TEAM SPIRIT

For those who don’t know, it is that kind of bar.

.

A place you might drop by to grab a quick one before going about
your evening plans or the one you might resort to because the
newest Brooklyn hot spot has a line out the door – only to decide
that this bar, the Bean Post in Bay Ridge, is the type of Brooklyn
jewel those unfamiliar should feel lucky to find in passing.

On any given weekend, at the corner of 75th Street and Fifth
Avenue, the Bean Post Pub fills its wooden walls with the kind
of characters only a television show called "Cheers"
could cast better.

It’s not something the bartenders strive for, though. They will
tell you the pub does not loudly advertise beer specials or even
the fact that they have more televisions than most bars in Brooklyn.
People just know, bartender Lisa Harris said, adding that the
fact that the Bean Post does not try to be anyone’s favorite
bar might just be the reason that it is.

"It just is," she said.

In one corner on a recent Friday evening, near the front glass
doors that open in the warmer months, the regulars took their
spots along the bar and at the bar tables. They are long-time
Bay Ridgites and a few former bartenders – in essence, Bean Post
historians.

The bar used to be called The Keg, offered Mike Jackson, a customer
for over 20 years. The place was different then, Jackson said,
with only two windows along its storefront and a different look
to its U-shaped bar.

"It has always had characters though," he said. "And
friendly bartenders."

Behind him, on another stool, Pat Rooney nodded his head. The
former Bean Post bartender said he has been coming to the bar
for so long, "I can’t imagine going anywhere else."

"During the Yankees games, the Mets games, the hockey games
Well, we come in here to watch all of the games," Rooney
said. "This is where you come to watch a game."

For the Bean Post softball team, it is also the place to come
following a game. As one of 11 teams sponsored by a total of
six Brooklyn bars, the Bean Post softball team claims to be the
most proud and the most loyal to the name on the front of their
jerseys.

"There is nobody else we would rather play for," said
Kathleen O’Malley, at the bar after a tie game, with her jersey
on and a beer in hand. Beside her more than 10 of her uniformed
teammates agreed in unison – cheering their sponsor.

In the loudness of their cheer, added to the rooting of those
watching the Yankees game and the vibrations of everybody’s favorite
song, the bartenders threw their usual party favor – cardboard
coasters and bar napkins – onto the customers.

Harris looked around and laughed. Everything, she said, business
as usual.

The Bean Post Pub bartenders include Anthony Loporto, John Hanglow
and Harris. They are past customers themselves, and described
by customers as the backbone of the pub – maybe the main reason
they come there.

According to Chris Hayes, a Bean Post fixture for four years
as the bar’s bouncer, his stool – just inside the front door
– is the best seat in the whole place.

"I can see everything from here," he said. "It’s
funny. The later it gets, the funnier it gets."

Hayes said that while the Bean Post is known for keeping its
regulars, a crowd of about 30 young 20-somethings have also come
to call the bar their own. He said they tend to shuffle to the
back, and pointed to where a mass of blue jeans and baseball
caps were loudly reacting to a corner television airing a baseball
game.

Jennifer Sarmi, 27, said she has been coming to the Bean Post
for the last five years. And Louie Leggs, 29, said he had been
coming to the bar, "Forever."

"We are always in here. It is the best place in Brooklyn,"
he said. "If you are a real sports fan, you are here from
day one."

Post firsts

Steve Postler, the owner of the Bean Post, said his bar opened
in 1982 and was named after himself and his former partner John
Pensabene – Pensabene, Postler Beanpost. They bought the bar
a couple years after The Keg had closed. He had had his eye on
it for some time, he said. As a longtime bartender in Manhattan,
the idea of opening a bar in his own neighborhood quickly became
a calling.

"I was always interested in it, and I had bartended in the
city for five years. But my roots were in Bay Ridge," Postler
said.

His father, from the Bronx, and his mother, from Sunset Park,
had some of their first dates in The Keg, but, Postler said,
he did not learn about that until after he had bought the bar.

The Keg’s big claim to fame, said Postler, came just after World
War II for being the first bar in Brooklyn to have a TV.

Now, the Bean Post Pub offers six televisions, including a large
flat-screen television across the back of the bar. One year after
its opening, the Bean Post was the first bar in Brooklyn to have
satellite cable, said Postler, allowing them to air most televised
sports games throughout the nation. Postler said he was also
the first in the borough to offer 16 draft lines.

The norm, Postler said, is for tap beer to be pushed through
the lines with compressed air. But that air, he said, has a negative
effect on the taste of the beer, so he uses a Guinness, nitrogen-based
system.

"You can’t get a bad Guinness. The nitrogen preserves the
beer," Postler said, adding that it was expensive to re-outfit
a 16-tap setup.

"But the [net] savings was tremendous to me because I could
give a great-tasting beer from the top to the bottom of the barrel,"
said Postler. "With the nitrogen, put that in a nice chilled
glass, you’ve got yourself a great beer."

The kitchen, he said, is just weeks from opening for the first
time. He said the pub would offer "pub grub" in an
extended seating area that has never been opened in the back.

"All I have to do now is find the right cook," Postler
said.

A good pub, he said, is quite simple to maintain, if as the owner
you can also be a beer lover, sports fan and a regular.

"Everybody loves Manhattan but this is local," he said.
"It is the pub you can walk to. You probably went to school
with somebody that comes here or works here. That nucleus is
here.

"We are not known as the pick-up joint or a dance club and
we are not known as a hole-in-the-wall, either," Postler
said.

"And if you leave for a couple of years, we will still know
your name."