With a Little Luck, Freddy's Just Might Usher in the New Year

After a brief hiatus, Freddy's is back.

By month's end, if all goes according to bar co-owner Donald O'Finn's hopes, Fifth Avenue's South Slope will be graced with an amped up version Freddy's Bar and Backroom, which earlier this year was forced from its longstanding Prospect Heights home on Dean Street by Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project.

This legendary community hangout was always for the people, but its new incarnation is also by the people. Many of Freddy's regulars—builders, artists—are chipping in to help shape the space.

"Freddy's is very much about community, but now its also being built by the community," O'Finn said in between working with plumbers and painters at the bar's new location. "That's what Freddy's was always about. Community."

But the Freddy's, which O'Finn dreams will pour its first drink at the strike of midnight on New Year's Eve, won't just be a replica of its old, iconic self. It will be bigger, and, possibly, even better.

"I see it as Freddy's on steroids; everything is amped up a bit," said O'Finn, who was once the spot's manager, but is now co-owner, along with Matt Kuhn and Matt Kimmett, both former Freddy's bartenders.

Ownership isn't the only thing that's changed. For the first time, Freddy's Bar will serve food and Kuhn will hold the reins on fare. "It'll be Freddy's-appropriate, pub grub, nothing fancy, something to fill the hole in your stomach," Kuhn said. "We just knew we had to take advantage of the kitchen in this space."

Much, of course, will also remain the same at Freddy's new South Slope location between 17th and 18th streets, where the short-lived Ellis Bar used to make its home.

According to O'Finn, the distinctive 1940s red mahogany bar, the booths and bar stools that gave the place its saloon-like quality will continue as central fixtures. And of course, Freddy's' famous backroom will continue to let artists, musicians, and installationists show off their creative works

But the road to South Slope has been bumpy. First, after an unsuccessful fight against the wrecking ball of eminent domain, which lasted some seven years, O'Finn, Kuhn and Kimmett, had to clear out the over 70 year-old bar in just two weeks. On the bars website the trio affectionately refer to the Atlantic Yards project as the "Death Star."

 "I used to say I couldn't get my emotions out of that building in just two weeks," said O'Finn, let alone all the tchotchkes that made Freddy's, well, Freddy's. "The last thing I did was literally kissed that building … and then punched it."

Finding an affordable new space wasn't easy–and the venue they've settled on is still three or four times as expensive as their old location, according to Kuhn and O'Finn. The trio inspected at least 15 locales and got serious about half of them, according to Kuhn, but they all fell through for one reason or another–costs were too high, the spaces were too bare-bones for their budget (which Kuhn likes to joke is 39 cents), the steps weren't high enough to be approved for a liquor license.

They liked South Slope for being more affordable and less developed than its northern Park Slope neighbor, yet built-up enough so that they wouldn't have to start from scratch with wiring, plumbing, heating. Also, they liked its diversity. "It's a mixed neighborhood. There's and ethnic quotient, but also people who have been here for generations," said O'Finn. "There are doctors, lawyers, artists, blue-collar workers."

Kuhn predicts that many Freddy's regulars will follow they're move, at least initially, to the Slope. But then it'll be time to shake new hands and make new friends.

 "We can lay down some roots here and be a go-to spot in the neighborhood; there aren't that many bars," Kuhn said. "We'll make this block a destination block."

Much of Freddy's essence they attribute to the flurry of followers who are helping them out. "There are so many fine folks who have stepped up," said Kuhn.

"Whether builders or artists, whether we give them half bar tab and half money, we're working it out. As Donald always says, 'now the inmates run the asylum.'" And what he means, of course, is that it's a win-win to have people who know the place create the place.

"Freddy's just bled soul. When Ratner and boys threw us out, we moved everything, every yellow paper taped behind the bar," Kuhn said with a hint of disbelief.

Still, for the bar, life goes on. "We're doing a good job so far of capturing the essence of what Freddy's was."