Bar Type: Live Music / Cocktails
Cuisine: Bar Food
I can’t say this is a place we would ever find ourselves at if it were not for Ms. Hipster’s band booking a gig here as part of a very eclectic lineup. Them filling the middle-aged, all-woman rock cover band portion. Though that evening Hipster Jr. Jr. (who I reluctantly, as a father, admit fills the “woman” description despite her age) ended up sitting in on bass when their usual bassist went down ill the day before the show. Bringing a teenager to this club space didn’t ultimately feel too weird, but I imagine there are seldom children in this joint — especially up on stage. The restaurant / bar / music club itself is a funny amalgam that couldn’t stop me from thinking about the you-must-play-the-blues scene from Adventures in Babysitting. Some of it was the close, rather communal feel of the place, and some of it was the interactive nature of the show as it went along.
So, here we found ourselves in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. We drove, mostly because trains are a drag on the weekends and also because we were toting a bunch of musical equipment. It wasn’t my first time in the neighborhood, but it’s been a minute. While we killed some time before their gig started, I walked Hipster Jr. Jr. up and down the main avenue, Myrtle Ave., near the venue looking for a bottle of lemonade — a drink that an adult bar wasn’t able to furnish. The area feels pretty residential, though has your typical spate of banks, bodegas and local eateries. Brooklyn Music Kitchen is just off the main drag on a pretty sleepy block. It’s low-key and I imagine stands out noise-level wise in what must be a pretty quiet spot. So, I suppose it feels pretty engrained in the ‘hood, but also probably at odds if patrons are hanging out smoking and/or keeping the door open when the music is pumping. But that’s just total speculation.
The name. I think there’s a double meaning for “kitchen.” Since I don’t think the focus is necessarily on the food. After all, they have a small menu of typical bar fare. You know, wings, a burger, a chicken sandwich, some fish tacos. You get it. Granted, I did pick at other peoples’ orders, and the stuff I ate was actually pretty tasty. But the food feels secondary. I think their main thing is cocktails. I can say that I didn’t order anything but a Narragansett. Which I only did because it was $7 instead of the rest of the menu, which are all $9. Save Guinness, which is $12 for some reason. I know, bonkers. Honestly, I’m not into coffee flavored or red drinks, which seems to be their jam. The space itself is a thin, brick-lined room with a stage up front. It feels a little like the old Brooklyn DIY days where every space shoved a live music plus-up into their bar. Though it’s certainly not as makeshift in the way some of the others were. It does feel as though the stage is primarily set up for karaoke. Again, that’s just speculation, but a large screen kind of backs the stage and the lights do feel a bit like a kit that you’d get from a company who does karaoke setups.
Ms. Hipster’s band played their show mostly bathed in an unnatural red light that made the recordings feel like they were performing in the end times in Superman’s Fortress of Solitude soaked in the power of the red sun. Which may or may not have been something that happened in a Superman movie, but that’s how I remember it. The drums are shielded by a plastic partition — presumably to keep us all from being blown out in the aforementioned brick-lined room. And the amps were appropriately tuned so as to not kill our eardrums. It’s a pro setup, but definitely also gives community vibes. I think they do a lot of open mic stuff, which makes a ton of sense. The servers and everyone else at the venue were incredibly pleasant and friendly. I assume the dude who arranged this lineup is a local and/or a regular and he MCed the evening and was most likely known to and catered to by the joint’s owner / manager. So, they took good care of us — all of whom were there to see the acts in the lineup with Ms. Hipster’s band. Anyhow, it was a lovely evening of drinks and music and I can see why locals might drop in to commune with their fellow Brooklynites in the kitchen. You know, where they mix things up.
177 Vanderbilt Ave. – Clinton Hill (Brooklyn)
929/295-8499
brooklynmusickitchen.com
