Mass transit, all this millennium’s good music, the mole-people society and… this place.
Step into B.B.R., a wood-covered underground hull of cocktails and the foods that love them, now
open underneath Rye in Williamsburg. (And forget we mentioned the mole people.)
The name stands for “Bar Below Rye,” so… mystery solved. It’s the kind of
darkness-pierced-by-sconce-light spot where you have no idea how much time’s passed since you arrived. And
you won’t care. Because that time’s been spent, we hope, digging into St. Louis–style ribs with
housemade tamarind barbecue sauce and taking down Northern Tonics (aquavit, gin, saffron liqueur,
celery bitters and cucumber).
Finding it: just to the right of the entrance to Rye proper, there’s a stairway. Descend. Voilà,
you’re in. The menu’s completely different from upstairs, save for the meat loaf sandwich (cue sighs
of relief).
They’re pretty flexible with the whole space for now, so go nuts. If your mission is romance, the
candlelit two-tops along the right wall excel at the companion-having thing. If you’ve brought a dozen
people clamoring for bottled Old Fashioneds and three-day-cooked pork belly sandwiches, consider it done.
Of course, that raises the whole “sharing” problem…
