Halsey Street (L)
Dilapidated. Gritty. Industrial.
And therefore …. underground.
At this point you are so far east into Bushwick that you’ve literally made it into Ridgewood, Queens. Forget Jefferson L, where you have to wade into Maspeth for the real scene. This is your deep cut party stop.
Nowadays: A nightclub and Sunday dayclub, Mister Sunday. One thing interesting about Mister Sunday is it’s a genuinely varied crowd - I literally saw a baby in a stroller heading in with their parents, next in line to a seasoned older adult deep in their mid-Sunday roll.
H0L0: A Resident Advisor darling. Dark and great acoustics.
TV Eye: Self-described as a “funhaus.”
Trans-Pecos: Sparse. It lets the scene it attracts speak for itself.
I’ll also give a shout-out to some of the more “standard” places
Evil Twin Brewing: Open-space hang-out scene, picnic tables, black-glass-housed brewery
The Deep End: A locals’ bar, dark and neon.
Doublé: Laptop cafe by day, shuffleboard area, brunch on Sat & Sun, chill bar vibe
Pan: Pizza place with almost like a brewery-type, exposed-brick decor
And last but not least, here’s a place I really think captures the vibe:
Kosti’s Last Sunday Bookstore: It’s open on the last Sunday of each month. Google maps frequently thinks it’s “permanently closed” even when it’s not, and tbh I can’t blame Google. Kosti’s is literally a hole in the wall. There are, like, 7 bookshelves. But the owner, who lives above the bookstore, knows each book he’s selling. And he knows New York, and he’ll chat you up. It’s got that IYKYK vibe to it, like the rest of the area off this stop.
A party bus outside Nowadays, with an aesthetic that is actually quite similar to what Nowadays feels like.
Pan, next to H0L0.
Entrance to The Deep End.
I spy the subway, right next to Kosti’s.
Street vibe in the area
The street scene outside the station.
