(718) 260–2500 Brooklyn Paper’s essential guide to the Borough of Kings May 10–16, 2019
Ginger
sale! Spicy liqueur distillery
opens tasting room
BOOZE
Hold his liquor
Greenpoint man opens
alcohol-free cocktail bar
By Aidan Graham
Brooklyn Paper
Three 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,
NO BOOZE
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
barf lies 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
co-founder 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 say that are not
making a mockery of the bar scene
— instead, they consider themselves
at the forefront of new trend 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.
“We’re giving people a new
face for what it looks like to go
out without drinking,” said Lorelei
Bandrovschi. “We’re just this
idea, but it’s rapidly growing around
Photo by Bill Roundy
the world.”
Listen, which is currently crowdsourcing
Getaway
funds in hopes of opening
a permanent spot in Williamsburg,
aims to provide the excitement of a
night on the town without the nextday
hangover.
“We have a very groovy mood,
with dim lighting and fun music,”
said Bandrovschi. “The vibe is really
kind of fun.”
Similarly, 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.
ART
Talk about pop art!
New York City painters
will unleash their
finest works into the
arena of public opinion
on May 10, where
they will compete for
the public’s affection
and a chance to win a
break-out solo show at Greenpoint Gallery.
“I want to win this,” said Justin Lefkowitz, a
Staten Island painter. “I want the solo show. ”
Each painter has submitted five works for judgment
at the McGuinness Boulevard gallery on
Friday night, when art fans will cast their ballot
for the finest 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, whose submissions for
the contest are just a preview to the museum’s
worth of paintings he is 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 Lyme
disease in January of 2016, which left him easily
exhausted and highly sensitive to light — so
he could no longer endure the glare of computer
monitor. He turned to painting as a feel-good pastime
that did not leave him in total agony.
“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.
— Colin Mixson
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 (pictured). “We’ve been able
to level up the aesthetic of the costumes, the set
piece. 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.”
“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 pm. $45 ($79
VIP). — Bill Roundy
By Bill Roundy
Brooklyn Paper
Sunset Park’s liquor scene has gotten
Intense.
A new liquor tasting room officially
opened in Industry City last weekend.
Barrow’s Intense Ginger Liqueur
Tasting Room has been quietly pouring
cocktails and offering samples for the last
six months, but the opening party on May
2 has allowed them to really spice things
up, said the company’s founder.
“We believe in not doing it fast, but
doing it right,” said Josh Morton, who
started making the spicy yellow spirit
in his Manhattan apartment before moving
to Industry City in 2013.
The newly opened tasting room menu
includes nine cocktails, each of which
showcases Morton’s signature spicy liquid.
Prices range from $8–$14, including
an Intense Old Fashioned, a brain-freezing
Frozen Intense Mule, and a creamy drink
called If you like Ginger Coladas.
Customers can buy bottles of the Intense
Ginger Liqueur at the bar — and
bottles of any other liquor in the place,
said Morton.
“We have 160 New York spirits, and
you can sample any bottle and buy it right
here,” he said. “We’re halfway between
a bar and a liquor store.”
All of the spirits served in the Tasting
Room are made from grains grown
in New York state — which means no
rum or tequila, since the Empire State
does not support sugar cane or agave
plants.
The Tasting Room also offers a wide
variety of tasting f lights, so you can sip
your way through all nine Empire Rye
whiskeys, or sample five different varieties
of gins — flights are available
in “beginner” and “advanced” versions.
The samplers can help people to discover
new spirits, saod Morton.
“You’re drinking, and it’s fun, and
you’re also learning about what you’re
drinking,” he said.
Barrow’s versatile liqueur also appears
in a few dessert items, including a ginger
ice cream from Blue Marble, and ginger
stuffed truffles from Li-Lac Chocolates
— both companies located in Industry
City. The ginger maven also has
plans to team up with other distilleries
and food producers, he said.
“Our stuff works with everything,
so we’re very collaborative,” said Morton
.T
he distillery has been producing its
ginger product in Industry City since
2013, but recently moved to a ground
f loor spot in the complex’s Building 6,
which also houses Big Alice Brewing’s
Barrel Room and sake producer Brooklyn
Kura.
NIGHTLIFE
THEATER
Move over Shakespeare
— now there’s
something Molière!
A new theater company
hopes to boost
the work of 17th-century
French playwright
Molière by launching annual
productions of his
plays in Prospect Park.
Molière in the Park will kick off with a fundraising
performance on May 18, followed by two
free readings of “The Misanthrope” at the park’s
LeFrak Center. The woman behind the series
said she wants to bring some fresh dramatics to
Brooklyn’s Backyard — and the French satirist
is perfect for these fraught political times.
“I live very close to the park, and I always
thought, why doesn’t this park have its own free
summer theater festival?” said founder Lucie
Tiberghien (pictured), who lives in Prospect
Heights. “I think Molière plays ask a lot of pertinent
questions about who we are as a people and
as a society, and our power structures.”
The comedy of manners follows Alceste, the
titular “misanthrope,” who refuses to conform
to the ways of upper-class society, an attitude
that complicates his relationship with Célimène,
the refined woman he loves. The reading will
remain true to the original, translated text, but
Tiberghien plans to focus on Célimène — played
by “Orange is the New Black” actress Samira Wiley
— and to emphasize her perspective, which
often gets overshadowed by Alceste’s ranting
and raving, she said.
“I feel like the play is always about him, but
the character of Célimène is extraordinarily important,”
Tiberghien said. “Whether this is seen
through the lens of gender or race, your ability
to be vocal and criticize, the way that Alceste
does in the play, is very attached to your level
of privilege and power.”
The director aims to stage a full Molière production
each year, and hopes the shows will
bring Brooklynites of all types together to take
in the stories.
“The Misanthrope” at the LeFrak Center at
Lakeside (171 E. Drive in Prospect Park, enter on
Ocean Avenue between Parkside Avenue and
Lincoln Road, www.moliereinthepark.com). May
18 at 7 p.m. $150. May 19–20 at 7 p.m. Free.
— Julianne McShane
Getaway 156 Green St.
between Franklin Street
and Manhattan Avenue in
Greenpoint, (929) 337–6025,
www.getaway.bar. Open
Tue–Sun; 5 p.m.–midnight.
Ginger man: Josh Morton, the founder of Barrow’s Intense Ginger Liqueur,
stands in front of his new tasting room.
Top painter
Running Wilde
Acting out
Ted Alcorn
Moliere in the Park
Barrow’s Intense Ginger Liqueur
Tasting Room (86 34th St. between
Second and Third avenues
in Industry City, www.barrowsintense.
com). Open Fridays, Saturdays,
and Sundays.
Sober space: Getaway bar, which opened in Greenpoint on April 9,
serves craft cocktails with no booze.
Justin Lefkowitz
/oscaratthecrown.com
/www.moliereinthepark.com)
/www.getaway.bar