Duff’s:Brooklyn’s Best

Duff’s Brooklyn
168 Marcy Avenue, (Btwn. South 5th & Broadway)
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
(718) 599-2092 | Open 6 pm To 4 am, 7 Days A Week

In 2010 Duff’s Brooklyn was voted “Best Dive Bar” for all of New York by New York magazine. It is just one of the many awards and honors bestowed over the years on the consummate dive bar proprietor named Jimmy Duff.

A night out at Jimmy’s bar is not one to forget. The booze is cheap. The bartenders are hand-picked and fantastic. They exist to set the tone and conduct a raucous party. The bar is decorated like a kind of Tim Burton nightmare, with a dose of 1970s horror films and heavy metal shrines. Jimmy has an eclectic collection of everything from coffins to signage, and it’s all on display.

The room sets the vibe and that is that you are in dive bar heaven. The bar is just the stage for a massive party that you are part of, seven nights a week. (Jimmy isn’t open during the day, due to his vampire hours).

Duff’s had a previous incarnation in Hell’s Kitchen. It gained a worldwide reputation as Bellevue Bar. Then success brought a lot of drama, and the ownership changed. Today, Bellevue Bar is dead and buried, while Duff’s has thrived on the other side of the water. In 2003, the call of Brooklyn rang out. A former check-cashing store in Williamsburg was the sign from the bar gods. Jimmy moved to a tiny location for a few years, and then moved again in 2008 to its current location, a short walk from the Marcy Avenue subway station. Or, Duff’s is only about a $15 cabride from Lower Manhattan.

Jimmy keeps his hearse parked nearby. He’s even got a coffin waiting in the back for some unlucky customers. Jimmy has many, many friends in the music business. A lot of metal bands, when they are passing through New York, they stop in for drinks after the show. Sometimes their fans follow them over. The music is all about headbanging.

In addition for having a knack for interior decoration, which can be found in evidence by Jimmy’s collection of vintage posters and memorabilia on the walls (and ceiling) of the tiny bar, Jimmy is skilled in one more area. That is finding kick-ass bartenders. He always attracts the best. And these are the kinds of bartenders that keep you coming back. Over and over again. Be sure to mention that you saw them on nycbp.com, and tip ‘em well!