NYCReview
photo credit: Kate Previte
Bernie’s
Included In
When you walk into Bernie’s, it’ll look strangely familiar. You might even think you’ve been here before. You’ll see the checkered tablecloths, the red vinyl booths, the fake-stained-glass light fixtures, and the servers in embroidered polos holding trays of frosted beer mugs and sauce-covered baby back ribs. And then it’ll dawn on you: you’re inside a Brooklyn parody of Cheers. Or maybe TGI Fridays.
But just take a seat in one of those booths. Maybe it’ll be once you start chatting with your friendly server, or maybe it’ll be when you order a martini and it comes out perfectly cold, or maybe it’ll be once you’re halfway through your mozzarella sticks - but inevitably, you’ll figure out that this isn’t some irony-laced theme restaurant that’s here to provide a photo opportunity. Bernie’s is here to give you a genuinely good time.
Bernie’s is from the same team behind Frankel’s, another Greenpoint spot that serves both food and nostalgia. In Bernie’s case, it’s nostalgia for the kind of American restaurant with uncomplicated food and no pretension. Places you went to after soccer practice when you were a kid, or see bad commercials for on TV and think to yourself, “huh, that actually looks kinda good.” Places where a wedge salad counts as a vegetable, where the hardest question you’ll face is whether you’re getting the steak or the burger, and where you’re absolutely getting the sundae for dessert.
To be clear, Bernie’s has much better food (and much less corporate despair) than any restaurant that advertises on TV. But it’s the smaller details here that make Bernie’s a place where you want to hang out. It’s the crayons and butcher paper on every table so you can play hangman (which turns out to be more fun with alcohol), and the little silver bowl of crushed ice that makes the shrimp cocktail feel even more festive than your average shrimp cocktail. It’s the garden gnome-sized brownie sundae that might be made with grocery store ice cream, but is also covered with at least six inches of whipped cream. And it’s the frozen mugs, which will make you wonder why we don’t drink all beer out of frozen mugs.
So while Bernie’s might seem like the set for a TV show about a restaurant in 1983, that’s not what’s important here. What’s important is that groups are ordering repeat rounds of martinis and mozzarella sticks, regulars are posted up watching sports at the bar, and friendly staff are acting like they already know everyone’s name. None of those elements are unique on their own, but together they form a restaurant unlike many others in the city. Although, full disclosure, we haven’t been to the Times Square TGI Fridays.