Dive Bar Jukebox with Ally Marrone and Patty Dennison
"Sounded sad upon the radio, moved a million hearts in mono."
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Welcome back to Dive Bar Jukebox, where every Friday bartenders, writers, chefs, musicians, and a host of dynamic people answer the question: If we were hanging out together at a bar and I put ten credits on the jukebox, what songs would you punch in and why? The answers reveal thoughts on their favorite dive bars along with a hand-picked, annotated 10-song playlist for your weekend listening pleasure.
Please welcome today’s special guests…
Ally Marrone and Patty Dennison
If you stop by Grand Army in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, you’ll likely see Beverage Director Ally Marrone and Head Bartender Patty Dennison stirring and shaking up cocktails at the busy bar. But it’s when the stars (and their schedules) align and the two best friends and colleagues are both behind the bar together that their Wonder Twin powers activate and the “pop pop” (to use an Ally-ism) vibe of the room comes to life with a palpable, positive energy.
You may remember Ally and Patty from our LAST CALL exclusive preview of Grand Army’s “Game Shows” menu. The “Game Shows” menu will remain active through the end of April with a new concept launching in May, but the Grand Army team has been busy working on a modified menu update that will drop on Tuesday, March 7, featuring a “Classics” section with all of Grand Army’s greatest hits.
Ally Marrone is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America where she earned a degree in Advanced Wine, Beverage and Hospitality and began her bar career in 2016 at the world-renowned New York bar, The Dead Rabbit, where she worked her way up from barback to a Senior Bartender at their (now closed) sister bar, Blacktail. In October 2020 she joined the team at Grand Army where she leans into her creative side helping lead the bar’s menu development efforts and practices the Ted Lasso via Walt Whitman motto of: “Be curious, not judgmental.”
Patty Dennison hails from Stone Mountain, just outside of Atlanta, Georgia, and also attend the Culinary Institute of America, where she earned an Associate’s degree before transferring to Cornell University where she got her Bachelor’s degree in Hotel Administration. She followed up with a sommelier certification before she joined the team at Blacktail in 2019, working there until the bar closed in 2020. Patty kept busy during the pandemic tending bar at Aita in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill neighborhood before joining the opening bar team at Hawksmoor in Manhattan in September 2021. Last summer Patty joined Grand Army as Head Bartender alongside her best friend Ally and is now, per Patty, “constantly up to shenanigans and finding any excuse to stand on the bar top.”
Ally and Patty are two of my favorite Brooklyn bartenders and they’ve been on my DBJ wish list since I launched LAST CALL. The talented duo deliver big time with not one, but two playlists (including the inevitable DBJ debut of “Kokomo”) that you will want to keep in heavy rotation all weekend long. Read on for their Dive Bar Q&A, featuring a loving tribute to Montero Bar & Grill (where I’ve witnessed them both belting out their favorite karaoke numbers), an off-screen pistol-whipping, and after-hours bowling antics.
Talking Dives with Ally Marrone and Patty Dennison
