Rose Live Music

Uggghhh I really miss this place, it was the coolest live music joint I’ve ever been to!

We sincerely loved this place! We came in on a Thursday night with a reservation for dinner at the restaurant downstairs, Vutera. Much to our delight, we found that the restaurant downstairs was not very full and we had our pic of tables. There was a huge contrast between the dim and very Williamsburg-​y bar and music venue upstairs and the gorgeous, old Brooklyn feel to the downstairs restaurant. We were not starving so we ordered the brussel sprouts and charcuterie and cheese. The owner was Algerian, spoke immaculate French and we took his advice on the wine, which was spot on. He also joined us for part of the evening and he was super cool and interesting, sharing with us his life story as well as pictures of his lovely baby.
After dinner we headed upstairs to hear the band, who were, honestly, phenomenal. Everyone from the bassist to the percussionist were fantastic and we stayed into the early morning hours chatting with the owner and the band.
I would recommend this place for great food, excellent wine, a laid back atmosphere, as well as a unique and vibrant music scene.

AWESOME place to see great music in an intimate setting. It sounds like they are closing their doors soon, hopefully it won’t be for good! It will be a loss to the neighborhood! Go out and see some shows at Rose and show some luv!
The restaurant downstairs, Vutera, was very good as well. I went on a weeknite, and it was eerily empty. The owner was there and mad cool.
Food and wine was excellent.

i don’t understand this place. it could be great. there is constant turnover and the employees seem to not like being there. the owner is always skulking about and seems angry all the time.
for a live music cpot i have never really heard any good live music there (besides charlie hunter).
i dunno, it is lovely looking. the food is ok. it really comes down to the vibes in the place. just plain old bad.

Perfect date place. The ambiance is wickedly romantic. Came here on a Tuesday night around midnight and the kitchen was still open. I had the veggie lasagna which was pretty decent and my «gentleman» friend had the spaghetti and meatballs which he raved about all night long and proved to be pretty delicious. The service was quick and laid back. The band was playing amazing music and the «gentleman» friend was super charming.

Walked in, not really knowing what to expect.
Loved the ambiance of the place, the lighting is dim, makes you very relaxed. It’s a bit small, but the music is awesome.
Had a jive, jazz band playing. TOTALLY SYKED to get toasted to this music. Fun crowd, good drinks, great music.

Places like this are the stuff films are made about. The lighting is perfect in the back music room, where you and your lovely date sit up front and personal with the musicians. It’s the perfect setting for live jazz and other improv music. The house band, möbius collective, are insanely good at jamming. The wine cellar restaurant downstairs, Vutera, is a nice diversion, and they have a picturebook little garden out back. I could fall in love here, but Ive already fallen for Rose.

Hands down the rudest staff I have ever dealt with in all of NYC. Went here to watch the final World Cup game with a few friends. Man, was I thirsty after being out on that hot Brooklyn sidewalk in the middle of the day! I stood at the bar patiently for nearly 8 painful minutes to order 1 beer, over this period I made eye contact with the bar keep about 4 different times, used the obvious ‘I’m here to order a drink’ body language. The bar was not particularly crowded, maybe 8 people sitting around it, and I was the only one there obviously waiting to order. The back room with all the tables was full of dining customers, so I understood they could be a bit bogged down, but come on, bartending is not rocket science folks! I was essentially being ignored by both the man and the woman back there as they bustled about organizing things and closing out other customers bills etc. I am a very easy going guy and frankly could have held out waiting for them for another 5 minutes before I piped up to tell them this is getting ridiculous. BUT, when another taller man walked up to the bar and was serviced RIGHT AWAY by the barkeep I lost my cool and gave a medium speed pound to the wooden bar with my hand. At this point the barkeep proceeded to loudly and condescendingly scold me for a full minute as if I were his 5 year old kid, about how that is not acceptable etiquette and how I need to relax etc etc. The others surrounding the bar looked confused or tried to ignore his pompous little sh. t storm, it was clear none of the bystanders sympathized with his outrage one bit. Essentially he just made himself look like more of an ass. Look man, I’m not a friggin serial murderer, I’m not about to flip out or something, you don’t have to give me the megaphone step away from the ledge lecture because I merely got fed up with your sh. tty f. cking service! Frankly you have no right to be giving me sh. t when clearly your staff is worse than the worst staff at the lowliest Pizza Hut or KFC. In fact, if you weren’t so full of it, you both maybe would have apologized and maybe even expressed a touch of humility or god forbid a touch of RESPECT for your customers, something along the lines of «gosh, sorry we forgot about you, it’s a busy day here». My only reply to his verbal diarrhea was «Hey, I’ve been waiting here for a whole 8 minutes». I finally got my drink, and then waited about another 3 minutes just for them to take my money! Come on, it takes 20 seconds of your precious time on the clock to pour one f. cking beer, there is NO excuse to keep someone waiting that long. My dog get’s a drink of water at the local PETCO faster than this. To top it off their waitress gave me the stink eye every time she passed by for the remaining 40 minutes that I was there, just watching the game and making sparse conversation with friends, oh my god I must be the devil incarnate! Get of your high horses people! My money is just as good as everyone else’s there. I am clean and groomed, patient, polite, out with a few friends giving you all business (that’s right business, you know it’s the stuff that all companies thrive on, repeat after me, biz ness). Who the
are you to treat me like I’m just some bum who just rolled out of the gutter to come stink up your bar. Furthermore, I have worked in that neighborhood before for several years at a busy store and dealt personally with just about every local in Williamsburg, I understand perfectly what the norm is in that neighborhood and how to respect it. I know very well what a well staffed business in the service industry looks like, and I know when staff is actually doing their job. I know perfectly well when it is acceptable and merited for a customer to start getting upset. It’s one thing if I was waiting for 1 minute and got fresh with you, that’s not acceptable, but this was absolutely not the case, you were treating me like some escaped slave in the south back before emancipation. The customer is always right, and Rose apparently has lost touch with the absolute most essential elements of running a decent business. Way to alienate your neighborhood guys, keep it up and your business will quickly blow out, your utter disrespect for the customer will not get you far at all. I’ve already told every one of my close friends to never waste their $$ at Rose, and now the universe of Unilocal gets to know too. Personally, I can’t wait to see this place replaced by a Pizza Hut, at least they train their staff there in customer egalitarianism and common courtesy.
Their neon sign outside should actually read:
R
O
S
E
Live A-​holes.
P. S. when you browse the reviews of this place you may not notice right away, but there are currently 5 reviews that are being filtered out. And conveniently the filter contains the two other 1 star reviews. In other words, please be aware of the biasing that is going on here in the review filter system.

This is definitely a hidden gem. We did not go for the bar scene, only for dinner downstairs at the restaurant. It is as though you have been transported to a cellar in Europe; the ambience is very romantic. The food was excellent and the service brisk and unintrusive. I am already planning our next dinner there.

Great bar, love the ambiance, good music and the drinks…

Beware and be happy that the bartender (a striking woman with long dark hair) is psychic or has eagle ears. She overheard my companion ask me what I am getting to drink and what my friends were getting, and was prepared for my order. No need to yell to be heard because she saw my thoughts and was pulling a Peroni before I could blink. I also asked her for gum because my friend had eaten too much garlic, but she got distracted; kudos for agreeing to find us gum. Damn, that is some serious service!
I love the secret hideaway feel to this place with its tacky neon sign and the highway in the background. I feel like I am inside that proverbial diamond in the rough. The bar is great with that olde tyme feel to it; great selection of beers and you can eat at the bar from the menu of the downstair restaurant (can’t remember the name… grr). Mojitos were great, nice and strong and my prosecco was wonderful.
The «live music» of the name is in the backroom; you can go in there as sit at any of the 20 or so seats to really enjoy your music close up, or lounge in the front room on a couch to talk and still enjoy the music.
The two times I have been here the music has been great; I haven’t gone there to see anyone specific just ended up there randomly and still the music was excellent. My musician friends who went with me the last time were very impressed which made me look like a genius (thanks Rose, I need all the help I can get).
The décor is really cool… big stripes of mismatched flowered wallpaper everywhere and heavy red velvet drapes. Music, drink, décor and good company add up to a really cozy night out.

Apparently my roomie loves this place but I never knew about it until she took me Saturday night. We didn’t get there until a little after midnight, but it wasn’t crowded. The restaurant downstairs was just closing (sad! I would have loved to eat down there. It was beautiful with wooden furniture and wine lining the walls… reminded me of a romantic cellar) but the owner/​manager told us we could still order food at the bar upstairs. Grabbed two seats by the bar and ordered a vegetable antipasta and vegetable lasagna. The lasagna was delicious… but only because we asked for some red marinara sauce on the side and added it ourselves. The server was wonderful… A Parisian who spoke perfect Spanish (according to my roomie) and he was so sweet. Hooked us up with extra sangria.
The prices were good… sangria was $ 6 and tasty. Beer is cheap $ 4 – 5. AND… they have live music! I’m sure they have different bands every night, but Saturday was a cuban jazz band. Maybe it’s because I love live music, but I had a blast. Ended the night dancing a little bit of salsa with some random band members.
I plan to come again to eat downstairs. Then go upstairs for a drink at the bar and listen to some live music. Sounds like a good date to me!

I went here to see a friend’s band play on my birthday and ended up spending the entire evening in the restaurant downstairs.
I absolutely loved it. First of all, the décor is spectacular. I totally felt like I was dining in someone’s perfectly lit cellar in the south of France. I love the wooden tables and the fresh tulips. It just felt pleasant and soothing.
I ordered the beet salad and the vegetarian lasagna. Both were absolutely delicious. I can’t remember which wine I had, but I’m going to guess I had a Pinot Grigio and it was lovely as well. I think my friend had some sort of steak which he also loved.
The only thing I had hoped for is that the waitress would bring me a complimentary dessert for my birthday, since everything else was so delicious.

I came here on an invite from my friend who knew the Colombian band playing on Saturday night, I didn’t expect this place to get so crowded when the latin music began. Everyone was dancing with the cutest lady sprinkling confetti flowers at the crowd. It was an amazing place to bring together talent, strangers and people who just wanted to shake off the stress from the past week. I had a really yummy caprinha here, I would definitely recommend it. My sis also got me a gin n tonic and it wasn’t bad. It wasn’t that far from the subway L so, if I get another chance, I will definitely go back for more.

Great bar. The prices are reasonable on the drinks ($ 4 Brooklyn Lager, $ 5 for most of the other beers). Free (and usually good) music too, which these days is a big plus. Lately I’ve begun experimenting with the food, and dicovered their pasta is amazing. It’s a good bar for either going by yourself or with a huge group of people. And the bar tenders are great; very nice people who seem to actually give a damn.

I really enjoy going to Rose, I have been hanging out there for about a year and visit once or twice a week. The best part of Rose is the amazing and usually free music. The crowd is always fun and the bartenders are fabulous, especially Al and Jojo. As a woman I find it a comfortable place to hang out on my own, I have never once had a problem. Thursdays and Saturdays are really nice, I haven’t spent much time there on other weekday evenings but I am sure it is always a good time. I think everyone should stop by at least once — it’s always a great night to hang out, have drinks and especially to dance! Great place to hear some freestyle, live music and dj’s with different styles. The live music varies, african, latin, funk, jazz, house, etc., the house band right now is Mobius Collective and they are definitely worth seeing live.

I’ve been here for a few live music shows and quite a few burlesque shows. I really enjoy the atmosphere and love the décor — amazing wallpaper. The owner always seems a bit disgruntled, but the rest of the staff is super nice! I don’t know about the alcoholic beverages, though I think they were reasonably priced, but the soda was ridiculously expensive — $ 3 for a coke? Seriously, thats the most expensive soda I’ve had in NYC anywhere, no joke.
But yes, the quality of the performances rocks. I really like going there (: good times, good people, comfy seats. Haven’t had a chance to try the food, but I hear its excellent. The little back courtyard is nice too.

This place really knows music! The people that were there seemed to really be into the music. We had an amazing experience there and would go back again and again. It was cozy, yet once the music started and drink in hand, you don’t even notice the space.

As far as bars in Bllyburg go, this place is a cut above the rest. The décor is nice, the crowd is fairly diverse (for gentrified Williamsburg), the drinks are affordable, and the bartenders are friendly.
I came here with friends to get some soul satisfaction from the Sweet Divines:
My only complaints are that the acoustics arent right for a full band, and the venue was too small for dancing. That said, my friends and i shaked our asses to 60s-​style soul music until 2am.

My friend had her birthday party the same night that my other friend’s band played here and the staff was more than accomodating to the crowd. The drink specials were more than generous and our friend even brought Jell-​o shots for them to refrigerate, and they let her. I thought that was a bit odd but we had a great time and heard some excellent music.
Also there’s a nice open area in the back where it looks like they should put a hot tub. That would be something. The only downside is that it’s hard for me to get there all the way from Park Slope. Drag.