so happy i left park slope.

I play in the Saturday bocce league and I must say that the amount of kids that parents were bringing into the bar was getting out of control.

That sign should say No strollers and kids. Otherwise, you'll still have the even more annoying little ones running around getting in the way.

BV, I'm surprised you haven't yet written about the HUGE "For Lease" sign above Great Lakes. Let's be honest, there's only one true indie rock bar in the Slope, and the Lakes is IT. What the story???

We're really glad you left Park Slope too, Anon. 4:00 p.m.

Speaking of Union Hall: Yeah, downstairs is a fairly decent place to catch some music. But the upstairs is strictly for the losers.

Weekend nights are like "my first Brooklyn bar" nights for the douche-y Manhattan crowd. Or maybe they're now the douche-y Brooklyn crowd.

4:29, whats happening to great lakes?!? best bar in all of brooklyn!!

Anon 4:39, I dunno what the story is! I noticed it maybe like two or three weeks ago, and I just expected somebody to eventually blog about it and try to find out what the scoop is. The bartenders won't give up too much, and in fact two of them gave two different explanations. If the Lakes closed, that'd be a new low for the Slope.

i for one hate it when little kids are at bars...well not if they are well behaved and the parents dont mind that im not about to watch my language while i drink

http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/01/is_great_lakes.php

Why are two year olds allowed in bars while 20 year olds are not?

"Weekend nights are like "my first Brooklyn bar" nights for the douche-y Manhattan crowd."

Actually, weekends, PERIOD, at MOST bars are for amateurs and "my first [INSERT BOROUGH NAME] bar" people.

What kind of responsible parent brings their fucking obnoxious kid to a bar? Those moms and their brats need to move to the fucking suburbs where they belong. Oh, and park slope sucks ass.

Parents who bring kids to a bar should be kicked in the pussy.

I agree, kids should not be allowed into the bars, I don't care how old they are. If people want to have kids and still go to the bars on a Sat afternoon, they shouldn't have had kids.

i don't go to union hall anymore because of the a-holes who are too cheap to get a sitter and subject me to their shitty brats

strollers or not, at least everybody's sense of entitlement remains in tact!

the family that drinks together, gets alcoholism together. yays!

dumb fucking parents who bring their kids to a bar. piss in their fucking faces.

Where else is a cougar supposed to go?

I rather have strollers than fratboys.

i don't think there's much a choice sometimes.

According to the staff at Great Lakes (which we ASKED about the sign), they aren't going anywhere regardless of what happens to the building. As for strollers/kids in bars, there are PLENTY of places to take your runts in the Slope -- go to them and leave the bars alone. We all promise NOT to go to Area Kids or even the TEA LOUNGE if you'll just stay the fuck out of the few decent bars left around here. Deal?

At the Beer Garden in Astoria, there are plenty of kids. I think that is one of the really great places in New York and none the worse for having kids there. Granted it is a beer garden so it is a huge outdoor space with loads of tables. I could see how having lots of kids in a small space could be seen as a pain in the ass-- I have never been to Union Hall so I'm not sure of the logistics of the place. However, what I'm responding to is the attitude that bringing kids to a bar makes these bad parents and that parents should give up any idea of having a social, adult life outside of raising their children. While I don't have kids, I don't think your life should end because you have children.

Also it is a BAR, not a fine restaurant or a movie theater where quiet and good behavior is expected. O find that incredibly rude whem children are brought out when I expect I am getting a quiet evening. But a bar is not a quiet evening. It just sounds like you dont like the people at the bar.

And keep your fucking dogs out of the bars too, yuppies. And out of the coffee shops and the bookstores. And try picking up their shit for once in your fucking life. And another thing: fuck you.

In theory, I totally agree with the idea that we should all get along (parents, singles, children) and hang out in the same space. Bars oversea's embrace this quite a bit.
But I can't deny how my heart sinks when I see a stroller getting navigated into a crowded bar I am at and the pangs of guilt I have every time I drop the f-bomb.

I would just like some kind of stroller curfew?...
How does never-o-clock sound?

You can bring your kids to the bar if I can get 'em drunk, take 'em back to my place and have my way with them. Or at lest if they can hold my hair out of my face while I puke up the evening's libations. But if there just gonna hang around being little kids I don't want 'em there. I don't get drunk in their school yards during recess. Not since the restraining orders, anyways.

some one make an ALL AGES joke!

Indie Bars: Commonwealth, Buttermilk.

Some of the commentators in this section, I hope they get psychiatric help.

People who don't want to get drunk with little kids are CRAZY!

Why would breeders want to bring their mutts to a bar to drink alcohol?One would think that they would go to bars to escape the diapers and the crying.

That's because you don't understand the Park Slope yuppie parental mentality. Kids are accessories, like a handbag... When I was growing up in Park Slope and used to sling a little weed, some of our biggest customers were our classmates' parents. We keep all our vices in the family on the Slope!

Only in Park Slope would a bar banning strollers be a problem.It is a joke.People do not go to bars to see strollers and parents with their little kids.Adults go to bars to mingle with othe adults (girlfriend/boyfriend,singles,etc).But I guess the all important GUBS (grownup babies that we been reading about) are above those general rules.Grow up.I'm so glad not to be living in a part of Brooklyn with all the Yindie Yipsters who are now Yindie Yipster Parents.Once you squeeze new human being out,you are their parents not older siblings who can take them to bars and indie concerts.

clearly, someone needs to open a bar that embraces the booze bag parent / kid scene. PBR and a shot of liquefied pears $5 anyone?

Here's an idea: Tell any kiddies you see in a bar that there's no such thing as Santa Claus just to piss off their parent(s).

-- Posted by Anonymous | February 8, 2008 12:15 PM

Here's an idea: Tell any kiddies you see in a bar that there's no such thing as Santa Claus just to piss off their parent(s).
--

Ha! Other good option:
'Accidentally' spill a beer into someone's precious 300 dollar stroller (hopefully avoiding the baby). Ask everyone in your party to do the same. When the stroller comes home smelling like, well, a bar, the asshole 'parents' might reconsider the wisdom of their childrearing techniques.

I'm glad Adam mentioned the Beer Garden in Astoria. I live across the street from there and while I don't mind all the kids and parents there on weekend days (it is outdoors and huge, afterall), what really bugs me is the a-hole security guards there who won't let my 45 year old (childless) friends in because they don't have their IDs (hey - it's NY. My friends don't drive and don't have IDs). So if you're 45 and don't have ID, you can't go to the Beer Garden, but if you're a 10 year old, that's fine!?! Wtf is up with that??!

Upper middle class white people problems. Life's tough.

Commonwealth has zero atmosphere. It doesn't have any character. Buttermilk? Best bar in South Slope. Walking to 16th St. from Carroll or President is a slog, especially in the winter. But when we're in the area, it's the only bar to enter.

The whole NYC is becoming such a dull &nonthreatening,disneyfied yuppy meca.No smoking but yes to kids and strollers.Everything (including bars)are now geared tords rich white people&their stupid kids.Yawn.

If the 70's NYC punk scene was stil alive,the Yuppies would have replaced the hippies in punk contempt.The million dollar constructions&condos,strollers&nannies.Now G rated bars.Yet they are hip because if Bill Gates lived in Brooklyn,he would be hip too.

OMG WE'RE ALL DOOMED TO TEH SUCK OF THE WORLD.

Places change. Sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad, sometimes for the mediocre. It happens and it's tough to deal with, but it happens. Everywhere.

"At the Beer Garden in Astoria"

The name is Bohemian Hall, get it right. It's been called that since before you gentrifriers moved in.

T0 5:37

I've lived in New York all my life and I'm a teacher--- hardly a gentrifier . I've never heard anyone call it Bohemian Hall, but I do know that's what it is called. Most people just refer to it as the beer garden --- there aren't too many like it around.

God help the human race.

Forget it, my child, y'all are on your own.

"Indie Bars: Commonwealth, Buttermilk."
wtf is an "indie bar?" for crying out loud! i want to punch some of you in the pussy!