Soft Spot, Where Everybody Knows Your Name

New Yorkers go to a lot of bars. Mostly because there are more bars in NYC than people (maybe), and we don’t have to drive so we can get as drunk as we want any time we damn well please. But finding a bar you actually want to go back to over and over again over all of the other thousands is a rare and magical thing, earned though a combination of free snacks, awesome happy hours, congenial bar staff and the absence of vomit and/or vomit smell. So in case you haven’t found yours, you can share mine: Soft Spot in Williamsburg.

Soft Spot is a cozy little cove off of Bedford filled with classics like Talking Heads and The Kinks from the jukebox, and never so loud that you have to use your outside voice just to order your drink. They have the usual favorites like Brooklyn Lager, Guinness, Stella and more on draft, plus a craft IPA or seasonal thrown in for good measure. Happy Hours are Buy One, Get One Free from 5-8PM every day on well drinks and draft beer, and constant combos like mini Bud and a shot of Jameson for $5 total make it worth going during even non-HH hours.

During warmer months, the back patio is put to good use with a BBQ offering up burgers and hot dogs from $2-$3 on weekends, but I still prefer a seat at the bar or back inside nook, which has a flat screen TV (always on mute) for keeping sports fans happy and special occasions. The staff are some of the nicest folks around, even when I dropped and shattered a beer glass on aforementioned nice back patio (I totally blame the good happy hour for that). My favorite day to go is Sunday, when the awesome bartender lets me mix beers to make “beertails” and a bar regular DJs the perfect soundtrack for trying to forget about the fact you have to go to work the next day.

Soft Spot
128 Bedford Avenue (btn N. 9th & N. 10th)
[Williamsburg]

Photo Credit: http://www.urban75.org