B'klyn

A few photographer friends of mine live on the top floor of a house in Red Hook, Brooklyn. I've been a devoted attendee of many of their parties. The most memorable was when I was the awkward first arrival of a New Year's Eve party in 2004. Since then, I've come to pace the timing of my arrivals to include a pre-party stop at Liberty Heights Tap Room (above), which is a very picturesque corner bar. It's convenient for me because the bus coming from the F train drops me off right outside the bar's side entrance, 20 feet from the pool table. It's also a good place to play while waiting for the bus. In April I had an assignment to photograph a different Red Hook bar called Sunny's, over on Conover Street. I highly recommend Sunny's for the ultimate time travel experience (think "dockworker bar mixed with a honkytonk vibe, 1950"). But since Sunny's is only open a few nights a week and since they don't have a pool table and since the bus doesn't stop at its doorstep, Liberty Heights will remain my Red Hook bar of choice. During a recent visit I discovered the bar hosts a league night. I asked a few people about the bars where they played. Some I'd been to (Cellars, Alibi), others I'd never heard of. I can't remember where the visiting team was from. Everyone I talked to knew about pool in the East Village, on Third Avenue, etc. All very friendly and helpful people.

Initially, this post was going to be about the Brooklyn/Queens APA. But I haven't really looked into it enough. For now, it's more fun to just write about the bars I've come aross with nice pool tables. Brooklyn still provides a lot of material in this sense. A couple Friday nights ago I was in Carroll Gardens for a friend's poetry reading. I had an assignment in Brooklyn Heights later that evening, so I made a walking tour out of it. I was going up Smith Street and I stopped by some people smoking outside a bar. Instead of asking them "Do you know any place nearby where I can play pool?" I said "I'm scouting for a movie and need to find bars that have pool tables. Do you know of any?" They didn't seem to know or care. I kept walking and went on instinct. I saw some neon signs in the window of a bar across the street and went in to check it out. It was a calling: the pool table was the first thing I noticed. Suddenly I wished I wasn't on my way to an assignment, because it was the kind of place I could have stayed at for a while. The bar is called Angry Wade's. I put my name on the list and went to get a beer, which was served in a frosty pint glass. I went back to the table and sat out of the way. I could see one man was owning the table. I saw him make a jaw-dropping kick shot on the 8 ball. It was no straight-in, pocket-hanger kick shot. The 8 was in the middle of the table and so was the cue ball. He was able to aim the kick so that the cue ball cut the 8 into the pocket. It was extraordinary. Turns out the man, Ishmael, is ranked a 7 on the league. It wasn't long before it was my turn to play him. I racked and he made five balls on the break, ALL OF WHICH were solids. It's safe to say neither he nor I will likely ever see that again. I went on a nice four-ball run but I botched an easy safety and left him with a textbook runout. When he was going for the 8 ball I heckled him, saying "Come on, bank it, I dare you." But he would have none of that.