News

Jackie’s Fifth Amendment, Brooklyn’s best dive bar, is closing

Jackie's Fifth Amendment
Goodbye forever. Photo by Dave Colon

All good thing things end. We don’t know who made that stupid rule, but so far there hasn’t ever been a good thing that lasts forever. The latest victim of this stupid rule is Park Slope’s Jackie’s Fifth Amendment, the dive bar that staunchly remained the same as it ever had as Park Slope was inundated with children and giant strollers and yoga. Jackie’s is closing in September and we couldn’t be more upset.

When we deemed Jackie’s the best dive bar in Brooklyn, we called it the platonic ideal of a dive bar and wondered if the location had been home to a bar of one sort or another since the beginning of recorded human history. A bartender there emailed The L to let them know that after September 14, there won’t be anyone else walking in to the bar and wondering that. It wasn’t landlord trouble or getting shoved out by pitchfork and torch-wielding neighbors though. Owner Harold Costello  just got to the point where he didn’t want to run a bar anymore.

And while it’s a bummer that Jackie’s is closing, the fact that the pharmacy next door is buying the space up at least will keep some lame-ass bar from opening up in the space and trying to trade on the name. In the meantime, you’ve got a month to get down there and enjoy a bucket of tiny beers and curse yet another good thing coming to an end.

Leave a Reply