Travel Bar Celebrates 5 Years On Court Street In Carroll Gardens

Get ready for Travel Bar's five year anniversary at 520 Court Street in Carroll Gardens.
It seems like yesterday when this friendly neighborhood bar opened its doors?

These days, five years is quite a milestone here in Carroll Gardens and proof that the bar has found its rightful place in the neighborhood. During those five years, Travel Bar has expanded its offering to over 450 whiskies!

To commemorate the anniversary, owners Mike Vacheresse and Joe Sweigart are throwing a party on Thursday, December 19 from 5pm to midnight and are inviting everyone to come celebrate with them. There will be prizes during the party as well as cocktail specials.

The specials will be in place all week-end from Friday 12/20 toSunday 12/22 or until they are gone!

So stop on by to lend your support to one of Carroll Gardens' favorite bars.

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Travel Bar On Court Street Hosting Its 3rd Anniversary Celebration This Saturday

Has it really already been three years since Travel Bar at 520 Court Street opened its doors?
These days, that is quite a milestone here in Carroll Gardens and proof that the bar has found its rightful place in the neighborhood.

To commemorate the anniversary, owners Mike Vacheresse and Joe Sweigart are inviting to an anniversary celebration this Saturday, January 27th.  Not only will prizes be given away every hour, but the bar will have an anniversary menu, which includes specials like $5 pints of Veltins Pilsener, special cocktails like the "Anniversary Manhattan", the "Big Punch" and "The National Steel", as well as $30 bottles of Godello Papa from Spain and The Crunch from California.

In addition, flights of Buffalo Trace Mashbill #2 Single Barrel Whiskies with Elmertlee, Blantons and Rockhillfarms will be $18. And of course, there will be plenty of $5 whiskey shots to choose from.

The bar will be open from noon to 2am.

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Sean Josephs, former Owner Of Char No.4, At Travel Bar For Tasting Of His Pinhook Bourbon And Rye

Tonight, get on over to Travel Bar at 520 Court Street, is hosting a special tasting. In addition to the more than two hundred Whiskies offered at this wonderful local place, the bar has just added Pinhook, Bourbon and Rye.

Pinhook is the new venture of Sean Josephs, who many in the neighborhood will remember as the former owner of the very popular Char No. 4, which closed in 2015 and is still very much missed in Brooklyn. Jospehs will be at Travel Bar from 8-9pm for a tasting of his Whiskies and Travel Bar will offer $8 Pinhook cocktails from 8pm-Midnight.

Perhaps we can't get Char back, but having Josephs present his Bourbon and Rye in "neighborhood whiskey loving establishment", is definitely second best.

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Check Out Travel Bar's New Thursday Night "Date or No Date Special'

The new Thursday night "Date or No Date Night Special"

(photo courtesy of Travel Bar)

Travel Bar's Spring Blossom cocktail 

(photo courtesy of Travel Bar)

If you have not yet checked out Travel Bar, which opened six months ago at 520 Court Street between Nelson and Huntington Streets, here is a perfect excuse to rectify the oversight.  Just recently, owners Mike Vacheresse and Joe Sweigart neighborhood have introduced a new Thursday Night "Date or No Date" Special. It consists of a bottle of wine and a 3-piece cheese plate, all for $40.

Travel Bar has also just introduced their new summer drink menu, which includes such signature cocktails as the Grapefruit Milano, Plum Tom Collins and the Coast to Coast.  My favorite is the Spring Blossom, pictured above. It's a supple blend of Broker's Gin, Aperol, Pineapple Juice, with a touch of housemade Lavender Water. It's divine.

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'Travel Bar' Opens On Court Street

Michael Vacheresse of Travel Bar

In  the past few years,  the Southern end of Court Street has become home to some of Carroll Gardens' best restaurant and boutiques.  Now joining them is Travel Bar, a new drinking and eating spot at 520 Court between Nelson and Huntington Streets, which is bound to become a local favorite.

It opened its doors this past Saturday.

Michael Vacheresse, Travel Bar's owner and head bartender, has created a casual yet elegant space in which to serve his hand selected beers, wines and spirit. He brings more than two decades of fine dining and bartending experience into this new venture, having worked at Bar Masa and Gotham Bar and Grill, to name just a few.

The name of the bar stems from Vacheresse's collection of vintage traveling cases containing bar utensils and gadgets for making mixed drinks on the go.  The name is even more appropriate since the walls  of the bar are adorned with photos taken during Vacheresse's extensive travels through Asia and Europe.

Travel Bar's drink menu include some of Vacheresse's signature cocktails,  including the bar's namesake martini, made of Greenhook Gin and Pamplemousse Rose Liqueur.  The selection also includes carefully chosen dessert wines, amaros and armagnacs.

Travel Bar will soon offer a simple food menu. In addition to à la carte charcuterie and cheese platters, Chef Andrei Volik is currently working on a menu that will feature a pulled pork sandwich on a Caputo sesame seed brioche bun, Farfalel with a truffle  mushroom cream sauce, freshly made french onion  soup, choice of five roasted vegetables as well as a kale citrus salad, and an arugula salad with beats and fennel.  A 'pie of the day' will be offered for desert.

The goal is to start with the best ingredients.  "We are a bar first,  we are not a restaurant," Vacheresse  explains,"but if you are having a cocktail or a glass of wine, and you want some food, you are going to have the best food."

It seems clear when talking to Vacheresse that he is passionate about what he does. "What fine dining is for me is service. When you walk through the door, if you order a glass of wine from me, I am going to give you a taste first to make sure that you like it," he told me during our interview.  

It's that kind of heartfelt service that will make Travel Bar a success here in Carroll Gardens.  If you have not been yet, you definitely want to stop by soon. Chef Volik intends to offer a late night menu  and in the spring, a brunch menu, so there will be even more reasons to check Travel Bar out.

Travel Bar

520 Court Street

Brooklyn, New York 11231 

Open Sunday 3pm to 1 am

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 5pm to 1 am

Thursday to Friday 5pm to 2 pm

Saturday 3pm to 2 am.

You can follow Travel Bar on Facebook here and on Twitter here.

***UPDATE January 2015***

Below please find Travel Bar's new food menu.

Menu

Shakshuka - stewed tomatoes , eggplant, Israeli spices and oven-baked eggs  12
Vegetarian French onion soup       7

Sandwiches
Grilled Cheese with chips  10
Pâté de Campagne with black pepper and pickled red onions on peasant bread  8

Flatbreads
Trio of mushrooms with fontina cheese, herbs and truffle oil  12
Fire roasted peppers with feta cheese  10
Bacon, carmelized onions and spinach  10

Meat & Cheese Plate
Choose any three items for 17, five items for 28 or eight items for 45

Cheese
Salvatore Smokey Ricotta, pasteurized cows’ milk, Red Hook
Duda Gouda, pasteurized sheeps’ milk, Wisconsin
Shelburne Cheddar, aged 2 years, raw cows’ milk, Vermont
Bohemian Blue, pasteurized sheeps’ milk, Wisconsin
Brillat Savarin, triple crème pasteurized cows’ milk, France
Oma, raw cows’ milk, Vermont
Grayson, raw cows’ milk, Virginia

Meat
Olli Toscano fennel pollen salame, Virginia
Daniele dry cured sausage, Rhode Island
La Quercia borsellino smokey salami with caraway, Iowa
La Quercia nduja spicy prosciutto spread, Iowa

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