Skylark Bar

Not to be confused with the much swankier The Skylark (https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-skylark-new-york?osq=skylark) in Manhattan, Skylark Bar is located in the grittier and eclectic Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn. It is the kind of neighborhood bar which I enjoy frequenting.

The drink menu is decidedly beer focused, with a secondary emphasis on shots of hard liquor; although my party was able to get a half decent margarita on the rocks. And the "food options," are limited to chips and/or chips/salsa from a bag. That's it. You come to a place like Skylark Bar because you're gonna grab a few drinks and chill with your crew.

The interior is a cross between 70's basement motif, mixed with 80's bar decor punctuated with semi-uncomfortable wooden seating. Bonus points for having old skool pinball machines, which gobbled up many quarters during my youth; btw, don't shake the machines too hard since the TILT setting is awfully sensitive.

Skylark Bar is the kind of place the DC area desperately needs. Instead, what we have instead are gentrified establishments which try and give off the "retro" vibe which have PBR on tap to seem cool, all while selling the latest extra hoppy 10% IPA for $13. Whatever...

Next time I'm back in BK visiting family, I'm hitting Skylark Bar again for sure.

Park Slope's best beer and shot bar! good vibe and awesome happy hour.
bartenders are great and there is always a good time here. check it out!

THE BARTENDER HURT MY FEELINGS.

I came to the skylark for my first drink in several months due to a bout of illness from my autoimmune disease. Despite the negative effects alcohol can have on the body I thought it might be nice for me to have a drink with my friends and take a load off. Boy was I wrong.

When I approached the bar the bartender had his back turned, and ignored me for a LONG time. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, and assumed he was just busy. After waiting for quite some time a very beautiful woman came to the bar and to my surprise the bartender served her immediately! Due to my illness, I currently have a bald head and look EXTREMELY bad. I try not to let this dissuade me from venturing out into the world, but experiences like this don't make it easy.

When the rude bartender finally did take my order I chose not to tip him, to which he said GEE THANKS A LOT. The whole experience was very upsetting and I will NOT be coming back. You have made a life long enemy today.

So I was supposed to go to Monro Pub to watch the FRANCE v. England World Cup but was detoured (luckily) to the Skylark a few doors down... At first I didn't know what to think because it wasn't packed out the door but it had a great chill vibe to the place. As the game got closer to start time, the place started to get packed and felt like the kind of place I'd go a lot. My friend met me and we sat at the bar. 3 TV's above the bar almost made us feel closer as we watched a great game. I chatted up w a few locals (A nice guy from Denmark who was a regular) and chugged some beers. The bartender (I believe his name was John) was a great guy and really ran the whole room all by himself. When it got crowded I wondered how he'd take care of everyone but he did and was attentive to all... All in all a great experience and definitely a place I'd come to again. Really felt a comforting vibe while I was there... Best part about this place is that the prices were amazingly cheap. I would definitely recommend this place !!!

I think 3.5 is a fair rating but I can't say it was quite a four-star experience for me. A fun Park Slope hangout (though this is coming from a Manhattan person, hold your groans, please), a nice place to come with a group of friends. Pretty chill, slightly-nicer-than-a-dive vibe and decently-sized. There's not much more to say to sum this place up, other than that it's an okay spot to end up at if you're in the neighborhood, but that you ought not go out of your way to come here.

A friend of mine had part of her birthday party here, hence our trek from the Upper West Side (I happen to love this friend a lot, otherwise a 90 minute commute would not be in the cards). I can see why one would pick it to have a relaxed, pregame-type gathering (we went dancing afterwards). Skylark is more spacious than it seems, and its got a warm atmosphere. Plus, there's a pinball machine in that back if you want to make your inner, Dave & Busters-obsessed child happy. And yes, the bf and I made a beeline there, because pinball.

Think drinks here are unfortunately not as good as advertised. I'm not so oblivious that I'd expect a place like this to be labeled a "cocktail bar" (oh my gosh I'm getting that truly this whole review might be one big, pretentious vomit) but I suppose the house infusions got my hopes up. In my experience, bars with selections of infused liquors are of a certain caliber. They tend to be well-crafted and well-thought-out (yup, I'm pretentious and punctuation nightmare, hello world). Not the case at the Skylight. The cocktails are tiny and underwhelming at best.

I suppose it didn't help that there was one lone man behind the bar. Typically I don't feel sorry for a lonely SWM, but this was an exception. It was a Saturday night, the place was bumping with a party plus normal patrons, and the guy looked like he had just walked through a rainstorm. He was doing his best, but overworked and frazzled to be sure.

The first drink I ordered was sadly undrinkable (at least for me). It was meant to be some sort of Old Fashioned, but it tasted like straight Bourbon. No mixer, no bitters, no nothing. Bourbon served with a couple of teeny straws. I happen to be a big whiskey drinker, but when you're expecting a fully-formed cocktail and receive a glass of what seems to be well bourbon, it's not the kind of surprise that makes a person jump for joy. At least not me, a pretentious warthog of a human being.

Next drink was the Salty Studbaker (Basil-infused vodka, fresh grapefruit & a salt rim). Better (meaning drinkable, in this case), but not as good as the description makes it out to see. Part of this is my general aversion to vodka, but the rest is that I tasted no basil and I watched him "salt" the rim, a feeble attempt. I know this is scathing stuff, but I'm a nut when it comes to cocktails so sometimes the hammer needs to come down. Overall, this drink was refreshing and just fine.

My other drink, the Thunderbird (Jalapeño-infused Tito's vodka and ginger beer) was a similar type of experience to the Studbaker. I love *anything* spicy and the bf has a weak stomach, so my one chance to indulge is typically beverage-related. Usually, spicy cocktails only come in the tequila variety, so I was thrilled to see this. Again, refreshing and just fine. Nothing more.

Oh! And they have board games! So if you are supremely board--err, bored (sorry)--for some reason, play some Yahtzee (if all dice involved are still present, that's always a crapshoot). It honestly IS fun here. I just get snooty with cocktails. So try at your own risk.

When I read that Skylark advertised itself as "look[ing] like your mom's living room in the 1970s," I didn't realize they were speaking directly to me. I mean, there's literally an oil painting and a paint-by-number hanging on the walls that were in my childhood home. And don't try and be a smartass, because if you think my mom didn't have a large bar in the middle of a simple two bedroom city apartment, well, you just pay her a visit, pull up a stool and wait for her to whip you up one of the greatest whiskey sours you'll ever have.

But I digress... the homey decor and chill, welcoming vibe is a large part of the charm of Skylark. The mix of bar space, regular tables and seats/couches is delightful and feels haphazard yet somehow perfectly natural. There is a pinball machine in the back, along with a large selection of board games for your drinking amusement. On Sunday night, they host an exceedingly fun trivia night run by Trivial Dispute - exciting, topical, interesting trivia (with numerous bonus free shot rounds). The bartenders are efficient and friendly - especially the wonderful Guillermo.

The draft beer and whiskey selection is generally excellent, and the prices are quite reasonable, especially for the area. The the Specialty Cocktail is varied and interesting - the traditional Old Fashioned is solid, and the Maple Ginger Old Fashioned quite special. The one disappointment for me was their Bloody Mary, which was overwhelmed by spices (and I generally like spicy). Of course, if you're not in the mood for pondering all of these interesting drink selections, just pull up a stool and order yourself a $3 bottle of the Champagne of Beers, Miller High Life.

They have a small assortment of panini sandwiches if you desire a bar snack, but are also quite permissive if you are more in the mood to stop at the pizza place halfway down the block to bring something in. As a place to while away the hours over a beer or a bourbon and coke, playing games with your friends, listening to great tunes and overall just feeling like you're hanging out in your friend's basement... it's a pretty hard vibe to beat.

This bar is ok, nothing really noteworthy in terms of experience or offerings; would suggest to patronize other venues in the area unless you have jo other options.

Without exaggeration this place is my Cheers. Great people, good vibes, solid music. And always an offbeat movie I've never seen on the screens over the bar. The bartenders are attentive, friendly, down to earth people. Trivia Sundays are a treat (if you're ready to be stumped!) Come after brunch, for cocktails, or just for a beer. This is the bar to go to any day of the week.

Bartender was so rude the second we walked in, we ended up walking out. Disappointed since we've wanted to try this place for awhile but after seeing others' reviews, seems like this might be normal treatment.

I visited this place back in February 2014 on a very snowy day and I popped in here with a friend and fell in love with quaint inviting atmosphere, great seasonal beer selections perfect for the weather, and a small but great tasting food selection.

Fast forward to September 2014 and I finally made it back to this bar hoping for more good food and beer. The seasonal beer selections are still great. The Southern Tier Pumking Ale is my favorite pumpkin brew. However, the kitchen is no longer available. They have a food menu that offers some [prepackaged] sandwiches that look good described on the menu but taste like something that you'd get from a vending machine. Don't waste your time or money with these small appetizers unless you've sat there for a long time as some locals appear to do and you need to soak up some of the alcohol from the heavier beers.

All in all it's a nice kitschy place to come in a relax and have a drink, and the free wifi is a plus but they lost something special when they closed the kitchen down. *shrugs*. If I ever move to the area, I'm sure I'd pop back in, but I likely won't make the effort to venture over there from my neighborhood to indulge this place.