A brand new bar in Williamsburg is creating an artful, immersive experience for foodies, artists and everyone in between, from morning ‘til night.
The Mouth, located at 20 Marcy Ave., is a new restaurant and bar that is bringing together great food and stellar entertainment. Co-owner and beverage director Isaac Bush says that the space is framed around togetherness and a Mediterranean-inspired menu.
“I’ve loved Williamsburg for the 15 years that I’ve been in the city personally, and have just seen so much radical change happen in the area,” said Bush. “Williamsburg and Brooklyn, in general, has always felt like the creative frontier of the city for me and our answer to that is a menu that’s meant to delight and entertain.”
One thing that immediately stands out about The Mouth is that it’s open all day. While a typical bar would open in the afternoon or evening, The Mouth opens its doors every day (except Mondays, when The Mouth is closed) at 9 a.m., offering Partners Coffee options from organic drip coffee, specialty lattés, to cappuccinos, matcha or French press.
As the day and night go on, the menus rotate into happy hour, dinner and bar offerings. The dinner menu, created by Naama and Assaf Tamir of Lighthouse Restaurant, features a variety of shareables, like the assortment of dips, roasted kohlrabi, and ceviche nachos, and entrees like steak frites, sabich and mushroom pasta.
“We open at nine o’clock in the morning and stay open through 10 or to 2 a.m. on the weekends just because we want people to melt into this space and kind of call it their own,” said Bush. “We have five menus that patrons can expect the first is our coffee bar menu from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. This is a sort of all-day cafe-style menu, sort of akin to a lot of, European-inspired all-day cafes where patrons can enjoy. Then from 3 to 6 p.m., we run our happy hour and our full menu is available. It’s a really nice opportunity to kind of transition into the evening, when from 5 p.m. to roughly 10 p.m. we have our full dinner service.”
The bar has a selection of natural wines, creative cocktails and beer and cider. As the Beverage Director, Bush was very particular in choosing what the bar serves.
“Generally, I would say, we’re in a social climate right now where we have to be very specific about who we give our dollar to. Our natural wine program — that I’m very proud of — specifically sources from female, POC, and LGBT producers because the spectrum is out there and we have the ability to choose who we want to support,” said Bush. “There’s just a, a lot of intention for everything on our beverage menu. We’re really excited to feature a lot of industry moments and new things that are coming out, things that are actually of good quality and not just a quick flash in the pan.”
Bush says the name “The Mouth” came from the connection between the space and Brooklyn Art Haus, which allows the space to not be so serious all the time.
“We just need to be more silly about stuff like this just generally. Brooklyn Art Haus, of which we’re associated, has a mouth on its logo and the mouth for us is eating, drinking and dialogue, and togetherness,” said Bush. “We wanna be this space again where people can get out of their boxes and out of their lanes and meet each other and talk and be silly together. And The Mouth is just sort of, with all the space we occupy here, kind of emblematic of that.”
The Mouth shares a physical location with Brooklyn Art Haus and, as expected, gives guests the opportunity to fully dive into the arts scene that Williamsburg has to offer. There is a rotating gallery in the space that will highlight different artists, host live performances and even offer opportunities to check out bigger, bolder performances in the Brooklyn Art Haus space next door.
“We’re bringing a different kind of a space just in general. One, it’s an entertainment space. Williamsburg 15 years ago was full of great music venues that are no longer here. This space is doing about seven to as many as 15 performances each week, and it co-mingles again with a really action-packed menu that just has a lot to offer,” said Bush. “I think that we have a strong desire to return to some of that. We’re a small business. We’re not part of a huge restaurant group that has a ton of properties and does a lot of price gouging in every single direction. Unfortunately, it seems to be unique in and of itself in starting a new business around here. But I would definitely say a return to togetherness through art and promoting just a lot of authenticity here and avoiding a lot of that pretension that keeps popping up.”
The Mouth celebrated its grand opening on April 6. The space hosted six shows throughout the day, as well as two shows at Brooklyn Art Haus, and a DJ spinning all night.
“We’re just excited again to have the ability for people to reserve tables for eating and drinking, but then also there’s a lot of space for people to just show up and have just a great time with all the things that we’re offering,” said Bush.
For more information about The Mouth, visit themouthbk.com.
