Skylark

Before we discuss the beauty that is Skylark: Once upon a time, at the corner of 5th Avenue and 11th Street, lived a small and under-decorated watering hole called Bar Timboo. It was very much like other bars in the neighborhood: a place for locals so rarified that a mere four blocks was all it took to decide whether one was a Timboo Man or a Jackie's Man. But as the scourge of the mega stadium finally subsided, so did the unwelcoming neighborhood bar, as though anyone has every really wanted their drink with a chaser of silent, eye-rolling judgment. Aside from a pool table, the interior evoked an air of Inappropriate Uncle at the best of times--and it was rarely ever the best of times at Timboo. Of course, when the owners of a bar also own the building, the bar can stay open until money becomes a compelling counterargument. Thankfully, in the case of Timboo, it eventually did.

As luck would have it, the lease fell to the folks that also own Abilene, one of Carroll Gardens' best bars, and Lowlands, a bar-comme-restaurant that upped the nightlife game in the Gowanus. Skylark has many of the odd, kitschy accents that comprise the atmosphere at Abilene, but to a much higher degree, with mismatched seats and tables, stunningly oddball artwork of nature scenes and, well, mostly ducks, and two pinball machines for the local leagues that are so devoted to that electronic sport.

The kitchen at Skylark offers a menu that does its best to fill patrons up without veering into territory that will make people linger interminably at their tables. Tater tots make the requisite appearance from your middle school days, as well as a cheesier version of the same, and there are other comfort foods like deviled eggs, pigs in a blanket, grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese, and even a serviceable pulled pork sandwich.

In a city with more bars than coffee shops, it isn't so much the taps or the environs that matter as much as it is the bartenders, and in that respect, Skylark takes a very well-deserved place among the best of the already venerable 5th Avenue. The sheer normality of the place makes it hard to herald above the admitted multitude of bars along Park Slope's less scenic stretch, but ease is never easy, and the number of locals bars trying way too hard is high and disheartening. Skylark is the kind of bar you go to, if you go to bars, because the atmosphere the proprietors have elicited by dint of their hiring choices, their taste in decor, and the offerings behind the bar and from the kitchen make a certain type of honey that draws the right kind of barflies.