Greenpoint man opens a booze-free bar
TBy Aidan Graham hree sober people walk
out of a bar.
It’s no joke: a new
booze-free bar is serving fanciful
craft cocktails from its
swanky Greenpoint locale,
intoxicating patrons with their
sight, smell, and flavor — but
not with alcohol. Getaway,
which opened on April 9,
would be indistinguishable
from a classic Brooklyn speakeasy if not
for the stone-cold sobriety of the bar’s
clientele, according to its co-founder.
“It was meant to feel like a craft
cocktail bar,” said Sam Thonis, who
also lives in Greenpoint. “It’s a very
social space, with music and delicious
drinks.”
Getaway’s growing menu currently
features nine non-alcoholic cocktails,
11 soda options, coffee, tea, and three
house-made shrubs, made from vinegar,
fruit syrups, and club soda.
Thonis, who favors the Paper Train
mocktail — made from a delicate mix
of lemon juice, tobacco syrup, vanilla,
and San Pellegrino — said that the
bar’s mixed drinks are definitely the
crowd favorite.
“The price point on the mixed drinks
is higher, sometimes significantly, but
for whatever reasons people gravitate
toward the mixed drinks. Some people
want to sample the whole menu, so
they’ll get a few,” he said.
Those ordering from Getaway’s
menu of zero proof beverages include
staunch non-drinkers, alongside curious
barflies giving their livers a night to
relax, said Thonis.
“I think it’s really both,” he said.
“A lot of people come because it’s new
and interesting, but on the other hand,
a lot of people have told us that they’re
sober, and they’ve been looking for a
place like this.”
Thonis opened the bar, with his cofounder
Regina Dellea, after watching
his brother quit drinking, and then
struggle to find a place to socialize in
a city where even the axe-throwing
ranges serve booze.
“My brother got sober, or started
to get sober, three years ago,” said
Thonis. “He and I were talking about
how there’s nowhere we can go that’s
not centered around alcohol. So, I think
we’re really filling a void in that area.”
The two founders consider themselves
at the forefront of new trend
COURIER L 48 IFE, MAY 10-16, 2019 24-7
Getaway
toward nonalcoholic nightlife. In addition
to Canticles Sober Lounge , run
by a Bedford-Stuyvesant church, hip
new hooch-nixing spots are sprouting
up throughout the City. The founder
of Listen Bar, a monthly pop-up that
serves a complicated menu of soft cocktails,
says that more and more people are
foregoing alcohol and discovering they
can have fun without it.
Thonis said that Getaway’s traditional
tavern trappings make it reassuringly
familiar to those seeking refuge from
the tipsy lifestyle, whether for the night
or for their entire lives.
“We’re just a bar, and people have
responded really well,” he said.
Getaway (156 Green St. between
Franklin Street and Manhattan Avenue
in Greenpoint, www.getaway.bar). Open
Tue–Sun; 5 p.m.–midnight.
By Colin Mixson Talk about pop art!
New York City painters will
unleash their finest works into
the arena of public opinion on May 10,
when they will compete for the public’s
affection and a chance to win a breakout
solo show at Greenpoint Gallery.
“I want to win this,” said Justin
Lefkowitz, a Staten Island painter. “I
want the solo show. ”
Participating painters have each
submitted five works for judgment at
the McGuinness Boulevard gallery on
Friday night, when art fans will cast
their ballot for the work they feel most
deserves to be called a masterpiece.
The winner will net $200 — but the real
prize is a chance to fill the gallery with
their art for a month-long solo show,
according to Lefkowitz, who said his
submissions for the contest are merely a
preview to the small museum’s worth of
paintings he’s ready to present.
“The five works I have are a preview
of what’s coming, and I have a
lot,” he said.
Lefkowitz, a financial analyst, contracted
the debilitating Lyme disease in
January of 2016, which made left him
easily exhausted and highly sensitive
to light. As a result, he could no longer
endure the glare of television screens
or computer monitors, and so he turned
to painting as a pastime that did not
leave him in total agony.
“I would have loved to see the last
few Avengers movies, but I can’t look
at a screen for more than a few minutes,”
Lefkowitz said. “If not for Lyme
disease, I probably never would have
gotten into painting.”
Attending the gallery event will not
be easy for Lefkowitz, but he plans to
wear big headphones and sunglasses to
block out the cacophony of the gallery
for as long as he can stand it, he said.
The chance to exhibit his art, and
the opportunity to bring some smiles
to people’s faces makes it all worth
it, he said.
“I’m driven to make people smile
on a daily basis,” said Lefkowitz. “My
life really sucks, and if I can make
people smile it makes me feel better
on the inside.”
Vote for art at Greenpoint Gallery
(390 McGuinness Blvd. between Clay
and Dupont streets in Greenpoint,
www.thegreepointgallery.com). May
10; 8 p.m.–midnight. Free.
Point of some return: Mark Mauriello will reprise his role as
Oscar Wilde in the nightclub musical “Oscar at the Crown,”
which starts its new run in Bushwick on May 11. Ted Alcorn
Return of
the Crown
By Bill Roundy Oscar is getting Wilder.
An immersive nightclub musical about
Oscar Wilde, which ran for three sold-out
weeks earlier this year, will return this weekend
to start an open-ended run. The second coming
of “Oscar at the Crown,” which starts previews at
Bushwick’s 3 Dollar Bill on May 11, offers even more
thrills than the first, said its creator and star.
“It’s bigger, better, faster — all of that!” laughed
Mark Mauriello. “We’ve been able to level up the
aesthetic of the costumes, the set pieces. We’ve built
ourselves into the space.”
The musical is set in a dystopian bunker, where
hunted queer outcasts gather to celebrate pop culture
and the life and death of Victorian playwright Oscar
Wilde. The new version keeps all those elements, but
the cast size has grown from 12 to 14, while various
plot elements have been sharpened, said its director.
“The shape and feel of the show is consistent,”
said Shira Milikowsky, who lives in Cobble Hill.
“We’ve done a lot of streamlining and a lot of clarification.”
The extra time to inhabit their characters has
also helped the actors perfect their roles, said
Milikowsky
“Everything gets deeper, the timing is sharper,
and the jokes get funnier,” she said.
With a run projected to last at least until the end
of the summer, Mauriello said he is excited to bring
the show to even more crowds of Wilde fans, theatergoers,
and party people.
“We were so thrilled that people came to the
show for all different reasons,” said the Bushwick
performer. “It felt sexy and exciting, but wasn’t
exclusionary — everyone could come and enjoy and
party in whatever way they wanted to. What I’m most
proud of is that we had this beautifully diverse crowd
coming together.”
“Oscar at the Crown” at 3 Dollar Bill 260 Meserole
St. between Bushwick Place and Waterbury Street
in Bushwick, (718) 366–3031, www.oscaratthecrown.
com. Previews start May 11; opening May 30. Fri, Sat,
Sun at 8 p.m. $45 ($79 VIP).
HOLD HIS LIQUOR
Brooklyn’s top painter
Pop culture musical
returns to Bushwick
Sober space: Getaway bar, which opened in Greenpoint on April 9, serving craft cocktails
with no booze. (Inset) A bartender at Getaway shakes a truly dry martini.
Photo by Julianne McShane
Lady and luck: Justin Lefkowitz will go headto
head with other artists at Greenpoint
Gallery on May 10 for a chance to win a
month-long solo show. Justin Lefkowitz
/www.getaway.bar)
/www.thegreepointgallery.com)
/www.oscaratthecrown