NoBar Bar

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, NEW YORK –

Hurt Locker star Anthony Mackie’s NoBar, christened in honor of his native New Orleans, provides a relaxed, no-frills atmosphere for the ethnically diverse crowd of neighborhood regulars who flock to this friendly watering hole.

Eschewing the velvet ropes and Hollywood kitsch that characterize so many other celebrity-owned bars, NoBar is a single room hangout dotted with plain wooden tables and caricatures of jazz performers.

As tatted bike messengers shoot pool and trade stories, Bed-Stuy locals sample from a domestic beer menu and dreadlocked drinkers congregate by the picture windows to wash down their bar food with bottles of brew.

Mackie himself has been known to get behind the bar and mix drinks under the glow of caged bulbs, though that job is usually entrusted to the friendly pourers who are more than happy to chat with the thirty-somethings who belly up for a potent cocktail.

Early evenings see the place populated by a small but amiable crowd of subdued sports fans and chill beer chasers content to catch a game on the flat-screens, but as darkness falls, a steady stream of neighborhood characters and hangers-on fill the Big Easy-inspired barroom with a chorus of laughter and chatter that runs until last call.

Though the bar may be a little far afield for the average LES barhopper, determined revelers will find that NoBar offers all the charm of the Crescent City coupled with the gritty but congenial vibe that is distinct to Brooklyn.