Bartopia review: Supercollider

Every month, I host a beer night for my friends at a local bar in central Brooklyn (which I’ve cleverly dubbed “Bartopia.”) This time around, and for my first review for this blog, I’m going to review Supercollider, a reasonably new bar in South Park Slope, Brooklyn (a Google search suggests they opened in May 2013). NOTE: Please read through to the end, where there is an update!

I’d never been before, and we went this past Friday night. There must have been an event going on, because as I walked in, the long, narrow bar area near the doorway was PACKED. And as I tried to edge through the crowd, I kept getting dirty looks! I realized I was bumping up against canvases hung on the walls – and that folks were congregating around these canvases – so I assume the event was a celebration of the new art installation. (It wasn’t my fault folks! It’s not a good idea to crowd around the entryway of a bar that has not been reserved just for your event.) No damage seemed to be done to the art, however.

The bar was shaped like a skinny long rectangle with a square at the back. The square at the back had large booths around the perimeter – and it was totally empty when I arrived, so I decided this would be a good place to settle. The walls of this back area had lots of fantastic posters, all of the same abstract style, advertising amazing punk, postpunk, and new wave acts like Joy Division and the New York Dolls. And the music playing was very good too: we heard REM, the Cure, and Talking Heads, among others.

But the ambiance was a little weird. In the early part of the evening, it was really crowded because of the event they were having. This made it take ages to get the bartender’s attention, unfortunately. Also, the canvases on the walls had these little spotlights on them. The walls were a combination of white and a sort of grey-green color (if I remember correctly). The lighting and walls gave the whole affair a sort of suburban basement vibe, which was really different than the usual brick/wood/tin ceilings vibe of many Brooklyn bars.

So: on to the beer list. It was fairly extensive (between 15 and 20 taps) and had several beers from each brewery. There were beers from Captain Lawrence, Smuttynose, and Victory, among many others. In particular they had a number of outstanding stouts and porters. They also had a lot of fun cocktails listed on a blackboard, all revolving around the theme of supercolliders, physics, and the universe. (I can’t vouch for those – none of my party tried them!)

As the night went on, the crowd died down, and the environment mellowed out. We had a nice time. A couple of things to note: cell reception is really poor there, especially as you get further back in the bar. They have a television which was showing, when I was there, Turner Classic Movies (it was The Spirit of St. Louis starring Jimmy Stewart). The bar is really close to the subway at Prospect Avenue. Supercollider is a café during the day and turns into a bar at night – so they are in a great position to capitalize on workers going to, and coming from, the R train!

UPDATE:

A few nights after I first went to Supercollider, I decided to stop in again to check it out on a different night. I went mid-week in the early evening, and boy, was I surprised! The lighting was dimmer and there was only one table full of patrons in the back. I sat at the bar and enjoyed a Smuttynose Porter (always a favorite!) while chatting with Robert, the man behind the bar. He confirmed that the previous Friday was an outlier as they were, indeed, having an art opening. This time around, I found the bar a lot more warm and inviting. I will definitely be back!