Our Wicked Lady is quickly making a name for itself thanks to a rotating line up of awesome DJs, knowledgeable bartenders, and a newly opened massive rooftop (perhaps the holy trinity of bars? I digress…).
Since reporting the bar’s Mac DeMarco-infused opening days back in July, we’ve continued to dig their creative line-up of events, including newly added Monday movie nights on the rooftop.
Tonight’s film is the Coen brothers’ classic Raising Arizona. Movie night begins at 8 PM and is FREE! Bushwick Daily hint: happy hour runs till 8 PM, so come catch your buzz early then settle in to enjoy the film.
In addition, they’re now hosting a rotating series of local food vendor pop-ups. Tonight’s yums are tacos from Sky Fortress Cantina. For future vendors keep an eye on the bar’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, kept super current with all of OWL’s goings-on… of which there are a lot!
We also had the chance to speak with two of the three founders (and bartenders) Keith Hamilton and Zach Glass. What ensued was an insightful conversation about our neighborhood, what it really takes to open a bar, and how the internet affects artists. Many spaces in our beloved Brooklyn preach the “it’s local” gospel, and Our Wicked Lady lives up to its creed. Read on below!
BD: Did you see a vacuum in the neighborhood for this type of thing?
The beginning of it was we wanted a bar. So we said what’s the angle, what can we do different, because there are so many bars. We asked – how can we achieve this goal? We’re the dudes who should have the bar, but we’re not the dudes who usually have it. We’re not stockbrokers or lawyers or dudes with millions of dollars. We had to come up with a way to get it. We’re all involved with music we’re all involved with the arts so the idea of pairing it with a business model that we know works made sense. I play in a band and we were always renting a rehearsal space. There’s never enough rehearsal spaces they’re all shitty so we thought why don’t we do that.
BD: How many music and art spaces does Our Wicked Lady house?
9 music spaces, and upstairs there are 4 artist studios.
BD: It’s dope you were able to couple that with opening this bar. I didn’t realize the space was this massive.
What’s interesting is it’s big, but in the rehearsal space game it’s small, which allowed us to curate it and have a community. We wanted to make a situation where it’s actually like a community within the space, or that people might meet each other at the bar and form artistic relationships there.
BD: Do you think that’s something that’s missing in our area of Brooklyn?
This specifically, no. But what it could garner is missing, which is that it’s very hard for scenes to be fostered and developed anywhere these days, because the second there’s something cool the money comes in and it’s kind of over.
BD: And the second something starts developing- the blessing and curse that is the internet comes in and makes it too self aware and draws too much attention to it.
Exactly that… and the money. We’re hoping we can create something that’s self sufficient. That maybe, not guaranteed, but maybe it can foster something organically. We don’t want to push it too hard, don’t want it to be some weird commune, but a place where, “oh you’re in a band? Do you need a video? We’re videographers.” It should happen naturally.
Our Wicked Lady, 153 Morgan Ave, East Williamsburg. RSVP to tonight’s Movie Night on Facebook. It starts at 8PM, free admission.