Chatting With Some Regulars at Bar Brooklyn… in Sweden

Taking a break from writing the Meet the Regulars book (slated to be published by Skyhorse in May 2016), I was visiting a friend in Stockholm, Sweden. As soon as I learned about Bar Brooklyn, a restaurant and bar inspired by Williamsburg’s Brooklyn Brewery, I had to check it out.

The beer maker has an outpost in this part of Scandinavia, too. Turns out the Swedes of Stockholm are all about Brooklyn Lager, which seems to be everywhere, including Bar Brooklyn where you can also get great eats like a veggie burger called, naturally, the Greenpoint Avenue. Of course, I had to break my rule of “no work on vacation” by finding a couple of Stockholm regulars at Bar Brooklyn. I got them to do a quick interview and pose for a few amateur camera-phone pics.

Meet Caroline Kumlin, a 22 year-old makeup artist at a store in a mall “like Sephora,” she said. Sitting with her was 30 year-old Andreas Axelsson who told me — with a straight face — he’s a nuclear power plant inspector. When I expressed my disbelief, he told me he gets that all the time, but really he’s been working there for nine years.

Appropriately, he punctuated that claim by flashing a gold-toothed grin and taking a long swig on his bottle of Brooklyn Lager. (See! I told you they love Brooklyn Brewery out here.) Neither Caroline nor Andreas have ever been to Brooklyn, but they go to Bar Brooklyn, they say, for “the environment, the people, and the good service.”

We’ve been coming here for years. And we go a couple times a week. But not more than that!

It’s like a living room, very relaxed.

If this is what it’s like in Brooklyn,  then we’d never leave.

Visit Stockholm! It’s the best party city.

We’re good at drinking. We like to party hard.