Category Archives: Freddy’s Bar & Backroom

Dive Bar Battle: Freddy's Wrests Softball Trophy from O'Connor's

WIN003.jpgFlash! Bill Carney reports: “Prospect Heights’ Freddy’s Bar played Park Slope’s O’Connor’s in softball this past Sunday at Prospect Park. It was a continuation of the epic clash of dive bars begun last season when the teams split the series 2-2. O’Connor’s won the final game of last season and was therefore able to retain through the off season the coveted Triple D cup Blue Bra which the formerly smoke-filled gin mills have adopted as their trophy and symbol of Bar Sports Excellence. Showing a great deal of modesty, O’C’s decided not to display their trophy.”

“Last Sunday, Freddy’s regained the Blue Bra with an exciting 9-8 bottom-of-the-9th one-out sac-fly-to-center sending-home-the-winning-run victory by Jim, the guy who likes to drink something called a Yachtsman. O’Connor’s player-coach Bart the Bartender might have made a critical blunder by leaving in starting pitcher Kenny even as his pitch count neared 4,000. For this game at least, the Freddy’s squad abandoned their trademark weak hitting and porous defense while relying on the ‘being less hung-over than the other team’ strategy, which led them to their 2 victories last season. ‘We’ve stuck with our largely ineffectual batting, but we’re actually playing some defense this season,’ manager Pat O’Shea explained.”

GAME020.jpg
Jim was awarded MVP and given the honor of hanging the Bra from a lamp fixture behind the bar at Freddy’s. He celebrated with a bevy of yachtsmen. Future games are as of this report unscheduled. “We’ve got the Bra. They’ll have to come to us now,” explained lefty relief pitcher and Freddy’s bartender Matt Kuhn.

LINK: FREDDY’S V. O’CONNORS SOFTBALL, MAY 3, 2005
Who’s got the better bar? A few drinks later everyone does. [Photos by Stephanie Johnson, Tony Limuaco and Kate Matlack]

TONIGHT: Post Punk Bake Sale at Freddy's

ppk crew.jpgISA writes: “I hope to see some of you there … try to get there early to secure your cupcake because it’s going to be pizacked! And make sure to introduce yourself, I’ll be the person covered in chocolate icing and cake batter.”

Also, check out this profile of Post Punk Kitchen from Metro: ‘Basically, I was sitting around talking to myself,’ says (Isa) Moskowitz. ‘I was a Food Network junkie and I kept telling Terry we were going to start a cooking show.’ Moskowitz started by putting up a Web site for the ‘Post Punk Kitchen.’ The site became a Yahoo Web pick of the week. ‘Then BUST magazine called me up and said they wanted to interview me on my cooking show,” says Moskowitz, “So I had to do a show.'”

“The formula … In each episode, Moskowitz and Romero whip up a delicious vegan meal in Moskowitz’s kitchen and a band plays with their food in her living room.”

DETAILS:
Bake Sale at Freddy’s Tonight [Isa in the DAILY HEIGHTS Forums]

"Adult" Spelling Bee: Not Racy Enough for the Daily News

DCP_4050AlJoshBeex.jpgAdult Spelling Bee emcee Josh Reynolds reports that he recently received an e-mail from blog-savvy Daily News reporter Deborah Kolben:

“She wanted to do an article on the spelling bee. I was pretty excited about this and called her up. She said, ‘So…you have this adult novelty spelling bee.’ and I launched into my spiel and she stopped me very early on to say, ‘So, it’s not adult?’ … ‘Uh, well, we don’t spell the names of vibrators or anything like that. I mean, other than being in a bar, it’s a pretty wholesome spelling bee.’ She said, ‘Oh’ in a disappointed way, and told me that she was probably not going to be able to pitch the regular old spelling bee story.”

“I guess a ‘Sex and the Spelling Bee’ event is a good idea, but how hard are those words to spell really?”

Bonus! Heather reports on last week’s bee:

“…not packed to the rafters like last time, but … any time there are no tables left completely empty, it is a good turnout … It always seems half the people there don’t participate in the spelling, so it’s not like you’d be alone in your spell-lessness if you were to come just to watch. As non-speller Mark pointed out, it’s not just a competition, it’s entertainment.”

The next Adult Spelling Bee takes place at Freddy’s Backroom on the last Wednesday in April.

Drop Everything: Adult Spelling Bee TONIGHT

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LOCATION: Freddy’s on Dean near Flatbush. Probably will get underway around 8. $1 Per Round; Winner Take All. See the Events Calendar for more details. JOSH tells DH: “The bee should be extra fun tonight since I think there are going to be a fair amount of bee virgins.

BAD SPELLERS, TAKE NOTE: “Would you mention something about how a woman told me how bad of a speller she was before the last Bee I had, and she went on to win.”

PHOTO: Chris “Got the Jimmy Legs” G. gets alphabetic at last month’s bee. Heather: “It is turning into a force to be reckoned with. The house was packed — people were standing in the back due to lack of enough seating.”

Freddy's Bar to Have National Coverage — Update

knit.jpg As previously reported, The Jane Pauley Show visited Prospect Heights’ own Freddy’s Bar and Backroom last month to film Knit Night. Two weeks later, news hit that the show was canceled, and the debut of Freddy’s on national television was in jeopardy. However, although the show is ending production in mid-April, the knitting craft segment — “Creative Outlets” — made the cut and will air toward the end of April or beginning of May.

Knit Night organizer Tony Limuaco says, “The clip was about 30 seconds long at the taping, which is pretty long for a clip. It might get cut shorter, hopefully cropping out the receding hairline of a man from Guam, or possibly his gut…. So get your TIVO all set up and check the site for the air date…. As you show up at Knit Night this Sunday, March 20, walk in proudly knowing that Freddy’s has national coverage.”

See Dailyheights’ earlier post about this subject: “Knitting Is the New Bowling.”

UPDATE: KNITTING IS THE NEW BOWLING with Jane Pauley

Jpauley65nndbAccording to Kathy, "apparently the Jane Pauley
Show went to Freddy’s in order to film Knit Night in action [Monday, Feb. 1]. As a
friend pointed out, Jane Pauley going to Freddy’s sort of points to us
now being in The End Times."

UPDATE: Knit Night organizer Tony Limuaco just got back from the show taping downtown (air date TBA): "Jane was a gracious host–I got all sorts of loot … The show was on crafts, and Knit Night at Freddy’s was the opening piece. The show also featured cake decorating genius Kate Sullivan and Lilly Chin, author of ‘The Urban Knitter.’ They left one of my quotes in the clip: ‘Knitting is the new yoga, but after few beers it’s the new bowling.’"

World Record Turnout at Adult Novelty Spelling Bee

Ftppcworldcom_beejpg1Josh gives details on last Wednesday’s Adult Novelty Spelling Bee at Freddy’s: "There were three rounds all won by three different people and there
were 23 people in the first round which was a monster turnout … I got to shower the winner with the cash … Thank
goodness Heather was there to help me pronounce some words such as
"leptocercal" … the crowd gets ugly when things are mispronounced."
If you missed it, don’t despair, because it’s happening again March 30 at 8 pm.

[UPDATE!] Adult Spelling Bee – Winner Take All! – Wednesday Night

SpellingbeeflyerlowresJosh and Heather write: "Prospect Heights’ monthly competitive novelty adult spelling bee will be held in the Backroom of Freddy’s Bar, 6th Ave. and Dean St. in Brooklyn, on Wednesday, February 23 at 8 p.m. sharp. ( . . . and on the last Wednesday of every month!) One dollar to enter and the winner takes the pot. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to shine like the brightest star in the sky! For more information, please contact bee curator Josh Reynolds at (917) 536-0091 or via e-mail at [email protected]. Visit www.freddysbackroom.com for directions.

UPDATE: Josh says there is a lot of BUZZ (ahhaHA! get it?) about tonight’s Bee: "I got an email from someone at New York Magazine who had seen the flier
so that’s exciting and I guess that the Bee will be featured in New
York’s best of nightlife issue. Also, a friend let me know that at the
coffeeshop she frequents that the bee was all the talk."

BILLIARDS: A Deadly Form of Baseball?

Freddys_foosballHeather writes: "The recent removal of pool tables from
Prospect Heights’ local bars has almost reached trend status. Soon after
Soda’s pool table vacated its premises a few weeks ago, Freddy’s bar also got rid of its pool table in The Backroom,
replacing it with a foosball table (see picture). Sources blame the
table’s dilapidated state for its disappearance. But also, “The people
didn’t want to play pool,” said Frank, the bar’s owner. In response
to the news that Soda ejected its own pool table reportedly due to bar
fights, Frank replied, “When you provide a game that has a baseball bat
attached to it, you want it out where the bartender can see it
— not back
there.”

Pub Crawl Starts at Flatlantic Interzone

InterzoneChristian Lorentzen in the Brooklyn Star: "We begin … at Freddy’s, 6th Avenue and Dean. This outpost lingers in the
Flatlantic interzone … The room is dark, the video selection a sinister
eclectic, an adjoining room allows for bands and billiards, and a can
of PBR costs $2.50. Drink up-you won’t see another one of those for a
half a mile." Read more.