Red Hook Bar, Opposed By Block Residents, Gets Green Light From Community Board Committee

RED HOOK, BROOKLYN — A crowd of angry Red Hook residents packed a community board meeting Monday night to oppose a new bar planned to go in on their street.

In the end, though, Community Board 6's Permits and Licensing Committee voted 4-1 to approve a liquor license for the new bar on Beard Street between Van Brunt and Conover streets with some concessions made for the neighbors concerns.

The bar agreed to only stay open until 11 p.m. from Sunday through Wednesday and 1 a.m. from Thursday through Saturday and it won't have an outdoor space, according to Mike Racioppo, the committee's chair.

The bar also agreed to some "good neighbor and good faith" measures, Racioppo told Patch, including keeping its doors closed and encouraging patrons to get picked up and dropped off around the corner.

"The room was packed. There was a lot of opposition to it," Racioppo told Patch. "But by the end, the block association was thankful and thankful to the whole board. I think some people walked in saying, 'Outright reject it.' And I get the block’s concerns. But I wold say to my mind, this is one of the better examples of community engagement."

The incoming bar is owned by Kieran Breen, who also owns Keg and Lantern Brewing Company in Greenpoint. Breen envisions a brewery taking up most of the Red Hook space with a smaller room for tasting and some food.

But neighbors on Beard Street complained that their residential street would be overrun with noise and their sewer system wouldn't be able to handle the extra strain.

Because the community board is only advisory in nature, though, the application could have been outright rejected by the board but still approved in full by the New York State Liquor Authority.

In the end, the residents were able to get some concessions from the community board that won't keep the bar open so late and will try to keep the noise down as much as possible.

"There’s always going to be some community concern," Racioppo told Patch. "It was heard. We worked through it as best we could. I hope that this works out. It’s good to see people involved. I wish there was more turnout sometimes at these meetings. But I think it was an example of what the community board can do at its best to navigate and broker between community interests in business interest within the community."

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