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Ridgites bash planned hipster bar over fear skinny-pant set will bring noise

Ridgites bash planned hipster bar over fear skinny-pant set will bring noise
Photo by Arthur De Gaeta

Neighbors of a planned beer garden slated to become Bay Ridge’s first hipster bar say they’re against the place before it has a chance to become cool.

Residents living near the future location of the Lock Yard — an outdoor micro-brew emporium designed to appeal to indie music-loving youth from neighborhoods to the north — claim trendy newcomers will shatter their block’s tranquility faster than the screen of an iPhone 5 stashed in the same pocket as a mustache comb.

“This idea of bringing a young crowd from Williamsburg and Park Slope, it’s unacceptable,” said Elizabeth Pabian, whose backyard borders the Fifth Avenue space between 92nd and 93rd streets where skinny-jean-and-flannel-clad customers will soon sip craft beers from the Midwest. “My whole life will change.”

Pabian has started a petition to try to keep the Lock Yard — formerly the Bridgeview Locksmith shop — from opening, and has already gotten 29 neighbors to endorse the cause.

That list includes Amanda Tigio, who echoed Pabian’s concerns about noisy newcomers because her bedroom windows will look out onto the beer-swilling bohemian scene.

“I bet 20-somethings would be an even more of a late night crowd, so that perpetuates my fears about the sound,” said Tigio, who is not yet 30 years old herself. “I can hear when a buzzing alarm goes off next door. I can only imagine what this is going to be like.”

Others worry that a hipster invasion will, ironically, cause a decline in property values.

Marisa Falero, who owns a home that borders the beer garden and is considering purchasing another adjoining property, fears the Lock Yard will hurt her investments.

“What’s going to happen to the value of that house, if there’s a beer garden in back of it full of drunk people?” said Falero.

But the Lock Yard’s owner, Tommy Casatelli — the man behind popular Third Avenue hangouts Kettle Black and Ho’Brah Taco Joint — promised that he would contain the commotion, just like he does at his current establishments.

“All I can say is my track record with the two places that I have now is that we’re good neighbors, and I’m going to be a good neighbor here too, and that’s all there is to it,” said Casatelli, who is already at work building a wall around the backyard to keep the noise in check.

The Lock Yard, which Casatelli initially hoped to have open before the Superbowl, suffered a setback when the contractor hired had his home destroyed during Hurricane Sandy.

The watering hole is now scheduled to open by the end of June.

Community Board 10 voted overwhelmingly to support Castelli’s bid for a liquor license, but the application is still awaiting approval from the State Liquor Authority.

The fight to keep hipsters out of Bay Ridge comes after vitriolic anti-gentrification blogger Die Hipster called it quits and said he expected a hipster influx to reach Southern Brooklyn — just not so soon.

Reach reporter Will Bredderman at wbredderman@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4507. Follow him at twitter.com/WillBredderman.