"Come On Down!" to the New Game Shows Menu at Grand Army
"Everyone's a winner, baby, that's the truth."
This LAST CALL dispatch is free to all subscribers and readers. If you like what you’re experiencing here, please consider supporting my efforts by upgrading to a Paid Subscription for full access to archives, the ability to comment on all posts, and weekly exclusives like Dive Bar Jukebox.
This week’s newsletter is a bit longer than usual and may be cut off in your email server. If that’s the case, be sure to click “View Entire Message” to see the whole shebang.
Grand Army: Variations on a Theme
Grand Army, in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill, is one of my favorite type of bars. A casual neighborhood hangout with a great vibe that also happens to have a serious cocktail pedigree. The kind of place where you’re equally at home with a modern classic like a Black Manhattan or the house boilermaker (a can of Narragansett Light and a Hard Start).
Since opening in 2015, Grand Army has developed a reputation for their quirky seasonal cocktail menus, and over the years they’ve turned out more inspired themes than a high-school prom-planning committee (in fact, High-School Prom was Grand Army’s featured theme for the Summer of 2016). The themes are a team effort and serve as the inspiration for the cocktail list and the names of the drinks built around it. But since the Spring/Summer 2021 Nicolas Cage activation, the menus themselves have increasingly become works of art and the featured theme has started to inspire additional merch, such as T-shirts and sweatshirts. The Grand Army team scours Etsy and eBay for deep-cut collateral (like the small Spice Girls-branded trays used as check presenters) to incorporate into service and decorate the bar. And Director of Operations Dan Merer sets a high bar transforming the sole unisex bathroom into an immersive VIP room experience (he hints that the popular disco lights from the recent Spice Girls takeover will likely remain in place).
I wondered if all of these theme menus had been collected and archived and it took a little back and forth with the team at Grand Army, but here is a look back at the full lineup of themes that have been featured.