Ultimate Gentrifying Bar Touts Bullet-Riddled Wall To Sell Fancy Cocktails To Brooklynites

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — A new bar in Crown Heights is tempting customers with a "bullet hole-ridden wall" on the property it says dates from the building's shady past as a "a rumored backroom illegal gun shop."

The only problem? It probably isn't real. Even the owners are admitting that.

As locals fight rapid gentrification in Crown Heights, places like the newly opened Summerhill are drawing the ire of long-time residents for flippantly using the neighborhood's history to sell expensive food and drinks.

In this instance, Sumerhill's owners blasted out a press release to trendy media outlets such as Eater NY and Gothamist using the "bullet hole-ridden wall" as a selling point for the place's authenticity.

Alongside the touting of its gritty past, Summerhill's menu is packed with fancy ingredients such as "hyper-local mint," "celery shrub" and prosecco – all with no published prices. It also serves rose wine in a brown paper bag, which some see as taking shots at street drinkers.

But when Gothamist went to check it out, owner Becca Brennan called the decision to keep the wall "cheeky" and admitted that very well may not be the case.

"Just looking at the angle I don't know if that is possible that that's a bullet hole," she told Gothamist. "We call it that because if you look at the history, someone seriously said, 'Isn't that the place where we could buy guns?' And then we were like, 'Okay.'"

And Brennan revealed that her source came from an anonymous post on Brooklynian, a message board for neighborhood gossip.

Click here to read more from Gothamist

Click here to read more from Eater

Image: Google Streetview, the corner of Nostrand and St. Marks Avenue where Summerhill now sits