Brooklyn Bar

Brooklyn was my «local» for quite a few years — in fact so local that when they had bands on we could hear them pretty clearly from the balcony. They seemed to specialise in gloomy covers bands for a while, but I’m pleased to say now they now seem to have more Brazilian bands play, which is a vast improvement.
Brooklyn is a good comfortable place to have a quiet drink; thankfully it never gets too overrun by munters just looking to get, well, munted. The food and drink are fine without being outstandingly good or bad. The wine and beer selection is nothing fancy but all perfectly drinkable. The handcut chips are particularly good. If you’re a smoker, they have a covered courtyard so you don’t have to shiver outside in the cold. Unfortunately the bar as a whole is getting slightly battered around the edges; probably it would be helped immensely by a decent deep clean (don’t look at the skirting boards if you have a dust phobia).

I’ve been to this bar a few times and found it to be a nice environment for a friendly catch-​up drink with friends. You can sit outside and watch the hustle and bustle of Queen St as you sip on your beer, however the bus stop is right next to this place so as long as you don’t mind the odd bit of pollution in your lungs you’ll be fine. Inside, the place is quite skinny but it does open up at the other end. They have the lounge bar too available for private functions.
I think the main advantage of this place is its great location. Situated just opposite the Skycity Cinema, and near Aotea Square and the Town Hall, it’s just so convenient to meet up at Brooklyn Bar first for a few drinks before an outing or event in the city.

I would paint the picture of Brooklyn Bar as a classic example of a new-​age Kiwi pub, where the staff are laid back and the chef will come out and have a chat and a laugh, even though someone beside you is ordering a cider and a foccacia vege burger. Basically nothing like Brooklyn. Not the Brooklyn we see in the movies anyway. (They do serve a Philly steak & cheese or some hearty man-​steaks though, so don’t be scared off).
There’s a tidy little function room you can sneak over to from the City Library on Lorne Street and a great, covered outdoors area accompanied by MTV video clips. A decent bar on Upper Queen Street directly across from the cinema and Aotea Square.

A segway bar which connects Queen Street with London Street. I recently attended a friends 21^st here and I thought it was great. It is one of those bars which has a few different areas so it never feels stagnant — there is a healthy circulation of people moving from room to room which keeps things interesting on a night out. A great place for a function, you can hire out one of the rooms, while the rest of the bar is still public, which I liked because the slight overlap with random people can have interesting consequences. So nice and central, makes for a great start of the night rendezvous.