Ditmas Park Bar Owners Reveal New Sports Pub Coming To Bed-Stuy
The stage is set for the Fulton Ale House, a sports pub slated to open next week in Bed-Stuy, run by a well-loved Ditmas Park bar crew.
Co-owner Diana King and her husband Mike Sheehan have been living in the Ditmas Park area since 2003, where they both worked at 773 Lounge for years.
And co-owner Jimmy Grimason is also no stranger to the bar life, as the owner of Highbury Pub on Cortelyou Road. But his roots go even deeper — Grimason, who is from Dublin, began working at his local pub at age 15 and managed the Chip Shop on Atlantic Avenue when he first came to the U.S. He opened Highbury Pub in 2013.
The Fulton Ale House at 1446 Fulton Street is clearly a labor of love and will carry a similar aesthetic to Grimason’s Ditmas Park venture.
“For me, it’s partially a sports bar but it’s still a pub. Comfy, pleasant, good conversation,” said King, noting that they don’t plan to line the walls with TVs akin to many NYC sports bars. “It’ll be more of a classic pub with sports.”
“I love doing what I do,” said Grimason.
The bar plans to serve a mix of craft and European beer selections, with an homage to beers from New York (King and Sheehan hail from Buffalo). A cocktail list is also in the works.
For food, they’ll start by serving Table 87 pizza for patrons at the bar, then potentially expand to invite pop-up food vendors to their ample backyard (coming soon), similar Sycamore Bar’s Flatbush Food Court.
They’ll also fly the Buffalo flag high by featuring games from Buffalo-based teams in their lineup, in addition to showing as many games as possible from an array of teams.
The bar’s team allegiance is one of its hallmarks, like the Windy City in Bar Ridge and of course, Highbury, which is a bonafide Arsenal Bar. “The sound will always be on for the Bills game. Never for the Jets,” they chuckled.
Speaking of soccer (football!), Grimason plans to open the bar extra early on Saturdays and Sundays for the English Premier games, which run on GMT. (Like, 6:45am early).
The owners are drawing upon their many resources built from spending years in the local bar scene. They salvaged the dark-wood bar top from the shuttered Mary’s Bar in Park Slope; plus they sourced local bartending talent from 773, Sycamore, and Bar Chord (among others).
And in just six months, the team has transformed the “white box” looking storefront into a beautiful, spacious bar, with detailed craftsmanship throughout (King, Sheehan, and Grimason are mostly responsible for the entire design and construction).
They chose to open the business in this corner of Bed-Stuy to fill a clear gap in the market.
“This area isn’t oversaturated,” said King, noting that there isn’t another sports bar within seven to ten blocks in either direction.
At first, King compared this stretch of Fulton Street to Cortelyou Road in the days when there were only a few businesses open late. “Except George’s, that Caribbean place that pre-dated Picket Fence, and the Cortelyou Lounge, which pre-dated Visions,” King reminisced.
But she made stronger comparisons to Smith Street ALA 1990, when the couple moved to Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens.
Given this team’s excellent design sense, we have full confidence that they’ll turn this now-overgrown lot into a great summer backyard.
“We want to be the neighborhood pub, and we hope the neighborhood embraces it,” said King. And even before the grand opening, they’ve been getting positive feedback from many local businesses and residents.
As of now, the opening is scheduled for the first week of February, but stay updated with Fulton Street Ale House, located at 1446 Fulton Street near Tompkins Avenue, here. (Their Facebook page features awesome before-and-after photos of the renovation).
