Beer, Booze, Pool, & Dogs

  (image c/o theleveenyc.com)

When my good friend from Texas, Bob, visited me a few months ago, he had a few hours to kill while I was at work. He hadn’t spent much time in Brooklyn so he walked around Williamsburg and eventually was drawn to the familiar neon glow of a “Lone Star Beer” sign in the window of a bar. This bar was called The Levee.

The Levee is located at 212 Berry Street (at N. 3rd) near to where I work. I’d passed The Levee plenty of times and had seen seedy sipping somebodies surveying the street. It looked like a dive bar. Just a regular dive. And- no surprises here- that’s exactly what it is.

The Levee’s jukebox, barring a few albums, has the best selection of random rock,etc I’ve ever seen. The beers and shots are cheap. I finally sampled a Gatorita (brace yourself: tequila and lemon/lime Gatorade)- which is as fantastically bizarre and dangerous as it sounds*. They have a chalkboard whereon one can note that they have bought something in advance for a friend. Best of all, they have veggie hot dogs and free Twizzlers.

There are two rooms. The entrance room has the main part of the bar and some high tables- most importantly the jukebox and the bathrooms. The second room has more of a laid back hang out space with some arcade games (The obligatory Buck Hunter), board games, and a pool table. There’s also a patio with some great(?) graffiti and picnic tables.

The bartenders are apathetic to abrasive- but in the way that they just want to give you your drink and be done with the situation. They’re all business- they have to be, I assume, because I’ve seen some rough characters in the place. But don’t be put off by any of that. One doesn’t go to The Levee to flirt with the bartender (although I did see a “missed connection” on Craigslist about the bespectacled woman bartender). One goes there to drink, play Jenga or pool, eat a Frito pie, and possibly make out with a co-worker for an hour straight in a dark corner.

All in all, I would suggest The Levee as a great last stop on a crawl or a place to sit and misunderstand what your friends are yelling at you over the music and forty other people in the room. It’s a good place to have a secret beer and shot in the early afternoon (I suggest a Texas Two-Step: a bottle of Lonestar and a shot of Tequila OR a Frat Boy: a bottle of Budweiser and a shot of Jager… if you’re ready to go down that syrupy, slippery slope- both for $5). All kinds congregate there- it’s near enough to Bedford to have a hipster population- but far enough away to draw an older and/or more mature crowd.

My only caveat is that it’s not for the weak of constitution- those chili dogs will come back to bite you.

*Like the Pickleback, the Gatorita's odd ingredient (Gatorade, in this case) cancels out some of the effect of the liquor. This renders one sometimes forgetful of just how many one has consumed. Whoops.