N'Awlins Meets Hollywood Meets the Stuy

Anthony Mackie, the New Orleans native and actor known for his lead roles in the movies, “She Hate Me” and “The Hurt Locker” had long wanted to open his own sports bar since moving to Brooklyn several years.

Finally, Mackie, along with his business partner Ricardo Pereira, opened NoBar (that’s “NO” representing Mackie’s hometown of New Orleans) at 608 Nostrand Avenue on July 17, to much media attention and fanfare, and a stealthy celebrity guest list, including Bed-Stuy native and fellow actor Samuel Jackson.

He chose Nostrand Avenue at the corner of Atlantic Avenue, he ways, because of the lack of casual, yet classy, hangout spots in the area.

On an early Monday evening, the spot is already half-filled as a diverse crowd of young professionals along with some local beer enthusiasts sit down and mingle while sharing cocktails at the one of the sleek wooden tables that fill the watering hole.

Pereira, a longtime veteran of the food and beverage industry, is enthused by the response NoBar has gotten from the Bed-Stuy/Crown Heights community since it opened.

“The neighborhood has been very responsive since we opened. We got a great reception, we have a lot of regulars almost every day and we’re very thankful for that,” said Pereira.

According to Pereira (Mackie was away shooting a movie when BSP visited), the renowned actor is very hands-on when it comes to his business, defying the stereotype of many celebrities who open small businesses, but let others do all the dirty work.

“From bottom-up he’s built the space, he’s helped develop the cocktail menu, the food menu, he’ll bus tables. The guy has a great work ethic and is really completely involved,” said Pereira.

While NoBar has a wide variety of drinks not excluding a bourbon-based house drink called the Nobar. There's a kitchen that cooks up a nice variety of N'Awlins-style fare, including a delicious red beans and rice bowl.

Yet, for all its fluster, NoBar’s ambience does not give off the pretense of a Hollywood celebrity spot (I mean, this is Bed-Stuy, not Beverly Hills).

Instead, the space is rather small and the décor is laid-back and contemporary with a pool table at the front, jazzy paintings on the wall, soft mood lighting, wood floors constructed with deep mahogany tones and an open bar with a 25-drink cocktail list and a couple of TV’s in the back.

And yet, the bar’s unpretentious, no-amenities feel is just what Mackie sought when the idea of owning his own drinkery first came to mind.

“It’s a cool, cheap neighborhood hang,” Mackie recently told Grubstreet.com. “I don’t want to see my friends trying to take a girl out, spending 100 bucks in some trendy place, and walking away hungry. This is the opposite of those multimillion dollar, basement nightclubs, filled with “who’s who” type places. I hate those!

Visitors to NoBar are also pleased at the presence of the bar which stands out from the collection of bodegas and small chain stores on the block near Atlantic Avenue.

“I’ve been here before and they have a great beer selection,” said Clay Williams, a local photographer and blogger. “I didn’t know about the food, but what they have is pretty good too.”

With the burgeoning success of NoBar, Mackie and Periera are already making plans to open new spaces, including a wine bar across the street and possibly a beer garden.

“We’re just regular guys who wanted to open up a place where people could just come, hang out and drink,” said Pereira. “We’re not trying to cater to anything that’s not Brooklyn. We live in Brooklyn. We love Brooklyn and we’re not trying to be anything more than that.”

For information on NoBar, visit them on Facebook.