The Flat

Came on a Sunday when supposedly you’re open and it’s a top night, whole place boarded up. What’s up with that?

I live close by, and walk by this place a lot, have only been in once to see a friend’s band play, and have refrained from ever returning. This was almost a year ago, but this is what I still think of. In short: last time I was here, a friend of mine (who, granted, had been drinking… it is a bar) was very, very creepily creeped on by some random guy. Her boyfriend, obviously, took issue with it – he not only confronted the guy, but asked for some assistance from the «manager» in charge of the events that night. It was that creepy. As this dude happened to be a «friend» of the manager, the manager did — oh – nothing about it. When the guy kept being a creep, and this girl’s boyfriend kept getting angry, the manager finally threw HIM out for causing a ruckus. Completely effing backwards to me, and truthfully, has made me feel icky enough that I’ll never set foot in there again. No woman anywhere wants anything to do with that sort of shit. The management should take care of the patrons spending money to enjoy their night there — which this guy’s buddy obviously wasn’t.

Great cold brew!
Love the interior! Super chill to come here in the morning!
Good way to start a morning.

What a fun place to go during the week! People shake their asses and get real messed up, my kinda bar some real explosive action (hehe) anyway i like to come on a saturday night and sit in one of the booths across from the bar so i can get a good view of the bartender boy is he cute, i dont even mind the cover if hes there i think his last name is bite or bike or something he wears an adolescents trucker hat. Mmm yummy!!!

I came for a friend’s show on a Wednesday and ended up staying well into the night. Although it was pretty dead after the last band’s set ended around 11 pm, a DJ came on soon after and by 1 am the place was poppin’. The music was awesome, the bartender was chill, and the crowd was a blast. (Important note: This was probably the first time I’ve been somewhere where I could dance without being groped or aggressively pursued.) I’ll be back the next time I feel like getting drunk enough to dance.

The bar sucked and was way to loud and ruff. The coffee shop rocks. Progress on Hooper.

Shouldn’t open a tap here if you don’t want any mysterious money added up in at the end. And they don’t even list out what we had in the receipt. I was there last night with one friend and we had at most 7 beers. And as i heard from the bartender it’s $ 5 for a budweiser. As i was expecting to pay about $ 40, the bill was $ 72. This is so sketchy! And the music was terrible, too. Oh and there’s a guy kept following me to ask for ‘my friend’. This is horrendous. Too bad, i don’t think i will ever show up here again, thanks for the good service.

Not sure where the negative words about the sound guy came from, but I’ve played The Flat many many times and specifically request each time to have the dude in the baseball hat work the board. I’d take him on tour to do sound if I could. He’s respectful, kind, and awesome at his job. Every musician I know that has worked with him feels similarly.

Maybe it was the fact that my friend lured me here with the promise of 90s music. Silly me, thinking I’d be hearing Ace of Base. After being told of the lovely cover charge, I walked into this very small, very loud bar/​club thing. They were playing some type of electro/​reggaeton. Nothing I’d ever heard before. Ok. Fine. No 90s. Oh wait, one Redman song. But the crowd… what a varied crowd indeed. I really just wanted to dance with my friends without being poked or dry humped. That was too much to ask. And the place was so narrow and awkwardly shaped that it took forever to get a drink at the bar. I’m sure the party peeps would love this spot. My friends did. But this place just wasn’t for me.

So. This should really be called Vampire Bar because it is made up to look like you just walked into a scene from Interview with a Douche or some shit.
They have a smoke machine. Mr. Lestat, why do you have a smoke machine in your bar? I would have given this bar at least one more star for effort, but my eyes are still watering and I can not encourage an environment that sets off my asthma. Think of the children.
I know, I know. It’s the hipster mecca of the universe because it’s «Williamsburg», but the truth is; until you and your daddy’s money successfully colonize it, this is still a working class Dominican neighborhood. What in God’s name is this bar doing here?

Leron’s Lesson: Cool bar, great music and solid drinks. The crowd gets sketchy sometimes but it could be worse.
Full Review: I came to The Flat recently with some friends, randomly over the weekend. We weren’t overly impressed by the space because there really isn’t much to it, just a classic bar. What kept us there was the music, they have some excellent DJs spinning and their choice of music was a mix between Rap/​Reggae/​Old-​School Classics. Definitely fun and great place to dance. I’d probably be back, with low expectations and $ 5 to pay the cover charge.

Just moved here from San Diego ca and I’ve decided to make this place my home bar. Great owner and staff and a really gorgeous/​intelligent bartender from Italy. Beer selection is small but good (and I’m a sd craft beer snob). And I’ve yet to mention the awesome decide and live music (cheap cover). Cool spot. Ignore the haters.

It’s a cool club for really average people. Nothing bad. Nothing that really sticks out.

To the the haters below…
You probably don’t know this but the door person is a Dominican who lives on the street. This bar lets in anyone who is respectful.
This establishment has brought amazing cutting edge music of multiple genres to the neighbourhood and I’ve had so many amazing nights out here. All the staff are super nice and cool. Thank you!
I hope you keep up the good work being an underground establishment providing the best music I’ve heard in NYC in a long ass time. I hope it doesn’t get corrupted and stays the same.
Sincerely,
A New Yorker Born And Bred.

this place is awful!!!
i went there once a quite awhile back for some drinks on Thursday (at like 8pm) and it was pretty empty but awesome music provided by the bartender and then a dj and a nice little shot and a beer special.
i decided it would be a perfect place for my birthday because its so pretty inside and its the only place to dance even remotely close to my house. I e-​mailed the bar to ask if it was OK to bring 15 to 20 people on a particular night and asked who the dj was. I got a response the very next day telling me who the dj would be and telling me we were more than welcome.
on the night of my bday we trudged through a blizzard to get there only to find a woman at the door charging a $ 20 cover. i explained that I had e-​mailed about bringing my party but she gave me her «i am way to cool to even interact with the likes of you» face and repeated that it would be 20 $ a person.
i was furious, a) how do you not mention something like that in an e-​mail directly targeting details about your bar on a specific night and b) where the fuck do you think you are??? $ 20 for the corner of broadway and hewes??? know your location and the people who might actually want to go there, no one that lives in our area would pay 20 $ to dance, if we would have we would live near meatpacking not fucking williamsburg. also, from what I heard outside the dj was playing all crap trance and shit.
thank goodness for good olé trophy bar, saved the evening. :)

On a Monday night it was bumpin. Played some dirty south hip hop and then the crowd changed and these Moombahton djs came out

It’s seriously a shame that this place could have been my «neighborhood bar.» I live a couple blocks down on hooper street and I wish this place was a more enjoyable bar to hang out in. The interior is decorated well enough, with old-​style couches and baroque wallpaper and chandeliers. It seems to be influenced by david lynch or some other horrifying rural, banal taste.
I’ve been to this place a few times but I feel like it’s finally time to post my final opinion. Tonight, I was there and it was totally empty around 8PM. Most of the times I go in there it’s completely empty or there are very few people. Sometimes they have a show there and it gets crowded, but for a bar in a tight-​knit neighborhood, it just isn’t working out.
I have been racially profiled here (I speak spanish and look hispanic) and wasn’t allowed in (even though it was COMPLETELY empty but I was trying to bring in my friend with whom I was speaking spanish). They have a 20 $ card minimum so you have to buy at least 5 drinks from them or you have to pay their ATM a few dollars, and an additional 4 dollars from your bank for making a non bank transaction.
This place just isn’t right for a neighborhood that is filled with dominican and puerto rican families. I don’t care if it’s owned by the same people as Lit Lounge and Home Sweet home. A pretentious hipster bar has no place excluding people in a neighborhood like mine.
take your expensive drinks and horrible crowd elsewhere. that kind of behaviour isn’t welcome here.
oh by the way there is someone who deals drugs out of this place. definitely seedy. don’t go here.

Well, hello fun. I had one last night in Queens. I spent the first part of my evening drinking with the Irish. The next thing I know, I am in a cab to Williamsburg. I came there to meet up with some friends.
I order a few more drinks and chatted with the locals. Everyone was really awesome, and I had such a great time here. Whenever I make it back to Brooklyn, this place will definitely be on my list to grab another drinky drink.

Whoever took the pics for their website deserves a Pulitzer Prize.
I was a fan of the décor, atmosphere, and was friends with some of the DJ’s (+4 Hipster Points!) so the music was also a highlight.
Super close to being a repeat fan, but as the night went on, it got harder and harder to get a drink. I’m a patient bar-​goer, but it got to a point where we decided to leave rather than wait for another drink.

It’s off the J train vs the L train which gets it 3 stars for me right off… Sorry my parents don’t pay my rent. And I wish it was because I got cut off ala HBO runaway hit Girls… but my ma is actually just poor. TMI? Too bad :)
Okok… So like, At first I was sort of bummed on the old timey dark wood bullshit. Come on. I can’t wait to go to a bar and see like, bright halogen bulbs, an inflatable bed and some dr’s office magazines. For some change of NYC bar pace… Anything but this «Hey it’s 1887 and we are fancy but somehow we are blasting Dr Dre» thing… Ok so once I stopped being so anti, I realized it was actually a pretty good place to have an afternoon cocktail because it was so dark and cozy. Touché, The Flat.
Secondly, if you have any doubts about this turning into a premier neighborhood haunt, look no further than the shows they throw and your capable/​friendly bartender’s Crass tshirt.(Hey Dave!!!) If anything that won my five stars flat out. Get it? Flat? ok ok whatever you’re not funny either…