Profile

Ride the L train long enough and Williamsburg reverts almost entirely to its pre-hipster days: a quiet, largely ethnic community (more Hispanic than Jewish on this stretch of Montrose nowadays) unconcerned with the latest fashions. But even here in the far eastern reaches, pockets of youth culture crop up. Housed in a converted garage, this blithe, quirky bar may share some of its neighbors' taste for vinyl kitchen chairs, cheesy nature paintings, and curtains stenciled with mallards, but it's more artsy, too: Check out the winding staircase that hangs from the ceiling like an Escher print come to life. Summer finds the garage door sliding open and transforming the setting from mildly ironic to as casual and lively as the stoops of the rowhouses nearby. — Amos Barshad