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Greenpoint’s most anticipated bar opening is so new it doesn’t even have a name yet.
The nameless unmarked bar, located on a quiet stretch of Manhattan Avenue between Nassau and Driggs Avenues, juts into the street with a wall of sturdy stained wood and an unpolished blonde wood door more that seems more appropriate in the woods of western Massachusetts than a commercial street in Greenpoint.
But venture inside the narrow bar and patrons are transported to a wood-paneled 17th-century Chinese tavern — but with a DJ spinning Motown hits and five beers on tap.
The bar’s features blend together seamlessly and unpretentiously, which is the product of bar manager Jessica Lee Wertz’s vision.
“I wanted this to look like a tavern you could find in an ancient Chinese trading village at the end of the Silk Road, which is different from the traditional turn-of-the-century [Americana] bars you see in Williamsburg and the Lower East Side.
Wertz came to the United States from South Korea when she was 18-years-old. After working in bars for a decade, she partnered with the owners of Bar Matchless to create the new space, which opened last Tuesday night after 10 months of construction.
“It’s going to be a little bit quieter and calmer [than Matchless, a half-block away] — there’s no heavy metal karaoke night, but we’ll definitely have an upbeat party atmosphere,” said Wertz. “We had a banjo player at the grand opening.”
The building’s landlord, Jeff Mann, whose sidejob as publisher of the Greenpoint Gazette does not bar us from raising a glass, was among the first patrons at the bar.
Mann was clearly tickled by the cozy interior of the bar, pointing to little details throughout the bar including jade-colored tiles in the bathroom, burlap coffee sacks on the walls, cedar-paneled ceilings and floors which made it smell like Christmas, and vines of ivy that scaled a neighboring brick building in the bar’s expansive backyard garden.
But what about the name?
“Everybody has been pressuring me to name it, but I want it to come naturally,” said Wertz. “Do parents name their babies right after they’re born?”
Nameless bar (597 Manhattan Ave. at Nassau Avenue in Greenpoint, no phone).
©2010 Community Newspaper Group
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