For all you nature lovers who are afraid of actual nature, Bushwick has a bar for you!
Montana’s Trail House, a “woodsy bungalow” bar and restaurant that’s “inspired by the footpaths of the Applachian Trail” according to a press release, opened last year and is just waiting to serve you cocktails and American comfort food like crispy pig ears. Just the kind of fare you’d enjoy in the woods.
Hit up Montana’s for the new Papa Midnite cocktail, with Owney’s rum, Orlean’s herbal ice cider, lime juice and house-made sage honey and enjoy it inside a former auto repair shop that “resembles the rustic hiker shelters” found along the Appalachian Trail.
You have to give it to co-owner Montana Masback – he’s trying for authenticity. He bought a Kentucky barn and brought the timber to Bushwick. Any old wood just wouldn’t do.
But The New York Observer is not having it. From their review:
“Parceling off generic objections to the ridiculous fantasia Bushwick has become, there is a deeply toxic relationship with history and with America embodied at Montana’s Trail House. One need not be from Appalachia to object to the fetishization of that impoverished region for the blithe consumption of faux Brooklyn frontiersmen and women.”
Yikes.
Former head chef at Fort Greene’s ICI Nate Courtland is sourcing locally, not from Appalachia, so don’t worry. You won’t be eating like Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone.” (OK, that’s the Ozarks, whatever.) Instead, try crispy soft shell crabs, marinated local squid or grass-fed beef carpaccio.
Montana’s isn’t the only Bushwick spot looking to transport rugged, urban-dwellers to the country, or at least back in time, via knick-knacks, reclaimed wood, taxidermy, tchotchkes, etc. Here are some other spots to check out:
duckduck, 153 Montrose Ave.
Heavy Woods, 50 Wyckoff Ave.
Three Diamond Bar, 211 Knickerbocker Ave.
Pearl’s Social & Billy Club, 40 St. Nicholas Ave.
