driveway out front, would be "crushed" if it wasn't moved.

For a minute, confusion and annoyance spread to both parties — was this a threat? — until the man clarified that while he wasn't going to touch the bike, construction workers were using the driveway, and wouldn't take kindly to it. The matter was quickly resolved with a handshake, after which Pandolfi invited the man back for the bar's grand opening. He accepted.

Do or Dive is open from noon to 4 a.m., seven days a week.

(H/T DNAinfo)

Pictured at top: Salvatore Fristensky, left, and Stephen Pandolfi, right, inside Do or Dive. Photos by John V. Santore