Quarter Bar Named One Of Esquire’s 18 Best Bars In America

South Slope is known for some of the great watering holes in the area. And now, the whole country knows.

That’s because Esquire Magazine has named Quarter Bar one of 18 Best Bars in America.

Author David Wondrich writes:

“In New York and San Francisco and other places where real estate is expensive, the venerable, homey, and very human old dives are closing and these are opening instead. But here’s the thing: This may be a case of the blood of heroes watering the tree of revolution. Because there’s something going on in these new bars, particularly in the best of them, that needs more attention.”

Quarter Bar (676 5th Avenue near 20th Street) mixes the feel of a neighborhood gathering spot devoid of pretense with the astute ability to mix a mighty fine cocktail. The place was opened in 2007 by owner David Moo with his business partner Joe Herron.

“We wanted to make what we thought of as a ‘hybrid’ bar: a strongly neighborhood place with a proper, but unpretentious, cocktail program,” Moo tells us.

Moo’s goals have very much been achieved. “We wanted it to feel clean and comfortable, with a moody, but in no way dive-y, atmosphere,” says Moo.

And while the inside is clean and low-key, the outdoor garden space — with a flower bed bathtub as a wry centerpiece — is deliciously lush for this time of year.

But finally, Quarter Bar is about having a good drink. In describing why he selected Quarter Bar, Wondrich writes:

“Before it was Brooklyn™, this borough was an unmoored chunk of the Rust Belt right on the East River, and Quarter Bar has all the Rust Belt virtues. Founded in 2007, it’s homey and unpretentious and feels like it’s connected to the neighborhood. But they can twist you up a fancy New York-style cocktail without blinking an eye or looking at you funny.”

So who else made the top 18? The other Brooklyn bar which made it to the list is Leyeda (221 Smith Street near Butler Street) in Cobble Hill. And as for the rest of NYC, Manhattan’s Porchlight and Seamstress also placed.

The entire state of New York cleaned up — Swan Market and Good Luck (Rochester) as well as Founding Fathers Pub (Buffalo) also made it. If you want to include Jersey City, you can add Dull Boy to the list.

The others are speckled all over the country, from Boston to Cincinnati to New Orleans to Denver to San Francisco. And more.

Quarter Bar has been a personal go-to place to have a drink for quite some time. So much so, that your editor even used the bar as a setting in his recent book.

We wish them continued success, and hope we won’t have to wait at the bar too long if this place becomes a grand destination for New Yorkers and everyone else.

“We wanted the commercial real estate manager drinking Miller High Life to feel right at home sitting next to the carpenter drinking a Vieux Carre,” says Moo. “That’s basically what we got.”

The Rundown: Quarter Bar
Where: 676 5th Avenue (near 20th Street)
Hours: Sundsays-Tuesdays, 3pm-2am; Wednesdays, 3pm-3am; Thursdays-Saturdays, 3pm-4am
Phone: 718-788-0909