B61

Good spot. Stopped here before dinner at Alma. Skip Alma, but stop here. The view is just as good at the bar and you’ll skip a disappointing dining experience (you can always order apps at the bar).
The grapefruit margarita was too sweet for my tastes but a friend’s guava marg was delicious and strong. The bar could use an additional bartender to keep up with demand, but there’s tons of seating on a Saturday night and definitely a good spot to stop by!

Great neighborhood bar, free pool, cheap happy hour beer, and actually pretty good food.

This bar has a nice view and a good selection of beers on tap. Also, it has a pool table! Really what more can you ask for?
I would give this place more stars but one experience really rubbed me the wrong way. One night the pool table was reserved for pool league which means that until the two teams have finished regular patrons can’t call next round. Cool, got it. There was a guy who had played on the table before league started and decided to sit and watch. The home team is apparently very territorial about their seats and insisted that this guy move out of ‘their’ spot even though he was their first! He said no, he was sitting there and pointed to several other open chairs available that the team could sit at. One of the guys from the team gets the bartender to kick him out, even though the guy explained that all he was doing was sitting down and refused to give up his chair, the bartender insists he leaves and eventually gets the owner to kick him out.
Really?
This is a paying customer who did nothing but have a beer and take a seat to watch some pool. I couldn’t believe that’s the way this business runs. This place needs to do better.

Delicious and strong cocktails and awesome staff, I love coming here then heading upstairs to the roof for dinner at Alma where you have one of the best views of the city.

I have a thing for dive bars, and I’m so happy we ended up here after a slightly disappointing meal at pok pok. B61 is high on substance, and low on style in the best sense – just a local watering hole. Kind of the opposite of Pok Pok NY!

B61 is my go-​to bar here on the other side of the BQE and should be yours, too!
The staff is very accommodating and friendly. Lots of locals, but not the scary, weird kind. And the music is always on point.
It’s also great for any mood you may find yourself in. They’ve got a pool table that switches out to ping pong, if you’re THAT guy. They offer a short and sweet, delicious and not terrible food menu, but are open to delivery if you’re craving Calexico or something amazing like that. Oh, and there’s wi-​fi. So if you see some girl on her laptop at the bar, sipping a margarita, that’s me «working from home».
I dream of the day I’ll be able to use my credit/​debit card.

Huge windows facing downtown manhattan. Good assortment of beers and bar food. After biking for a while with a friend, this place was great to chill out and eat; I had the fish and chips. And the place wasn’t all dark and cavey.

I consider this bar the unofficial waiting room for Pok Pok, and it’s not a half-​bad place to wait. With brews from Stone on tap and a generous, friendly atmosphere, I could wait here for three hours for my table. And I did.
It’s not a destination bar, but it’s a great place to spend a few hours. Oh, and great views of the Manhattan Skyline right outside the window.
If I lived in the neighborhood, I’d probably be here all the time.

Came here for a few drinks as we were waiting for a table at Pok Pok. It was New Year’s Eve and the bar was decorated appropriately. Service was okay. Drinks were reasonably priced.
Nothing exceptional about the bar but a great place for a few drinks!

Fine
Bar for
Neighborly
Love. Good service,
cheap, the regulars, and Alma waitees.

I love this place, even though it has no atmosphere. That’s probably why I like it. $ 4 drafts, and always friendly bartenders.

first things first.
this is not a dive bar. not in the least.
but it’s a nice, quite place to have a pint on a sunday afternoon. i’m sure that the crowd changes as the night goes on, and there were some extremely rude people hanging around waiting for tables at alma, but it didn’t phase us.
not super awesome, but not lame. a-​ok is right.

Nice little bar below the Alma restaurant, in fact I thought it was the Alma Bar until I recently saw the small sign out front that said «B61» which is the bus line that runs right by on Columbia St. The prices are the lowest around (many of the beers on tap are $ 4 or $ 3 during happy hour). The pool table in back is free and there’s a juke box usually with tons of credits already on it waiting for your choices. Unfortunately it’s cash only and the ATM machine here is often out of order so you have to walk a number of blocks to the nearest one if you forgot cash. The people here are usually genuine and friendly (the only issue is sometimes the bartenders are too friendly and forget the newbies at the end of the bar waiting for a drink during slow times) all in all it’s a great addition to the neighborhood.

This is my new favorite bar and everyone I bring here says the same thing. Totally laid back vibe, always a friendly crowd and bartenders, great $ 4 taps, best jukebox in the neighborhood, wonderful live music on Sunday nights, an amazing view of lower Manhattan that I can stare at for days through big open windows, and even a free pool table to seal the deal. What else do you want? I love Smith St and Court St to death, but some recent additions have helped over yuppify the streets (see Char No. 4), especially when the strollers start running you over (can we just agree that when you have a baby you move to Park Slope? Especially if you and your baby suck?). I am so glad there is a laid back place like this with a great crowd where you don’t have to crawl through a sea of people just to talk to a bartender (see Dowtown Bar & Grill) or doesn’t have a ridiculous theme to attract hipster doofuses (see Camp). B61, along with other cozy bier joints sans pretense like Abilene, MiniBar, Angry Wade’s or Brooklyn Inn, continue to prove that you can still find a slice of reality in Carroll Gardens/​Cobble Hill, even if the view seems otherworldly.

This is a real locals bar peppered with diners waiting for a table at Alma, the restaurant upstairs, or diners from Alma stopping for a post-​meal nightcap. Given all the bars with sourpuss bartenders in nyc, the barstaff really sets this place apart — they’re having just as much fun as the patrons, and as a result there’s no excuse for attitude. The drinks are stealthily strong, so for those of you who like your margaritas and bloody mary’s watch out! By the time you start feeling the effects of these pint-​sized drinks, it may be too late to look for a seatbelt to keep you on your barstool!
The bar is practically open-​air in warm weather season, when the huge back panels of the bar open up to the sidewalks, where other people from the neighborhood routinely peek in to chat with the bartenders, or to fish out their buddies inside. The pool table area in the depths of the bar is equally sweet.
CASH ONLY.

There is an unspoken law in this bar that, in order to truly get the full experience, there is a prerequisite of one year (at least) of hanging out in the bar almost everyday. Everyone there is a local barfly who live within a 5 block radius of this place, who all know each other, all have nick names for each other, poker nights, and even have a summer softball team for goodness sake!
It is the quintessential neighborhood bar if I ever experienced one, which could leave some non-​residents feeling out of place or not that impressed. Although the location itself it somewhat out of the way, and might be quite a trek for even someone in the next neighborhood, there is a surprising amount of livelihood in the area that causes you to find yourself stopping in B61 for a quick drink that turns into the rest of your night. I recommend checking out Alma, the amazing Mexican restaurant upstairs with an amazing Manhattan skyline view, and spend your post-​dinner Bloody Mary downstairs at the bar.
They have a great, constantly changing jukebox that plays all the classics, some guilty pleasure songs, the latest in indie-​pop, and music that you are surprised you never heard before in a bar. (Hint: if you are a music buff and hang out here enough, the bartender will allow you to add your own mix to the jukebox’s repertoire). The pool table in the back is always an entertaining feature, and there are booths for quieter evenings, but I recommend hanging around the front where all the action is. Be good to your bartender, strike up a conversation once and awhile, be prepared to stay up way past closing time, and suddenly you have joined some secret club that you never even knew you wanted to be a member!

I have been to this bar only when waiting for a table at Alma upstairs, which is to say several times. However, if I lived in the area, or if B61 was more centrally located, I would definitely go more often. They have a great juke box, the prices are reasonable, and the bartenders are really nice. This is the kind of place I wish for as my neighborhood bar.

I like this place because it’s on the fringes of hipsterized Brooklyn; there’s a mix of Red Hook dock workers and the kind of folks you see a lot more of further north in the Smith St. area bars and restaurants. It’s small and gritty, maybe even divey, but they have really good bartenders, loads of high quality beers on tap, large and tasty mojitos and margaritas, and the best bloody mary I have ever tasted. This thing alone is worth the trip. The Sunday bartender makes them with a base of his homemade mix, that includes garlic and coriander, amongst other secret spices, and he adds that to vodka, a touch of Guiness from the tap (sounds weird but it is just that special touch that makes it work), and garnishes them with a skewer of good olives, a celery stalk, a whole scallion (begs the question, do I eat this?), and a sliver of fresh avocado. It’s like a work of art or an edible rainforest. I saw someone order one once while I was waiting for a table at Alma, the Mexican joint upstairs owned by the same folks, and chugged a pint of Magic Hat so I could try one before our table was ready. They also have a pool table in the back, and a juke box featuring Bob Dylan and other timeless classics. And, it shares Alma’s dramatic view of the Manhattan skyline.