Now Open: Hops Hill

Five months after lease signing and following about a month of renovations, Hops Hill, the new bar at 886 Fulton Street (between Washington and Waverly Avenues), opened its doors to the public this week. We stopped in yesterday evening to see what the establishment had to offer, and Hops Hill proved to be a wonderfully cozy place to wait out a storm.

The space, formerly Essential Cakes Inc., has been largely transformed by owner Joe Najem. While the bakery was about split in half by a wall to accommodate clientele and operations, Hops Hill’s layout takes up the entire ground floor of 886–so customers have plenty of room to spread out with their respective drinks of choice.

Sheetrock has been removed from the storefront’s easternmost wall, exposing a rich red-brown brick. Several shelves in the space as well as the marble bar’s base are made of wood reclaimed from a barn in Connecticut. 10 or so tall industrial stools line the bar itself, and a few cafe tables are bookended by chairs and a banquette up front.

Joe met bartender Kenny Leeper while the two were working at Cobble Hill’s Downtown Bar & Grill, a spot renowned for its craft beer before its recent closure to make way for a Rag & Bone store. This is Joe’s first establishment of his own, and he and Kenny spoke last night about how they look forward to providing (no surprise) an exceptional beer menu, including 12 beers on tap to be rotated often, to the Clinton Hill community.

While not all of their stock has yet arrived, Joe and Kenny say locals should look out for a forthcoming “beer ‘A List'” and a total of about 300 bottles on site, including red and white wines as well as handpicked bourbons and single malt whiskeys. They’ll also be offering hard-to-find craft beers to go, plus cold cut sandwiches and a hummus platter.

And as for the name? Joe says an old customer of his–who’s very into branding–came up with it; he’s currently working on signage and logos for the space, too.

“He actually stopped by last night,” Joe told us. “He was really happy to hear what we were calling the place.”

All in all, Hops Hill is a friendly, low key place to grab a drink–especially one for the beer nerds among us. Check out their current draft list here, and stop in anytime from 2pm-2am daily to watch the game, join in on a friendly conversation, or just see what’s on tap.