With a name like “THE JAKEWALK”, there’s already good reason to look forward to the latest addition to Smith Street, fast becoming more a street for boozy haute cocktail-soaked pub crawls than leisurely dinners (though you can find me happily hiding out in with a minute steak in Bar Tabac often enough). But with the (coming-soon) Clover Club, the timeless Brooklyn Inn, Brooklyn Social, and winebar Black Mountain, I’m going to pronounce Smith Street Brooklyn’s favorite lane for drinking as well as eating. And hell, when you cast your gimlet-eyed gaze on the fair borough of Brooklyn as a whole, the arrivals of Weather Up, Beer Table, 4th Avenue Pub, Pacific Standard, Cherry Tree, Radegast, and so many more make for a rosy picture indeed.

Brooklyn Based, one of my favorite blogs, breaks some of BK’s cocktail credentials down here.   Named for a hard-luck Prohibition-era malady called Jake Leg (profiled memorably here, by Dan Baum, in the New Yorker), The JakeWalk is the brainchild of Smith Street cheese and wine merchants Michele Pravda and Patrick Watson (Stinky Bklyn and Smith & Vine) and loyal staffers Matt DeVriendt and Ari Form. So I feel it’s a safe bet when I feel more like being entertained than doing the entertaining the JW will fit the bill. It’s certainly got a promising menu: some 50 wines by the glass, 120 whiskies, artisanal cheeses, cured meats, and even raclette. Alas, I’ll miss the opening this Friday night, the 7th, but will be headed down that dark alley soon.  

“I can’t eat, I can’t talk – Been drinkin’ mean jake, Lord, now can’t walk – Ain’t got nothin’ now to lose – Cause I’m a jake walkin’ papa with the ‘Jake Walk Blues’”   - The Allen Brothers, Jake Walk Blues c. 1930   

 The JakeWalk is located at 282 Smith Street in Brooklyn and is open Monday – Thursday from 4PM – 2AM, Friday from 4PM – 4AM, Saturday from 2PM – 4AM and Sunday from 2PM –  2AM.  The telephone number is 347.599.0294.  No reservations required.