Photo via Facebook, Phil’s Crummy Corner
Late on Saturday night, I crossed the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway on foot from Red Hook onto what seemed to be a quiet street in the Columbia Street Waterfront District. But apparently, it’s not always quiet. Last week, Phil’s Crummy Corner, a bar and restaurant in the district, decided it would raise its drinking age to 25 after 10 p.m. on weekends, in an attempt to stop the excessive noise complaints it receives. The theory, I guess, is that people between 21 and 25 are loud. As a 21-year-old who only recently reached legal drinking age, I wanted to test that policy for myself.
The bar’s new rule came on the heels of a community board meeting last week in which, according to DNAinfo, residents voiced concerns about late-night noise from Phil’s Crummy Corner. (The city has received 22 311 calls since late last year regarding the noise and public drinking in the area.) So the bar’s concern is not unwarranted. In addition, in late September a 25-year-old woman was reportedly kicked and punched by a group of four outside Phil’s at 3:40 a.m. on a Saturday night. In April, a 21-year-old man was arrested after punching a woman in the face inside the bar, according to Carroll Gardens Patch. Police found he was carrying 18 bags of marijuana when they arrested him.
I arrived at the corner of Columbia Street and Hamilton Avenue just before midnight. The street was empty, but inside Jalopy Tavern, down the street from Phil’s, the mood was lively. The bar had all the trappings of a typical hipster Brooklyn bar—dim, red lighting, exposed brick walls, men with long hair and beards, and a bartender dressed like a pin-up girl. The small crowd of people, who all seemed to know each other, sipped drinks from mason jars and listened to live music.
Don Fierro, a Gowanus resident and a regular at Jalopy, sat near the front door. He said he was sympathetic to the problems Phil’s has had over the past few months. “They’re just trying to do right by themselves,” Fierro said. He theorized that other bars have similar rules, and that Phil’s mistake “was telling people about it.”
Indeed, Phil’s has received some negative media attention in the past few days, as according to the New York City Commission on Human Rights, the bar’s new age rule violates Title 8 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York. The code protects New Yorkers from discrimination based on several classes—including age—regarding employment, housing, and public accommodations, which are defined as “anyone who provides goods and services to the general public.” It is unlawful for public accommodations to deny those goods and services based on a protected class.
Jesse Rose, of counsel to New York employment discrimination firm Phillips & Associates, said a lawsuit filed against Phil’s based on the policy would likely be difficult to win. While age is protected, he said, there is no history of discrimination against 21 to 24-year-olds, and it would hard to prove damages. But while a lawsuit might not succeed, Rose believes a young person could have a good chance of filing an injunction against the bar’s policy.
But not from me. I just wanted to see if I could get a drink.
Though the distance is less than 100 feet, Phil’s feels a world away. A burly bouncer stood outside the entrance and demanded to see my ID, though he barely glanced at it before stepping aside to let me in. Inside, the brightly lit room was packed, and music was blaring from the speakers. The older, mostly Hispanic crowd cheered on the boxers in the pay-per-view match on the bar’s television screens. I didn’t see anyone who looked under 25.
It wasn’t long before a man at the bar turned around and said to me, “You won’t be able to get a drink here.” I wasn’t sure if he was referring to under-25 rule or the size of crowd, but it was time to go. Whether the bartenders would enforce the rule or not, Phil’s seemed loud and rowdy enough without any young people.
Phil’s declined to comment for this story, but on Thursday, owner Phil Marcano told the New York Post that the policy is inconsistent. “Sometimes if we know a person, we let them in, but if they’re under 25, we don’t serve them,” he said.
Outside, a Park Slope resident, who declined to give his name because he is a regular at Phil’s, characterized it as a friendly neighborhood place—a “Puerto Rican Cheers.” How many Latin places are there in Brooklyn that also serve good food?” he said. “Young kids think they can come in and do what they want to do and act crazy.
Though other bars in the area have seen their share of rowdy 20-somethings, they are not moving toward instituting a similar policy to Phil’s. Isaura Horenstein, a bartender at Sunny’s Bar in nearby Red Hook said that sort of behavior comes with the territory.
“Young kids are rowdy but you can keep them at bay,” Horenstein said. “If they’re drinking age, they have the right, and they have to be reminded to be respectful. If they want to be here, they’re going to abide by it.”
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