Fans of Mooney’s can stop crying in their Buds — a new bar has finally filled the gaping hole on the Prospect Heights side of Flatbush Avenue.
Sharlene’s Bar opened last week — and an initial fact-finding (burp) mission by The Brooklyn Paper revealed that Mooney’s regulars will like some things and not like some others.
On the plus side: The bathrooms are clean and functional. The staff is friendly. The beers are cheap. The decor is stylish without being annoyingly Yuppie. And somehow, they got rid of the omnipresent cigarette fumes (probably by not smoking, come to think of it).
On the minus side: No TVs.
“We made a conscious decision not to bring back the televisions,” said Sharlene Frank, a former bartender at Commonwealth on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope who owns the joint with Ray Gish and Rory Dwyer.
“Not having a TV forces people to talk to each other. People spend too much time disengaging from people and looking at their computers and the TV. But when you go out, you should be out among people. There are plenty of bars with TVs.”
Frank said her goal is to create a “comfortable, neighborhood place where women can come by themselves and neighbors feel like they can leave a spare set of keys.”
She admitted that some Mooney’s regulars miss their old place, but others have been favorable.
“They’re happy it’s a bar and not a GAP kids,” said Frank, who grew up in Windsor Terrace.
Also nice are the specials: Happy hour is 1–7 pm every day ($1 off every drink), there will be $2 Buds and Yuenglings during lunch.
Sharlene’s [353 Flatbush Ave., between Sterling and Park, (347) 350-8225].
