One of Brooklyn’s favorite pubs is expanding to a brand new neighborhood.
Brooklyn Public House is well known as one of Fort Greene’s top bars. The bar was first established in 2009 by owner Kevin O’Lunny, who operated the watering hole successfully for five years before moving on to new projects in 2014. When many locals expressed their shock and disappointment, Kevin reassured them that he was leaving the bar in good hands, turning to his friend and former co-worker Ivan Spence to reopen the space.
Spence had previously worked with O’Lunney at his other bar, Kevin St. James, and also operated three other bars in the neighborhood – Sin Bin, Junction, and Off The Rails. When reopening Brooklyn Public House in 2014, Spence partnered up with his childhood friend Kieran McNamara to run the bar together. The two had grown up in Belfast, Ireland together, and had decades of experience in hospitality. When they reopened Brooklyn Public House, they set out to preserve as much of the original concept as possible and even rehired most of the former employees.
Today, Brooklyn Public House is one of the most popular bars in the Fort Greene neighborhood and is especially popular for its food. Sample items include apps like green split pea soup, chicken fingers, and turkey chili, as well as salads like beet salad and salmon salad. Brooklyn Public House also offers a wide assortment of sandwiches like the salmon burger, fried chicken sandwich, impossible burger, and the french dip. For dinner, entrees include chicken pot pie, grilled rib eye, fish & chips, shepherd’s pie, chicken curry, and the classic pub staple- bangers & mash.
Now, after many years of successful operation, Brooklyn Public House is getting ready to expand to a brand new neighborhood. Ivan and his team have already acquired the space at 1048 Bedford Avenue, and are hard at work getting the space ready to open to the public. The location was formerly home to Black Swan, another popular pub concept that was known to be a regular haunt of yours truly. In fact, I first uncovered this story on my daily walk when I was very excited to see that someone had finally taken over the Black Swan space. The location is really great, and many neighbors have been dying to see what would end up replacing Black Swan.
According to Spence’s recent liquor license application, the location is expected to seat 56 guests inside and will employ 18 guests. For more information as the opening date approaches, you can follow Brooklyn Public House on Instagram
Terrible place and Ivan is scum. Avoid coming here at all costs.