The Pour House of Bay Ridge in Brooklyn is part of a series of tidbits from the chapters of my book Bars, Taverns and Dives New Yorkers Love, published by Rizzoli. You can order it
from Powell’s, Amazon, Rizzoli, and Barnes & Noble. Signed prints of all the bars in the book are available here.
The Pour House of Bay Ridge sits at the corner of 79th Street at Third Avenue, one of the main commercial drags in Bay Ridge. It’s a spare, open, straightforward corner sports bar with good pours and fair prices, anchored by loyal neighborhood regulars. Mostly guys watching the games on weekend afternoons, a younger mixed crowd on nights. It’s a place to meet your pals, unwind after work, rev up for a Friday evening out, or just watch sports, drink beer and break your friends’ balls.
It’s a hyper-local place, but on a July Sunday, we were welcomed right away, with top-notch, friendly service by Chris Byrne, one of the bar’s three partners and, in his early 30s, the youngest. The 40-something guys from the Pour House softball team at the end of the bar razzed each other (and Chris) with tough-guy good nature and fed the jukebox the whole time. (I love when people feed the jukebox. It’s generous and seems to happen most often at locals’ bars.)
What to Drink:
• Boldly order the damnedest cocktail I’ve had in a while, the Space Cowboy, made at the Pour House of Bay Ridge with vodka and Tang (yes, the orange breakfast drink of astronauts). It’s like the official Mimosa of the Apollo program. Have one or two and they’ll be calling you Buzzed Aldrin.
Recipe:
The Space Cowboy
A generous quantity of Absolut vodka
An equal quantity of pre-mixed Tang and water
Freely pour both ingredients simultaneously into a large glass full of ice until brimming. (Consider it a sort of liquid space race.) Serve with a plastic straw. I commented to Chris on the nice, big pour the bartender put into my Cowboy. He just beamed and said, “Welcome to the Pour House.”
Happy hours: Daily, noon–7 p.m. $1 off “just about everything.” Special happy hour for teachers every Friday, 3–7 p.m. $2 Bud Light drafts. (And really, don’t they deserve it?)
Next up:
Pete’s Tavern, one of the oldest, continuously-operating bars in the city, anchoring the corner of 18th Street and Irving Place since 1864. It’s another chapter of my book Bars, Taverns and Dives New Yorkers Love, which you can order right here. Limited-edition signed prints of the bars are available here.