Sunken Harbor Club

"Decorated like a submarine, this windowless bar is best on cozy nights. Located a couple of flights above the historic restaurant Gage & Tollner, it functions as spillover seating for those waiting for a reservation, as well as only of the spots for a night cap in Downtown Brooklyn. Its owner St. John Frizell, previously ran one of our other favorite cocktail bars, Fort Defiance (now gone)." - Eater Staff

"Tucked into the second floor of a landmark Brooklyn building, above the swish Gage & Tollner dining room, this nautically themed bar feels simultaneously transportive and deeply grounded in New York cocktail culture. Stylish Brooklynites and quite a few who made the trek over from Manhattan fill the nooks and crannies of the dimly-lit space. Some are longtime friends and fans of co-owner St. John Frizell, who introduced the bar concept as a pop up at his now-shuttered Fort Defiance, a Red Hook cocktail institution. Sip the shiso-infused Special Daiquiri, an impressive array of tropical non-alcoholic concoctions, or find a friend to share the large-format Shattered Skull, a two-person affair made with Barbadian and Jamaican rums. There's also a short but smart selection of wine and beer." - Emily Saladino, Devra Ferst

"The recently revamped Gage & Tollner in Downtown Brooklyn is opening a bar on the second floor of their space this Saturday, November 13th called Sunken Harbor Club. If you hung out in Red Hook around the 2010s, you might recall the tiki project that ran pop-ups at Fort Defiance. Now they’ll have a permanent home to serve rum drinks and snacks to people waiting for tables at Gage & Tollner (or skipping Gage & Tollner and just having a date here)." - hannah albertine

"Sunken Harbor Club sits a staircase above the latest iteration of Gage and Tollner, a Downtown Brooklyn restaurant that originally opened in 1892. That restaurant remains an official New York City landmark and still very much looks like somewhere you'd eat steak with a 19th-century industrialist—but sister establishment Sunken Harbor is, for some reason, a tiki bar. Don't question it. The pirate ship theme doesn't really mesh with what's going on downstairs, but it sure feels nice drinking a single-malt old fashioned in a dark, wood-paneled room with ropes and buoys hanging from the ceiling. The cocktail program is very serious (in that the drinks are plentiful and well-engineered) and also not so serious (in that the beverage names lean heavily into the pirate theme). Try this place for a casual $20 drink the next time you want to hide somewhere dim and try a cocktail with housemade banana liqueur. Despite the name, this place isn't exclusive—although it is small and walk-in only. So come on the earlier side to guarantee yourself a seat." - Bryan Kim

"Sunken Harbor Club sits a staircase above the latest iteration of Gage and Tollner, and while its pirate ship theme doesn't really mesh with what's going on downstairs, it sure feels nice drinking a single-malt old fashioned in a dark, wood-paneled room with ropes and buoys hanging from the ceiling. Try this place for casual $20 cocktails with housemade banana liquor and names that lean heavily into the pirate theme. " - neha talreja, carina finn koeppicus, kenny yang, bryan kim