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Weather Up serves potent, old-school libations served in a white-tiled, speakeasy-like atmosphere. This dim-lit, intimate Brooklyn cocktail bar changes with the seasons. In the spring and summer months enjoy a bespoke drink on the patio. When the climate changes, warm up or stay dry inside. Well, as dry as you can be with vices like these...
OUR ARTICLE
BY: Travis Platt Contributing writerAs much as we may think we know the forecast, the weather will forever be unpredictable. And when it comes to choosing a place a man can lift his soles off the ground and enjoy one hell of a drink, the unpredictable becomes the coveted. The subject matter of this report happens to be the perfect storm for an onslaught of signature cocktails. With real watering holes becoming harder to find, Weather Up in Brooklyn is something we contentedly vanish into the fog towards and hope anyone following behind instead chooses to weather the opposite path — because when you hold a place like this so dear to your eager heart, you keep hush about it.
Long day? Ask for the Bartender’s Choice to flip your mental umbrella inside out.
There is something so alluring about a candlelit atmosphere to accompany a drink. Like a selfish soul attracted to gold, your mixture can’t help but be pushed closer to the flame for a look at the way the light dances through the glass. Weather Up is everything it needs to be and is completely true to itself. It’s where the other faces along the bar top fade to shadow the farther you look down. Is that Lou Reed? Perhaps, or maybe the wet mind and shades are playing tricks.
Settle into the iron suspended stools to wind back the body’s barometer. This is where it hails in showers of vices with their thunderous specialty menu. Request the Lions Tail to chase the Ghost in the Darkness. Bourbon, Allspice Dram, fresh lime juice, simple syrup, and a firm dash of Angostura. Or fly into the squall with the Sky Pilot: Applejack, Jamaican rum, and lime, with a housemade pomegranate drizzle. Long day? Ask for the Bartender’s Choice to flip your mental umbrella inside out.
The setting, overcast with details of a classic approach, is simply poetic. Past the brick towards the back is a window and small door to peek at the patio. In the winter the namesake is ironic with empty pots and furniture covered in a thick frost. Of course, in the summer, it comes to life like any sought-after outdoor city escape, but we like to see it in the form Tim Burton would prefer: cold, quiet, untouched. This chilling setting makes the whiskey taste stronger.
In the end, it doesn’t matter if that is indeed Lou Reed in the darkest part of the bar, because if a patron is present in this velvety underground of the perfect Brooklyn storm, they are undeniably some kind of rock star.
