Hoop Jumping and Red Tape Cutting
The future home of Pacific Standard According to Citysearch.com, Brooklyn offers over 1200 bars to choose from on any given Friday. So it takes a certain type of courage to enter another watering hole in the liquor-saturated playing field. Two men brave enough to give it a shot, John-Christian Rauschenberg and Jon Stan, aren’t scared…
The future home of Pacific Standard
According to Citysearch.com, Brooklyn offers over 1200 bars to choose from on any given Friday. So it takes a certain type of courage to enter another watering hole in the liquor-saturated playing field. Two men brave enough to give it a shot, John-Christian Rauschenberg and Jon Stan, aren’t scared of these numbers. After dreaming about opening bar together since they met at Berkeley ten years ago, they signed a lease late last year for a place on Fourth Avenue. The Brooklyn Record caught up with them over the weekend to ask what it takes to open a bar in the Borough of Kings. Pacific Standard, a name that fondly recalls the owners’ West Coast roots, is set to open by May and after months of jumping through Brooklyn’s bureaucratic hoops, Stan and Rauschenberg are more than ready to sit back and have a beer.
You have to know a bar owner in order to own a bar, Rauschenberg stated while Stan hung dry wall in the other room. There are too many critical details that could potentially ruin you but that you would never find out otherwise. The two men spent hours securing financing, finding a good broker (they went through over thirty!), negotiating lease terms, securing a commercial certificate of occupancy, and applying for a building permit and a liquor license with the Boerum Hill Community Board. They discovered that a lawyer, or expediter, was crucial in working with the city to get back licenses and permits within weeks (instead of months). And it’s not quite over — before opening for business they still have to get a health permit, a fire inspection, and be approved for insurance coverage. Stan and Rauschenberg are quick to point out that it’s a risky, expensive, and frustrating process that is next to impossible to navigate on your own.
Despite what Rauschenberg says were incredible legal and construction obstacles (all of which have been humorously bemoaned on their blog) he and Stan are now well into the fun part: construction and carpentry. Between tracking down electricians, plumbers, and an HVAC crew, the two men have enlisted the help of friends and family to pull together the components of a functional establishment. Though plenty of work remains, they are encouraged by a warm reception from the neighborhood and the support of other bar-owning friends. This particular block of Fourth Avenue, between St. Mark’s Place and Bergen, is slowly developing a new flavor; since Mule, a tiny jewel of a café, opened a few years ago, two more bars have followed, Cherry Tree and 4th Avenue Bar. Rauschenberg reports that the other bars have been enthusiastic and generous, perceiving Pacific Standard as another valuable draw to the previously sleepy avenue. A few years ago nobody thought that 4th Avenue could be more than tire shops, but that’s really changing, Rauschenberg says. Fourth Avenue is hot.
Pacific Standard is located at 82 Fourth Avenue.
Pacific Standard [Website]
Pacific Standard [Blog]
um, hello…this *is* a unique theme for a brooklyn bar, very much unlike all those places trying to emphasize their brooklyn/hipster/local music scene ties. and there are a lot of west coast transplants here. they’ll have to draw additional folks to make it work, of course…but that’s where the truly good beer and the literary angle comes in. i look forward to seeing this place open and make a go of it.
Is someone actually trying to suggest that this bar would be an affront to our “Brooklyn-ness”? One of the best things about Brooklyn is that it constantly accommodates new people, from other parts of the country and the world. I don’t know if the bar will suck or rule (I’ll have to wait for it to open), but I’m not going to judge it because its name refers to a different time zone. Plus, if you’re looking for some local pride, isn’t the Pacific St. subway station right there?
There are far too few bars that actually have a good beer selection on tap – unless you consider Amstel Light “the beer drinkers beer”. I am very happy to hear that one is soon to open in the Slope. Also – to me “local pride” doesn’t mean that I’m only going to patronize the local townie bar. There’s having pride and there’s being hater. Welcome Pacific Standard!
the bar sounds great. the beers on tap will be the best in the area, and they aren’t all from california for any wankers worrying about brooklyn losing its identity. the name might not be as great or unique as “Brooklyn Record” or “Buffalo Wild Wings” but who cares as long as the beer tastes good. i’ll be heading down there when it opens up.
I was at a bar on Atlantic ave many months ago (maybe even a year), and overheard these 2 guys talking up one of the owners, they said they were trying to open up a bar across the street, and that it woule be primarily California wines, and local beer imported from Cali. We laughed it off, thinking Atlantic ave is not the best place for a bar that would concentrate on California when that area is very “local pride-ish”(most bars in that neighborhood have at least one local co-owner)…it never opened, I wonder if these guys is them. They seemed very young, as do the guys in the picture on the site … I’m sure it will do better in the slope than it would have done on Atlantic (if it was the same)…
while old-school new yorkers might not be drawn to this place, i know a lot of california girls who’ve come to NY for publishing jobs… and most of them live in and around park slope. i think this bar could do pretty well.
Pacific Standard is not a good name. Sorry, dudes. You’re not in California anymore. You’re in Brooklyn.
If you were smart you’d make a deal with Brownstoner and sell him a small percentage of the bar cheap for endless promotion in return.
Call the place Brooklyn Record and try to play music that’s mostly from Brooklyn based bands. I can’t give you all the good ideas, so you need to think of some yourselves.
A bar is just a bar unless you make it truely unique. Having Brownstoner continuously promote your bar could be the best advertising possible.
Oh great, another bar. Just what this area needs. How wonderful.