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Bar review
Brooklyn Ice House
318 Van Brunt St at Pioneer St, Red Hook, Brooklyn (718-222-1865). Travel: F, G to Smith–9th Sts, then B77 bus to Van Brunt St. Mon–Thu noon–3am; Fri–Sun noon–4am. Average drink: $4.
Photograph: Roxana MarroquinGinger Man veteran Trevor Budd is betting on the appeal of men’s simple pleasures at this everyman’s pub, next door to Red Hook stalwart Bait & Tackle. Chic cocktails and wine are conspicuously absent from Budd’s reboot of the defunct Pioneer Bar-B-Q, as is decor: Holdovers like splintered-wood walls, mismatched furniture and a sports-tuned TV make a testosterone-friendly den for the motley crew of beer drinkers and Pioneer expats. Thankfully, Budd’s beer-bar pedigree means suds extend beyond, well, Bud. Chalkboards list 30-plus affordable brews, from the $2 Carling Black Label to chocolaty Aventinus from Germany (a $7 steal), as well as drafts including Guinness and the hoppy Dogfish Head. But it’s the $4 PBR–Evan Williams whiskey combo that fuels the good-humored crowd, content to plug Merle Haggard and Sex Pistols into the jukebox and blast Big Buck Hunter critters. For the gun-shy, there’s Jenga, Scrabble and Connect Four, best played between bites of ’cue procured from Pioneer’s old smoker. Excellent pulled pork is piled on soft buns (two for $5); superbly smoky, fall-apart-tender brisket po’ boys are topped with pickled onions and paired with crisp, rough-cut sweet-potato fries. Dessert—Hershey’s Kisses on the house—is a sweet touch you’d never have found at grizzly Pioneer. True enough, the haunt is missed, but Brooklyn Ice House ably fills Pioneer’s shoes, and improves upon its shortcomings: The ’cue is better, the beer selection more vast, the vibe more relaxed. Sometimes it takes a second-wave settler to fix the pioneer’s mistakes.
Time Out New York / Issue 675 : Sep 4–10, 2008
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I have lived and played in Red Hook for many years. The Pioneer was fine when there were so few choices down here. The first thing I noticed when Trevor opened the Ice House was how clean the place looked. Go look in the kitchen, it is very clean. I am a huge beer fan and the bottle list here is amazing. They keep bringing new beers in all the time. Dogfish Head 120, Schneider Weiss, Arrogant Bastard. How you can be insulted by some of the world's best beer is beyond me.
I have a bunch of friends that I visit in Red Hook. I didn't like the Pioneer too much either, and this place was no improvement. The Ice House was about as much fun as stale beer. Go next door instead.
This is one of my favorite barz around, dimly lit , buck hunter, cheap beer , good food and the bar tenders are mad cool
I went there and thought the wait staff was slow and rude. I mean there was hardly anyone drinking and it took them a LONG time to serve me. The food was ok, but with bbq, you don't really need high quality meat. Long and short? This place has no soul.
classic. someone who has a beef writes an extremely bad review and doesn't have the sense to scale it back a bit. a cockroach? i swear? you're fulla crap, pal. i don't know if you work for a competing bar or if you have personal problems with the very nice proprietors (come to think of it, i think i know who you are, and wow, that's lame), but the fact is the place is clean, the beer selection is good and the food is delicious. stop by. you won't be disappointed.
This place is HORRIBLE! I swear I saw a cockroach crawl across my plate. The beer selection is insulting and the crowd was LAME when I went there. There are so many great local Red Hook haunts - high and low - that there is NO REASON to come here. The Pioneer, which was eh, was a ton better than this place at least. RedHookers - vote with your $$$$ and say NO to this place!