There’s a version of happy hour that’s just cheap drinks in a room that wants you gone by seven. Then there’s the Crown Heights version, which is closer to a daily neighborhood meeting with a rum punch in hand. This is a guide to the second kind.
At The C List on Franklin Avenue, happy hour is every single day. Monday through Thursday it runs all night. Friday it’s 3 to 8, Saturday 4 to 8, Sunday 5 to 10. No reservations, no cover, no wristband. You walk in, you find a stool, you’re on the list.
When to show up, honestly.
Four o’clock is for people who work from home and know something. The room is quiet, the bartender has time to talk, and you can get the good seat at the end of the bar with a view of the door. This is the best hour of the day if you like a drink with a conversation.
Six is when the neighborhood comes off the train. The 2, 3, 4, and 5 all stop at Franklin Ave, so by seven the bar is a cross-section of the block: nurses off shift, two people on a first date who both said “somewhere casual,” a table of coworkers who came for one and are still here. This is the hour if you want to feel the room.
On a weeknight there’s no last call for happy hour. That’s the whole trick of Monday through Thursday: the price you walked in on is the price you leave on.
Every weeknight has a thing.
Monday is football on the big screen, the house menu all night, and a hot dog with a house beer for twelve dollars. Tuesday is Caribbean-inspired tacos and four-dollar house tequila shots. Wednesday is Wingin’ It, the wings special. Thursday is twelve-dollar house martinis, gin or vodka, clean or dirty, and the Midnite Smoke pop-up in the kitchen.
Pick your night by what you want to eat. The drinks are happy hour price regardless.
What to order first.
The Beach Please Rum Punch. Spiced rum, coconut rum, triple sec, house tropical punch. Nine dollars all day, every day, happy hour or not. If you only get one thing, this is it.
Kenny’s Hibiscus Mule. Gin, hibiscus syrup, lime, ginger beer. Also nine, also always. The regulars’ second drink.
A house beer. The C List Lager and The C List IPA are brewed for the bar by Wild East Brewery in Brooklyn and they’re six dollars whenever you walk in. Narragansett and Michelob Ultra too.
Something frozen. The So Frosé or a frozen margarita in mango, watermelon, pineapple, or passion fruit, twelve at happy hour.
Go see a show in Manhattan and get a $25 espresso martini. Come back to the C List and get a better one for $12.
Laura, Google review
How to turn one drink into a night.
The reason people stay isn’t the price. It’s what the room does after.
On Saturdays, happy hour runs 4 to 8 and then the mic comes out: Superstar Karaoke, eight to midnight, where the crowd that was quietly having a drink at six is loudly having a moment at ten. On Sundays it’s game night with Tia, six-dollar mimosas all day, and happy hour five to ten. On Mondays the game is on and nobody leaves at halftime.
The trick is to come for happy hour with no plan. Something’s always on. The full lineup is on the What’s On page, and the day-of stuff lives on Instagram.
A few things regulars know.
You don’t need a reservation. You can’t make one. Walk-ins only, always. If you’re bringing eight or more, send a message ahead and the bar will hold space when it can.
Thursday is the sleeper. All-night happy hour, twelve-dollar martinis, and a smoke pop-up in the kitchen. It’s the weeknight that feels like a weekend.
The house beer is the move. Two beers brewed for this bar, six dollars, never not available. Ask which one the bartender’s drinking.
The bar seats are the good seats. It’s a proper bar with a long counter and real stools, which is where the conversation is. Tables are for when you’ve already made your friends.
Where it is, and how to get there.
The C List is at 835 Franklin Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11225, in Crown Heights, a short walk from the Franklin Ave station on the 2, 3, 4, and 5, or the S shuttle to Botanic Garden. Hours are 4 PM to midnight Monday through Thursday, 3 PM to 1 AM Friday and Saturday, and 3 PM to 10 PM Sunday.
Happy hour is every single day. Four nights a week it never ends. That’s the whole point. Come thru.