The best bars in Bushwick right now span a genuine range: a 4,400-square-foot disco with pool tables, a cocktail bar dressed up like a natural history museum, and a backyard dive that hasn’t changed much since before the L train got weird about the neighborhood.
Bushwick nightlife gets flattened into one blurry “warehouse party” idea from the outside, but the actual bar scene is a lot more varied: DJ bars near the Jefferson Street L stop, natural wine patios a few blocks from Myrtle-Wyckoff, and dives that have outlasted three separate waves of gentrification.
Here are the 12 spots serving up the best bars in Bushwick has to offer, whether you’re after a big night out, a quiet glass of natural wine, or $1 oysters before happy hour ends.
Carousel – 🏆 Bowery Beat Editor Top Choice
Address: 36 Wyckoff Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237
Style: Retro-’70s cocktail bar with pool tables and a DJ booth
Vibe: Loud, disco-lit, the “we are not sitting down tonight” pick
Price: $$ (cocktails around $16)
Carousel took over a former loft on Wyckoff Avenue and turned it into 4,400 square feet of disco ball, pool table, and conversation pit, which is a lot of square footage for a neighborhood where most bars top out at one room and a smoking yard.
The vibe leans ’70s cocktail lounge crossed with a house party that got out of hand in the best possible way, and the line outside on a Friday moves faster than it looks.
If you’re only making one stop on this list, Carousel is the one built for an actual night out, not just a drink.
Vacations BK
Address: 48 Cypress Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237
Phone: (929) 614-5409
Style: Multi-level rooftop and indoor bar
Vibe: Dog-friendly, cornhole on the roof, a DJ playing whatever keeps summer going
Price: $$ (happy hour deals from $13)
Website: vacationsbk.com
Vacations is the closest thing Bushwick has to a rooftop escape, with two separate roof sections, an indoor bar downstairs, and enough space that you’re not fighting for somewhere to actually sit.
Bring the dog if you’ve got one (they’re welcome), and the happy hour, weekdays noon to 7pm and again 11pm to 2am nightly, keeps things from turning into Manhattan-rooftop money.
It’s the pick for when you want a view and a breeze without leaving the neighborhood.
The Museum Bar + Gift Shop
Address: 1329 Willoughby Ave, Brooklyn, NY
Phone: (954) 740-9887
Style: Natural history museum-themed cocktail bar
Vibe: Fossils, taxidermy-adjacent decor, a front gift shop doubling as a low-ABV café
Price: $$
The Museum Bar, which opened this summer at 1329 Willoughby, looks less like a bar and more like the gift shop of a natural history museum that decided to start serving cocktails, and that is very much the point.
The permanent cocktail menu is split into “exhibits”: think Insectarium (honey gin, fig, black ants) or Fossil Record (reposado tequila, sesame, sherry), plus dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets on the food side if you need proof this place doesn’t take itself too seriously.
The front room, called the Gift Shop, is an eight-seat café pouring lower-ABV drinks and a daily spritz for anyone easing into the night more slowly.
Wonderville
Address: 1186 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY 11221
Style: Independent arcade bar
Vibe: 30-plus custom-built games, a stage for live music, comedy, and drag
Price: $$ (games free to play, cocktails standard bar pricing)
Website: wonderville.nyc
Wonderville bills itself as the first all-independent arcade bar in the city, meaning every game inside was custom-built by someone in the NYC games community instead of licensed from a big-box distributor.
There’s a hot dog menu from Randwiches and a stage that rotates through live music, comedy sets, and the occasional drag show between rounds.
It’s the best bars in Bushwick pick for anyone who’d rather compete at something than just stand around holding a drink.
Mood Ring
Address: 1260 Myrtle Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11221
Phone: (917) 818-1738
Style: Astrology-themed cocktail lounge
Vibe: Teal LED glow, queer and POC-owned, a laser-lit back room built for dancing
Price: $$ (cocktails around $11-14)
Website: moodringnyc.club
Mood Ring leans all the way into its astrology bit, from zodiac-themed cocktails to a main room lit almost entirely by teal LEDs, and somehow it never tips into gimmick.
The real draw is the back room, a Berlin-techno-adjacent dance space where the lasers shake the walls once the DJ gets going, usually well after midnight.
Easy, unbothered, here to dance more than to be seen.
Keybar
Address: 143 Troutman St, Brooklyn, NY 11206
Style: DJ bar with a nightly happy hour
Vibe: Buzzy, a little chaotic, a reliable karaoke and birthday-party HQ
Price: $$ (buy-one-get-one happy hour, 6 to 9pm)
Website: keybar.com
Keybar has been a Troutman Street fixture long enough that half of Bushwick has celebrated a birthday there at some point, and the buy-one-get-one happy hour from 6 to 9pm is a big reason why.
There’s karaoke, a rotating DJ lineup, and enough room to move between the dance floor and a quieter corner depending on your energy that night.
It’s not trying to be cool, which somehow makes it one of the more dependable bars in the neighborhood for a group that can’t agree on where to go.
Juke Bar
Address: 400 Troutman St, Brooklyn, NY 11237
Style: Cocktail bar with a dive-bar streak
Vibe: Cozy, low-lit, live music some nights
Price: $$ (happy hour weekdays 4 to 7pm)
Website: bk.jukebarnyc.com
Juke Bar splits the difference between a proper cocktail program and a dive you’d wander into by accident, a tricky balance a lot of bars attempt and few actually land.
The weekday happy hour runs 4 to 7pm, and the small stage brings in live music often enough that it’s worth checking the calendar before you commit to a table.
Good for a first date that might turn into a long one.
Hank’s Bar
Address: 613 Bushwick Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11206
Phone: (929) 210-0611
Style: Neighborhood dive bar
Vibe: Photobooth, rotating food trucks, the sort of place that feels like it’s always been there
Price: $
Website: hanksbrooklyn.com
Hank’s is the newest project from Vantage Point Hospitality, but it was built to feel like it’s been on Bushwick Avenue for decades, not months, right down to the photobooth in the corner.
Food trucks rotate through outside, so you’re never stuck choosing between a drink and dinner, and the crowd skews toward people who live within a ten-minute walk.
Want a straightforward dive without the try-hard theming a lot of newer Bushwick bars go for? This is it.
Pearl’s Social & Billy Club
Address: 40 Saint Nicholas Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237
Phone: (347) 627-9985
Style: Classic Bushwick dive bar with a backyard
Vibe: Broken-in, unfussy, a longtime neighborhood anchor
Price: $ (happy hour takes $2 off everything, 2 to 8pm daily)
Website: pearlssocial.com
Pearl’s Social & Billy Club has been pulling the same trick for years: cheap drinks, a backyard that somehow always has room, and zero interest in redecorating to chase a trend.
The daily happy hour knocks $2 off everything from 2 to 8pm, which in a neighborhood full of $16 cocktails is doing real work.
It’s the control group for every other dive on this list, the one against which the others get measured.
Sea Wolf
Address: 19 Wyckoff Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237
Phone: (833) 524-0925
Style: Seafood bar with a nightly oyster happy hour
Vibe: Festive, outdoor seating, rotating frozen cocktails
Price: $$ ($1 oysters and $9 wine during happy hour)
Website: seawolfbk.com
Sea Wolf’s $1 oyster happy hour (weekdays 4 to 7pm, weekends 5 to 7pm) rotates through six to eight East Coast varieties and pairs shockingly well with a $9 glass of Montepulciano.
The outdoor seating fills up fast once the weather cooperates, and the frozen cocktail list changes often enough that regulars keep coming back to see what’s new.
Less a dive, more a seafood shack that happens to run one of the best bars in Bushwick for oysters and a frozen drink.
The Ten Bells Bushwick
Address: 65 Irving Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237
Style: Natural wine bar with a patio
Vibe: Skin-contact wine, oysters, farmhouse-blue walls, a five-minute walk from the Jefferson Street L
Price: $$ (happy hour glasses from $6, carafes from $18)
Website: tenbellsbk.com
The Ten Bells’ Bushwick outpost pours natural and skin-contact wine on a patio that looks more like a country wedding reception than a Brooklyn backyard, farmhouse-blue walls included.
Happy hour drops glasses to around $6 and carafes to $18, which makes it one of the more reasonable ways to drink well in the neighborhood.
Best for a slower night: oysters, a bottle to split, conversation you can actually hear.
Bodega Nights
Address: 425 Troutman St, Brooklyn, NY 11237
Phone: (201) 530-6361
Style: Brazilian-Iberian natural wine bar
Vibe: New, unpretentious, a tight list of small-farmer wine
Price: $$ (glasses around $16, bottles $60-80)
Website: bodeganightsbk.com
Bodega Nights opened this spring from the team behind Babysips on the Lower East Side, bringing a Brazilian-Iberian-leaning food menu and a genuinely tight wine list to Bushwick’s club corridor.
It’s a rare grown-up option on a strip better known for lines and cover charges: glasses run about $16, bottles land mostly between $60 and $80, and the patio makes it feel less like a wine bar and more like a backyard hang.
Open Wednesday through Sunday, 5pm to midnight, so plan accordingly if you’re coming on a whim.
So, What Are the Best Bars in Bushwick?
Finding the best bars in Bushwick really depends on what kind of night you’re planning.
If you want an all-out night out, Carousel delivers.
If you want a rooftop, Vacations BK has you covered.
If you want cheap and no-frills, Pearl’s Social & Billy Club and Hank’s Bar are both hard to beat.
If you want the spot everyone’s posting about right now, The Museum Bar + Gift Shop is leading that conversation.
There isn’t one single answer, and in a neighborhood this size, that’s kind of the point.
Hop on the L to Jefferson Street or the M to Myrtle-Wyckoff and most of this list is within a ten-minute walk. For more of the best bars in Bushwick and the rest of the borough, keep browsing our Nightlife coverage, or check out our guides to rooftop bars in NYC and dive bars in the East Village for more where that came from.
