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The essential guide to Brooklyn bars with wifi

NOTE: Please see our updated 2015 list of Brooklyn Bars with Wifi here!

You’ve been there before: unable to work at home, you pop in to the local coffee shop to soak up the wifi and get yourself focused with a cup of joe. The next thing you know, you’re on your third cup, you’ve got the shakes and somehow still aren’t done working. You’ve got to take the edge off somehow, but still don’t want to go home. What’s a girl to do? Fortunately for you, Brooklyn is home to bars that offer wifi AND open early enough to get you back in balance. Happy hour, here you come!

REBAR
147 Front St. (at Jay) DUMBO
Happy Hour: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Sure you could research your thesis paper and enjoy the free wifi floating around DUMBO when it’s all pretty and summery. What if it’s raining though? What if it’s (ugh) January? You pop in to reBar with that laptop of yours and start warming yourself up with two dollars chopped off the price of tap beer. Provided you aren’t easily distracted by loud music, that paper you’ve been dreading will be done by the middle of the afternoon. Just be sure to proofread it.

BLACK SWAN
1048 Bedford Ave. (at Lafayette) Bed-Stuy
Happy Hour: 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
This gastropub will help you turn your unfocused news bits into a rock solid inverted pyramid. Expound on the meaning of journalism to your bartender while sipping two-for-one well drinks and dollar-off drafts. Show up before it’s too busy and the bartender will be kind enough to plug in your laptop behind the bar. Stay away from the $3 shots though, they could be the death of you.

BROKLYN ICE HOUSE
318 Van Brunt St. (between Pioneer and King) Red Hook
Happy Hour: noon to 8 p.m.
Hide out from your deadlines in Brooklyn’s most difficult to reach neighborhood. This low-key dive will allow you to slay the deadline beast with the power of $2 PBRs, thanks to a dollar being chopped off every beer and (and cocktail). Not only that, but you can load up on brain food in the form of two pulled pork sandwiches for $5. Make sure your battery is powered up though, because they’re not big on outlets.

MISSION DOLORES
249 4th Ave. (between President and Carroll) Park Slope
Happy Hour: 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
You’ll have to hang around the coffee shop a little longer than you would as compared to some of the other bars on this list, but once you’re drinking the wide selection of draft beers at a dollar off their normal price, you’ll even yourself out in no time. You can sit at the bar in darkness if you have writer’s block, or enjoy the open ceiling in the front of the bar if you’re happy and productive. If drafting those PowerPoint slides proves too boring, you can always distract yourself with a game of pinball.

LUCKYDOG
303 Bedford Ave. (between S. 1st and S. 2nd) Williamsburg
Happy Hour: 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
You tell yourself that taking the dog for a walk will help you clear your head and let you get the ending to your prize-winning fiction just right. Why would you let Fido have all the fun though when you can bring him to Williamsburg’s dog-friendly drinkery? Tip back enough to justify your “it was all a dream” ending, it’ll be easy to with a dollar off all draft beers, $3 bottles of Lonestar, $3 well drinks, a $5 High Life and Evan Williams combo and $2 cans of PBR and Schaefer.

THE MARK BAR
1025 Manhattan Ave. (between Green and Freeman) Greenpoint
Happy Hour: 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The Mark Bar could win the prize for best bar on this list, even if you have to travel a little for it. Putting aside the $3 drafts and bottles for a moment, it’s also warm and it’s comfortable. Back to the best part though: there are $3 drafts and bottles. Unless you’re Hunter S. Thompson or Christopher Hitchens, I’d come here with work that doesn’t have a pressing deadline. If it does, and your policy paper ends up having a paragraph about how you haven’t had sex in six months, don’t come crying to me.

SOUTH 4TH BAR
90 S. 4th St. (at Berry) Williamsburg
Opens at 7 a.m. (!)
Happy Hour 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Maybe there are some days when you don’t want to have to leave the place you’re at to give yourself heart palpitations by suddenly changing from caffeine to alcohol. I understand. It’s effing cold out there, mang. Fortunately for you, cozy neighborhood joint South 4th Bar offers both a bartop AND tables to work from. Happy Hour starts at 4 and offers $1 off draft beers and $3 well drinks. It starts a bit late, but console yourself with $4 Yuengling drafts while you wait.

HONORABLE MENTION (BARS THAT OFFER WIFI BUT DON’T OPEN ESPECIALLY EARLY)

DUMBO
• Galapagos
, 16 Main St. (at Water)

Boerum Hill
• Pacific Standard
, 82 4th Avenue (between St Marks Place and Bergen Street)

Bushwick
• 280 Café & Lounge
,
280 Knickerbocker Ave. (between Willoughby and Suydam)
• Goodbye Blue Monday
, 1087 Broadway (between Lawton Street and Dodworth)
• Wreck Room, 940 Flushing Ave. ( between Central and Evergreen)

Cobble Hill
• The Brazen Head
, 228 Atlantic Ave. (between Court Street and Boerum Place)

Ditmas Park
• Sycamore
, 1118 Cortelyou Rd. (between Stratford and Westminster)

Gowanus
• Canal Bar
, 270 3rd Ave. (between President and Union)

Greenpoint
• Red Star
, 37 Greenpoint Ave. (between West and Franklin)
• Black Rabbit
, 91 Greenpoint Ave. (between Franklin and Manhattan)
• Boulevard Taven
, 579 Meeker Ave. (between North Henry and Monitor)
• t.b.d., 224 Franklin St. (between Green and Huron)

Park Slope
• High Dive, 243 5th Ave. (between Carroll Street and Garfield Place)
• Barbes, 376 9th St. (corner of 9th Street and 6th Avenue)

Prospect Heights
• Prospect Pond
, 769 Washington Ave. (between Sterling and St Johns Place)

Williamsburg
• The Gibson
, 108 Bedford Ave. (between North 11th and North 12th)
• d.b.a.
, 113 North 7th St. (between Wythe and Berry)
• Iona
, 180 Grand Street (between Bedford and Driggs)
• Brooklyn Ale House, 103 Berry St. (between North 7th and North 8th)
• Good Co., 10 Hope St. (between Roebling and Havemeyer)

Windsor Terrace
• Double Windsor, 210 Prospect Park West (between 15th Street and 16th)

David Colon :

View Comments (10)

  • Outpost Lounge on Fulton St [Clinton Hill/Bed Stuy] is also a coffee shop/bar - with wine and beer. AND Bedford Hill, the lovely location to your Brokelandia spoof, is getting beer and wine on Friday and offering extended hours on the weekend. Beer taps are officially in place. :)

  • Gotta go to Halyards on 3rd Ave and 6th St. in Gowanus.  Great bar, free wifi and good food.  'Work' there all the time.

  • Sheep Station in Park Slope is open at noon every day and has wifi.  Happy Hour is later though, but everyday from 4-7pm, even on weekends which is key.

  • Abilene (3rd and Court in Carroll Gardens) has free good wifi, daily happy hour, and a recently-revamped food menu. I hang out there when I lose my keys and nobody else is home to let me in.

  • Nero Doro, on Classon in Clinton Hill/Bed-Stuy! They are a coffee shop/wine bar. I don't know about happy hour, but they are open early! 

  • 739 Franklin for those of us on the Crown Heights side of Prospect Heights. They have big windows that open onto the street and a decent beer selection. It's usually pretty quiet too. Also Little Zeldas across the street serves espresso beverages and booze.

  • For early openning places with wifi, good food and great beer, you don't mention Bierkraft in Park Slope.