Back in 2000, the Williamsburg corner of Meeker and Union avenues was far from today’s landscape of condos everywhere, and the closest Whole Foods hadn’t even opened in Columbus Circle yet. Cabs refused to go over the bridge to the neighborhood.
Still standing is the legendary Williamsburg bar, Union Pool, which owners Alyssa Abeyta and Zeb Stewart opened 25 years ago, as of last week. It’s long doubled as North Brooklyn’s living room — a place to read solo or meet friends at happy hour. It’s a hub for people who came to North Brooklyn in the late ’90s and early 2000s, drawn by space, cheap rent, and room to build music, art, and community. Today, even as the neighborhood grows more expensive, it remains a welcoming, affordable holdout.
Union Pool also carries a bit of infamy with its reputation as a hook-up spot from earlier days: a place to swipe right before the apps existed. It’s in a league with other local bars, great, unpretentious places like Metropolitan Bar, open since 2002, and Pete’s Candy Store, around since 1999. For many longtime Brooklynites, including me, it has been an anchor.
The patio at Union Pool. Millicent Souris
Union Pool is no dive bar; it’s too well cared for. Whatever age Union Pool shows, it comes by honestly with ghost signs from the previous business: a pest control and swimming pool supply company whose graphics linger on the wall behind the cooler in the front bar. (Which raises the question: where are all the swimming pools in Williamsburg?)
The outside patio, tucked under the BQE, is steps away from Meeker Avenue, but that distance feels like miles, protected by a solid fence, brightly painted picnic tables, and plants. The wisteria blooms lushly across the patio in spring, where the neon sign for the El Diablo Tacos shines brightly, a beacon for those in need of sustenance. The tacos have probably saved more lives than Mother Teresa.
The official opening date was always a mystery — generally considered Halloween — until general manager Alex Holden found one of Abeyta’s early spiral-bound notebooks a few years ago. “Union Pool will open to the public Oct. 29, 7 p.m.,” a page reads in Ray’s handwriting. Both Ray and Alyssa died in the 2010s, but their legacies live on in the bar. Ray is still everywhere by way of his artwork: his lettering around the bar, his paintings on the taco truck, and around the venue. And still, the staff is centered on Alyssa’s commitment to the community.
What also hasn’t changed about Union Pool is its staff, many of whom have worked here for a decade or more. “Bottom line,” Suzanne Rogaleski said of the owners. “They made a business to help all their friends who needed to pay their rent.” She noted how many of the employees are musicians, dancers, artists, and writers. “ It’s a special place for sure.”
The selection of wine, beer, booze, and non-alcoholic beverages is better than it needs to be, including a rotating selection of decent wines, KCBC Union Pool Lager, a collaboration with the local brewery, beer-and-a-shot specials, and the delicious M & M, Montenegro Amaro and Amaras Mezcal. Happy hour is weekdays from 4 to 7 p.m., with $5 for some cocktails, well pours, cans, and wine, plus $2 tacos from El Diablo.
Union Pool’s calendar is fun and varied, something for everyone if you’re into music and dancing. There’s PAT, the free queer dance party that’s in its 12th year and running, takes over the bar every third Thursday of the month, hosted by DJs JD Samson and Amber Valentine. Then, every Monday, Reverend Vince Anderson and the Love Choir play what they call “dirty gospel music.” They’ve never charged a cover fee in the history of their residency. I’ll confess: Anderson is my partner, and our wedding party was at Union Pool. Since then, every May, friends text me pictures of the wisteria as a reminder of the day.
The venue consistently books indie, rock, and all sorts of avant-garde bands like Ryan Sawyer’s Shaker Ensemble, 75 Dollar Bill, Pink Mountaintops, and Tara Jane O’Neil, throughout the week and, on weekend nights, the room transforms into a dance club. Summer Thunder, a free daytime outdoor concert series hosted with Academy Records for over a decade, has played live sets from Ted Leo, Circuit des Yeux, Frankie Cosmos, and legendary mainstays Joe Bataan and Sun Ra Arkestra.
When disaster strikes, Union Pool is consistently there to help. Before the pandemic, the bar was a hub for people to meet up during crises like 9/11, the 2003 summer blackout, and Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The venue became a bucket brigade for donations to the Rockaways, which were devastated after the 2012 storm.
Instead of physical proximity during New York’s pandemic lockdown orders in spring 2020, the bar partnered with local nonprofits St. John’s Bread & Life and Rethink Food, starting a weekly food pantry. For the first distribution in June 2020, they gave away only seven bags. Now, over five years in, it’s a tight ship of 10 to 15 volunteers bagging up both fresh produce and nonperishable food for 150 of their neighbors, along with an extra 250 hot meals.
“It’s always been a place that’s looking outside of itself to help others,” Rogaleski tells me. The Union Pool food pantry is every Wednesday morning. Volunteers are welcome; just stop by.
“No one’s given up yet. We’re constantly evolving and improving,” says Rogaleski on how the team keeps doing what they’re doing. “We’re still interested and we’re still curious about what this little machine can do.”