Skinny Dennis opened in February 2013 on the corner of Metropolitan Avenue and Berry Street in Williamsburg, and it has offered live music seven nights a week ever since. That number is the whole proposition. A venue that books five nights has a calendar you have to consult. A bar with music every single night is something you can walk into without a plan, which is a different and in some ways better kind of institution.
Seven nights of music and no ticket means the only thing that varies is how full the room is when you arrive. Ask Karpo who is playing at Skinny Dennis tonight and which hour is worth turning up for.
The name belongs to a real person
Skinny Dennis was a country bassist — Dennis Sanchez, six foot eleven and around a hundred and thirty-five pounds — who died of heart failure onstage in 1975 at the age of twenty-eight. Naming a Brooklyn honky-tonk after a working sideman rather than a headliner is a small act of positioning, and it accurately describes what the bar books.
The music here is country and roots played by people who play for a living, not a themed approximation of it. That distinction matters in a neighbourhood where a country bar could very easily have been an ironic exercise. This one is not.
Willie's Frozen Coffee is not a joke item
The bar's signature drink is a frozen coffee that has achieved something close to legendary status among regulars, and it is the single most ordered thing in the building. It is sweet, cold and stronger than it tastes, which is the classic and dangerous combination.
Beyond it there are eighteen beers on draft, a cocktail list and a vintage jukebox for the hours when nobody is on. The draft list is broad enough that the frozen coffee does not have to be the answer, though on a July night in Brooklyn it usually is.
How the room works
There is no stage in any meaningful sense. The band sets up in the room, the crowd is immediately around them, and there is no barrier and no separation. That produces the best and worst features of the place at once: when it is not full, it is one of the most enjoyable rooms in Brooklyn to hear a band in; when it is packed, you will hear the music and see very little of it.
Capacity is the constraint on everything. Weekend nights after ten are genuinely crowded, and the door can back up. Early evening — particularly on a weeknight — is the version most regulars actually prefer: same band, same room, room to stand.
The other thing worth saying plainly is that this is a bar with music rather than a concert venue. People talk. If you want a listening-room experience, this is the wrong choice and always has been. If you want a band ten feet away while you drink, it is close to ideal.
The window seats on the Metropolitan Avenue side are the position regulars aim for. They are far enough from the band to talk between songs, close enough to hear properly, and they give you a view of who is arriving, which on a busy night is the difference between staying and moving on. They go within about twenty minutes of the room starting to fill.
Cost, and what a free door means
Music every night with no ticket means the musicians are being paid out of bar takings and tips rather than from a door charge. The practical obligation that follows is simple: buy drinks, and tip the band. A room full of people nursing one beer for three hours is how free-music bars stop booking music.
It is worth stating what that buys you, because it is genuinely unusual. Seven nights of professional country and roots music at no admission cost is not a thing New York offers in many places, and the model only survives because enough of the room understands the arrangement. Cash in the tip jar at the end of a set is the entire mechanism.
Getting there
The corner of Metropolitan and Berry sits in the middle of Williamsburg's densest bar and restaurant blocks, a short walk from the Bedford Avenue L station and within reach of the Marcy Avenue J, M and Z. Coming from Manhattan, the L is the obvious route; coming back late, it is the one to check before committing to a last round.
The surrounding streets solve dinner easily and give you somewhere to go when the bar fills. Because there is no ticket, leaving and coming back is free, which is a flexibility ticketed venues cannot offer and which regulars use constantly on busy nights.
Practical notes
Skinny Dennis is at 152 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, on the corner of Metropolitan and Berry in Williamsburg, and opened in February 2013. Live country and roots music plays seven nights a week with no ticket and no cover. The bar is named for country bassist Dennis Sanchez, six foot eleven and roughly 135 pounds, who died of heart failure onstage in 1975 aged twenty-eight. There are eighteen beers on draft, a cocktail list, a vintage jukebox and the signature Willie's Frozen Coffee, which is sweeter and stronger than it tastes. The band plays in the room rather than on a stage, so sightlines vanish once it is full — arrive early evening, especially at weekends. Tip the band. Bedford Avenue on the L is the nearest station; Marcy Avenue on the J, M and Z is also walkable.
Tags: #LiveMusicNearMe #BrooklynLiveMusic #SkinnyDennis #Williamsburg #HonkyTonk #CountryMusic #NoCoverShows #BrooklynBars #MetropolitanAve #FreeThingsToDo #ThingsToDoInBrooklyn #LiveMusicNYC #RootsMusic #NYCNightlife
Sources consulted: skinnydennisbrooklyn.com · gothamist.com · en.wikipedia.org
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Ask Karpo first
Want to know who is playing tonight, whether the room is already three deep, and what time the crowd actually turns over? Ask Karpo for the current Skinny Dennis lineup, a realistic arrival window, and somewhere nearby to eat first on Metropolitan Avenue.
