A Brooklyn bar credited with introducing European craft beer to the once-industrial Williamsburg neighborhood in 2003 is now locked out of the expensive area.
Spuiten Duyville, which has been serving customers at Metropolitan Avenue and Havemeyer Street for more than 20 years, will close its doors for the last time on April 21, co-owner Joe Carroll told The Post on Friday. Told.
Carroll blamed rising rent prices for the closure of the aging, newly upscale neighborhood that his store once helped gentrify. Williamsburg has become a mecca for copycat craft beer bars almost everywhere.
“When we opened 20 years ago, craft beer was pretty underground and there were very few beer enthusiasts,” Carroll said.
“When we opened, there were very few American craft beers, so we were almost exclusively European craft beers from Belgium, Holland, England, and Germany.
Furthermore, “We refused to transport Dubel and Chimay. We carried really ultra-small-scale produce that no one really knew about. We really championed small-scale producers, People accepted it.”
At the turn of the century, Williamsburg was known as a more affordable bastion for hipsters and artists than Manhattan, where cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon were considered trendy.
“The neighbors were used to $2 cans of PBR, but we were able to convince them to drink better beer, even if it was a pilsner or a lager,” Carroll said.
“The bodega across the street has 30 different IPAs,” Carroll said.
In fact, the unassuming Metro Deli Bodega at the end of the block offers Belgian-style and German wheat beers (Allagash White and Schaeferhofer), as well as Belgian blonde beer (Lev) and “handcrafted” Texas dark lager (Shiner). Bock), German Pilsner. (Radelburger), Mexican Lager (Victoria), American IPA (Bells to Heart IPA, Double Dog, Montauk Pilsner), Organic India Pale Ale (Peak).
“It was hard to find craft beer back then, and now it’s hard to find a bar that doesn’t have craft beer.” he said of the district. is standard.
“Beer geeks don’t come to bars anymore, they line up outside breweries,” he says.
Carroll said while he takes responsibility for the neighborhood’s craft beer boom, nightlife in Williamsburg overall has taken a hit since the neighborhood gentrified.
“The people who come to Williamsburg have more money, but strangely enough, even though they have money to spend, they are not the ones who go out.
“The people who go out and hang out in bars midweek are mostly between 21 and 25 years old, not married, don’t have kids, and don’t have very serious jobs.
“There’s definitely less young people living here since prices have gone up. Young people have been pushed out to Bushwick, Ridgewood and Crown Heights.”
According to the owner, rent has risen from $3,200 a month 20 years ago to $10,000 a month today.
Carroll, who also owns neighborhood staples St. Anselm and Fette Sau, said her rent would have been more manageable if business had picked up after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The reality is we should have pulled the plug six to eight months ago. It’s been 20 and a half years. The fact that we did very well over a long period of time and it gave us money to open other places, but… Honestly, I think I would have been very excited if I could have been in this business for 10 years.”
Bedford-Stuyvesant resident Alyssa Das, 29, said she plans to return to Spuyten Duyville for one last craft beer before it closes. First reported by Eater.
“This is a facility. It’s sad to see it go,” Das said. “This is a real loss to the community. It was the first place I went to drink real craft beer.”
When I asked her when she first went for a beer in Spuyten-Duyvil, she replied, “I’ll just say when I was 21.”
Steve Marks, 55, of Brooklyn Heights, owns a person of interest barbershop across the street.
“When Spuyten Duyvil opened, there weren’t many places that specialized in beer,” Marks says.
“The neighborhood is changing. This area used to be a popular area, but new Brooklynites are moving into the riverside towers and they’re all talking about GrubHub.
“I don’t know who lives here anymore. I don’t think anyone knows about Spuyten anymore. I love it and have spent many wonderful springs and summers in the backyard. God, here. are very good places, and it’s hard to explain how these places disappear. You can’t rest on your laurels.”
