Ask For Janice
Bar · Greenpoint
640 Manhattan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Highlights
Inventive cocktails, great music, and Italian-American food.
Inventive cocktails, great music, and Italian-American food.
"The vast majority of the city’s speakeasies feel silly, or like a normal bar that hired a new PR firm. But not this Greenpoint listening bar from the team behind Eavesdrop, another place where people use the word "audiophile" in casual conversation. Walk through what looks like Upside Pizza's kitchen door and into a room with perfectly tuned speakers, a mountain of cassettes behind the bar, and olive-oil washed gin martinis. It’s tight back here, but you can boogie in your seat—especially if you reserve one of the three large booths. They have plenty of standing room for walk-ins, too. And, if you get hungry, grab a slice of pepperoni from outside." - sonal shah, bryan kim, neha talreja, willa moore, molly fitzpatrick
"NYC has lots of speakeasy-style bars, and lots of listening bars. It also has lots of pizza places. But we're pretty sure Ask for Janice in Greenpoint is the only bar hidden inside a pizza place, that also plays music off an outdated audio format. A collaboration between vinyl bar Eavesdrop and Upside Pizza, it’s accessed through a silver door at the back of the slice joint, and serves "pizza-adjacent" snacks, like meatballs and a chilled romaine salad. The dark, loungey spot has interesting cocktails—try the sopressata olive oil-washed martini ($16), and a retro cassette-player, cranking out everything from yacht rock to jazz rap on a glowing neon system. If you care deeply about sound quality, reserve one of the three large booths, which occupy the room’s sonic sweet spot. photo credit: Will Hartman" - Will Hartman
"The listening bar Eavesdrop, and Upside Pizza have joined forces for their very own Manhattan Ave. collab in the form of Ask For Janice in Greenpoint. The bar, located in the back room of Upside, spins ’90s hip hop, mixes soppressata martinis, and dishes out Italian-American food ready to be devoured by hoards of nostalgic Brooklynites." - Will Hartman, Willa Moore
"Tucked behind a glass wall in the back of Upside’s Greenpoint location, this cocktail bar serves inventive drinks like a “campfire martini” with toasted marshmallows and small bites such as meatballs, calzones, and stracciatella with sourdough — there’s no pizza here despite being inside an Upside location." - Emma Orlow
"Located behind a glass wall in the back of Upside’s Greenpoint spot at 640 Manhattan Avenue near Bedford Avenue, I found Ask for Janice to be a listening room and cocktail bar that opens at 5 p.m. and serves cocktails—like a “campfire martini” with toasted marshmallow—until 1 a.m., Tuesday through Saturday; cocktails with booze range from $14 to $16 each. The food menu features meatballs, calzones, and stracciatella with sourdough, and notably there is no pizza." - Luke Fortney
