Greenpoint Axe-throwing Bar And Booze Don't Mix, CB Says

GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN — Those who dare to hurl an axe toward a target for fun can still do so over at Greenpoint's Bury the Hatchet bar, community board members decided this week — just without the beer and wine.

The board denied the recently-opened bar's request for a liquor license this week, noting safety concerns and, oddly enough, the bar staff's lack of knowledge about the subway.

The bar, which opened on Noble Street in October, requested to serve beer and wine to patrons as they throw axes at targets in throwing lanes, an activity made popular in Canada that is now catching on throughout the United States.

(Keep up with NYC events and news by subscribing to Williamsburg-Greenpoint's Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Representatives with the company and the bar's manager told members of various safety precautions and the chain's history of little or no accidents, but board members weren't convinced.

"Do you serve booze in a shooting gallery?" one member asked. "But you can go to the bar and get smashed and then you're handling these sharp objects? This is kind of a weird experiment to try out. It just sounds like a really problematic mix."

The board ultimately shot down the liquor license request by a vote of 22 to 12.

Not all nay-sayers were worried only about the mix of alcohol and axes, though.

Thomas Burrows, chair of the board's State Liquor Authority Review subcommittee, said most subcommittee members felt Bury the Hatchet's record showed serving drinks at the establishment was "fairly safe." There has only been one reported accident in the company's history, he said.

The members were more concerned, though, with the owners seeming lack of preparation for the permit request.

The two staffers who came to the November subcommittee meeting weren't familiar with the area, including the subway stops bargoers would be using, and hadn't reached out to the surrounding neighbors, Burrows said. The subcommittee also asked that they provide contact information for an NYC-based manager who would be running things, since the two men who applied were from New Jersey.

"They were clueless," Burrows said. "That's why we needed a manager to show up who had some sort of clue."

The manager of the Greenpoint spot, Christine Meehan-Berg, came to the community board meeting to ease the members' concerns.

"I am very aware how important it is that safety continues in my establishment as well as the community," Meehan-Berg told the board.

But, the board said another request for a letter from the Milton Street Block Association supporting the application didn't come through. Burrows said, though, that Bury the Hatchet staffers tried to contact the association multiple times and hadn't heard back.

The request will still have to be brought to the State Liquor Authority, though, which will have the ultimate say in whether it is approved.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images