Smith’s Tavern

Neighborhood bar friendly staff great food good drinks good price nice music not too loud you can still having conversations

Came here for a recent baseball playoff game. $ 6 Jack and Cokes. Cash Only. Pay as you go.
5 big screen TV’s. Nice sound system.
Crowded just enough to be lively, but not packed like some of the spots in Park Slope get to be. It’s not a dive as some others claim. It’s kind of just a sports bar.
They don’t serve food, but grab some Fatty Daddy tacos from across the street, and they’ll let you eat ‘em at the bar.

Okay, sure this isn’t the most attractive place, but once you get to know the story behind this bar, it’s nice to go to a place «where everybody knows your name»… This bar has somehow sustained itself since the 1930s, and its divey, unique décor gives it some character. They’ve got plenty of TVs for you sports fans, and it’s a great place to bring a group. Inexpensive, good music, and cold beers. Done deal.

This is a relaxed bar with a good juke box and cheap beer, but customers should know that they switch their top shelf whiskey for well. Order a Bullet Bourbon and you’ll get who knows what, but be charged for the good stuff.

darts, brews, and a juke box. das all i need.

Great Irish pub! Best pint of Guinness outside of Ireland. Mike is a great bartender. Rob makes a perfect drink. The owner, Smith, is a gentleman.

Smith’s Tavern
NY Brooklyn Park Slope
9pm Thursday 12^th March 2015
Four Stars
We went Owl Farm but it was way too packed to even talk so we went to Smith’s Tavern. They were playing some amazing music: it’s my party, wild thing, and other classic hits. The drinks were cheap ($ 6 Marker’s Mark) and we could sit and talk while watching a variety sports.

Smiths or Smithies or Smiddies as the locals call it is a great local bar. I have been going here periodically for the past 10 years. This is a local bar and I guess you could call it a «Dive» bar but its a great local spot. Grab a beer and watch the game and listen to some rock n roll tunes on the juke box and hang out with your friends. That’s the kind of place this is. Park Slope is running out of places like this. Harry Bolands are the corner closed a few years ago and many others are going as well. Smiths seems to still be going strong. I look forward to going back and seeing who I run into.

Cheap and low-​key, good dive. Pretty happy with those mugs of bud for $ 2.50. Went there around 930 on a Friday night and the crowd was coming together but definitely not crowded-​there were three of us and we all found a seat at the bar

Yelena K — BRAVO! Smith’s is a last bastion of good olé Brooklyn. The only other pub I can give such acclaim to is Farrell’s. The beers here are cold. Yes, icicles do form on the refrigerated pint glasses. Ahh. Good stuff. The bartenders are friendly and open if you are. The place is clean, but no frills. Just a good olé Brooklyn blue-​collar place. Geez, this may well be where I had my first legit beer!
Salud, to all. Drink (a lot) and be merry!

This place is sometime my usual place to stop, the beers are fresh, the price is
great, and well the place is somewhat friendly.
I started coming here in 2013 –July, and will see this place when I can in 2014.
I not for the TV, I do like to mingle, the people here are friendly once they feel
comfort with you. I can reach Smith’s fast, I live on the outskirts of Sunset Park near
the R train.
I like to shop nearby, and across 5TH Ave/​the record and tape store I knew from the
1970’s is still there,

Oh my god, everyone shut the hell up. You’re not heroes. This is the last remaining dive in Brooklyn. No frills, no bullshit. The coldest, COLDEST, cheapest beer I have ever imbibed this side of the Mississippi. Literally, there are slivers of ice in your glass.
Make friends with all the bartenders — good, hard-​working guys — and the quirky regulars. Emmet is the owner — sweet guy — make sure to say hi to him. Once they know you, you can politely ask them to change the channel on any of their 8 TVs to whatever obscure college football game you want to watch.
Don’t come here for Manhattans and Old Fashioned, cuz you’ll only get whisky (it’s real old fashioned, I hear).
Dart league on Tuesday and cash only — as it should be :)

Smith’s was OK — no more and no less. It was a convenient place to stop for a drink on a muggy night when I had some time to kill. There is absolutely no reason to rush back there however. The ambience was ‘meh’, the bartender was OK, there was room to sit, though it was more crowded than I’d have expected in the early evening, and a bit loud
One thing I’ve never seen before: two guys getting very excited and animated about a tennis match they were watching. Yelling ‘he’s up 4 games to 1 in the second set!’ etc. I suspect that they may have been sampling alcoholic beverages.

A bar that thinks of itself as «authetic» because it’s rude to customers under 25, thinking them to be gentrifying hipsters. Save me the chip on its shoulder attitude. I’ll take the «hipster» spot that serves people with respect any day of the week.
This bar thinks they’re fighting the good fight against gentrification, but really it’s themselves and their staff who are the only ones with their noses turned up.
No thanks.

Smith’s is fine. Not sure I’d have dispensed with a 4 star review two years ago, but given the rapid pace of gentrification in Brooklyn, anywhere that has a jukebox, buybacks and a dartboard merits a minimum rating of 4 in my new system. Conversely, anywhere named after a bird or that features ‘bartenders’ noodling through Pitchfork’s top ten hits of the month on their iPhone is awarded no more than 2. Are you bartending or DJing? You suck at both.
Smith’s opens, or is at least in the process of opening at 8am. It gradually lines up the local old guys who then migrate north to Jackie’s in the afternoon and are replaced by a younger crowd. Cold, small mugs of domestic are $ 2.50, which sounds like a great deal until you do some basic math. The bartenders are good natured, strong, silent types. In a moment of drunken frivolity, I paid a dollar to hear Goodbye Horses — the bartender smiled, bought me a beer and said ‘you sick fuck’. I can see myself spending more time here once Jackie’s gets inevitably transmogrified into an organic pickle store.

Smith’s is a fine pub and not a bad spot to get a drink but, given other nearby options, it’s only the jukebox that saves this from being a 3 star establishment for me.
My usual weekend go-​to spot was completely overrun by a birthday party so, having a thirst that needed quenching and not wanting to deal with hordes of people and a jukebox blaring out top 40 pop hits, we headed a block over to Smith’s. On the inside, Smith’s is, effectively, just a long bar but it has some space behind it (with a few dart boards) which is nice as it makes getting around a little easier. The biggest issue is that this place gets really dark at night which just seems to suck the life out of it to a certain extent. My go-​to spot is a dive bar as well and, while I don’t often see birthdays in there, I can’t imagine I’d ever see one in Smith’s simply because it’s not the type of place that lends itself to lively or jovial celebration.
The beers here are your standard dive bar fare. They are served in miniature frosty mugs and go for about $ 2.50 for an American light beer. At a glance, the price can be a little misleading since you are getting about half of a legit pint. But, hey, I’m not going to complain too much about a $ 5 pint either, so it’s not a big deal. As for the bartender, he kept our glasses full and was totally sufficient.
The jukebox, however, was amazing. About 15 minutes after I arrived I heard someone throw on 3 tracks from Hot Water Music followed by a Refused track. Sure, this is one of the newer internet jukeboxes but I rarely find those songs even on the internet enabled jukeboxes. Even more mind boggling was that they had the anthology album of a little known early/​mid 90’s punk/​emo band from Chicago that broke up prior to ever having any national reknown. Unfortunately, I didn’t check to see if they had «Call Me Maybe», so I can’t say that the jukebox is 100% comprehensive, but it’s damned close.
All-​in-​all, Smith’s is a decent little spot but there are better options nearby. I’ll likely drop back in for a few drinks just to hit the jukebox again but if you aren’t out to listen to something old or uncommon, I don’t know that Smith’s has to be on your short list of places to try.

Ick.
Listen, I’m a young woman who doesn’t feel intimidated by having a beer alone at a seedy little bar when out of town… especially after a long day of work.
This place just simply didn’t cut it for me.
The bartenders looked liked biker thugs which is fine and all, but their dismissive attitude was really annoying, especially considering I was one of 5 people in the entire bar (including the youngest and cutest, I mean show me a little attention, I’d have ordered all night).
I asked for a receipt so I could expense it for business. They don’t give receipts. I mean, please — it’s not like I’m in the boonies, I’m in Brooklyn. Just hand-​write a receipt.
Needless to say, I paid out-​of-​pocket for lackluster service. Oh and P. S. I think they overcharged me for the 1 beer I ordered. But I’d never know… no receipts and all.

The «husky» bartender wouldn’t serve me, because my driver’s license was expired. Who drives in Brooklyn ;). Told me the walls have eyes???
My friend, a regular, thinks the guy tends to go on power trips… rotund, belt busting, beef-​titted power trips.

I love dives and cheap drink joints, but this place is a bit «too» plain. Not bad, but not really interesting either. Perfectly A-​OK.

Smith’s is awesome. It’s been on 5^th Avenue between 8^th and 9^th Streets my whole life and though I never went there until 2 or 3 years ago it’s pretty much an institution.
It’s a no-​frills neighborhood bar where anyone can feel comfortable over a cold mug of beer or a shot of Irish whiskey. There are tv’s behind the bar to watch a game, and a good jukebox and a great bartender as Robert C. B. mentioned. For $ 1.50 (might have gone up to $ 2, not sure, was $ 1 before) you can get a mug of Bud or Bud Light, pints for $ 3. They have a number of other taps as well. Shots and drinks are between $ 5 and $ 7, maybe more if you ordered an expensive liquor but it’s a pretty inexpensive place as NY bars go.
If I’m seeing an old neighborhood friend, like late night on Thanksgiving, I might be at Smith’s. I know I was last Thanksgiving as I tried to digest turkey and fixings with a high school buddy. Before I knew it my cousin came in with his friends. Guess we had the same thought.