The Return of Freddy's

The new Freddy’s is here.

The famous Freddy's Bar and Backroom reopened Thursday in South Slope, months after Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project forced the bar from its longstanding Prospect Heights home on Dean Street. 

Last night the opened its doors to friends and family of the bar, who crowded its new location on Fifth Avenue between 17th and 18th Streets, in the old Ellis Bar space.

The new space is different to be sure, but still boasts the same spirit of the original Prospect Heights location.

The distinctive Prohibition-era red mahogany bar, booths and bar stools that gave the original local its saloon-like quality were all there, as were owner Donald O’Finn’s madcap video art, great musicians and a host of old Freddy’s regulars.

The bar itself is still wrapped in the “Chains of Justice, ” which were once wrapped around the bar to protest the eminent domain decision that kicked Freddy’s to the curb

Tonight the bar officially opens, complete with a music line up culminating with a midnight performance by the Brooklyn-based rockers Les Sans Culottes.