Smith Street bar shutters aft er more than 20 years
BY ROSE ADAMS
Storied Cobble Hill bar Angry
Wade’s permanently closed
its doors on Oct. 31 after more
than two decades of service
because of COVID-19 woes, its
owner told Brooklyn Paper.
“I had a very high lease,
and I’m kind of hedging on the
sour side of this winter,” Wade
Hagenbart said, adding that
the winter would have likely
slowed business down even
more. “I don’t think it’s going
to get better, I think it’s going
to get worse.”
Hagenbart said that he’s
fought to keep the corner bar
on Butler and Smith streets
alive since the start of the
COVID-19 pandemic in March.
The company received a federal
loan from the Payment
Protection Program, began
serving takeout, and bended to
the city and state’s ever-changing
rules for outdoor dining
— but the changes weren’t
COURIER L 22 IFE, NOV. 6-12, 2020
enough to keep the bar profi table,
he said.
“We were just breaking
even, and we had a small payroll.
It’s one of those things of
just breaking even, just getting
by,” said Hagenbart. “The
landlord’s been really good;
I’ve known him now for 20
years or so. I told him, ‘I can’t
pay you rent, and you want
rent, so I’m going to give you
the keys back.”
The state’s strict COVID-19
regulations — which mandate
that bars serve food and seat
customers, among other rules
— also cost the bar a fortune,
Hagenbart said. Angry Wade’s
was written up for three separate
infractions, including one
that requires the watering hole
to fork over $1,500 because two
people were standing, rather
than sitting, beside one of the
outdoor tables.
“If I had any profi t, it’s going
to the state,” Hagenbart said,
laughing. “The state needs
money too, you know.”
The bar also had to shell
out $1,000 after the city’s Department
of Transportation
changed its rules for outdoor
seating, he said.
“It cost another thousand
in lumber to make what they
want,” he said.
Angry Wade’s closure
comes 21 years after Hagenbart
and his now ex-wife, Melissa
Murphy, opened the bar
in 1999. The couple, who had
just opened a bakery called
Sweet Melissa one block down,
named the bar Angry Wade’s
to play off the name Sweet Melissa,
which Hagenbart said
was not his idea.
Sweet Melissa closed its
Cobble Hill location in 2012,
but Hagenbart went on to open
a few other Brooklyn eateries,
including a taco restaurant
called Gueros and a Park Slope
bar called Dram Shop.
Angry Wade’s in Cobble Hill has closed for good. Photo by Ben Verde
Hagenbart closed Gueros’
Park Slope location on Fourth
Avenue earlier this year because
of the COVID-19 pandemic,
but its Crown Heights
outpost is going strong.
“We have one location in
Crown Heights that’s staying
open and doing great,” he said.
“We’re looking to expand that,
so we’re looking for spaces
now.”
Hagenbart added that he
would consider re-opening
Angry Wade’s if the landlord
of Smith Street building
couldn’t fi nd another tenant
and lowered the rent after the
COVID-19 crisis — although
maybe under a different name.
“I had the idea AW Tavern,”
he said.
Regardless of whether the
bar can reopen, he thanked
his customers and the Cobble
Hill community for 21 years of
memories.
“It’s been a great time. It’s
like family,” he said. “It’s really
a special place.”
BY BEN VERDE
Brooklyn’s book lender
is helping the city get up to
speed!
The Brooklyn Public Library
announced Friday that
it will expand WiFi offerings
at 14 locations across the borough,
as city offi cials seek to
increase access to high speed
internet in low income communities.
Approximately 29 percent
of all New York City households
lack broadband internet
access, and two thirds of those
households lack a cellular
data plan, according to a 2019
report from the Comptroller’s
Offi ce. The ongoing coronavirus
pandemic has brought the
divide to the forefront, with
countless New Yorkers sitting
outside libraries on laptops
while the branch buildings remain
closed.
“During the fi rst four
months of the pandemic,
nearly 185,000 patrons came to
the stoops of closed branches
to go online,” said Linda Johnson,
president and CEO of
Brooklyn Public Library.
The WiFi expansion,
dubbed Bklyn Reach, will extend
free outdoor wireless signals
300 feet in every direction
outside of select branches, according
to Johnson, and allow
access to thousands more New
Yorkers.
“That means more of our
neighbors can attend school,
apply for new jobs, order prescription
medication, check
out books, and more,” she
said.
The lack of internet service
primarily affects low-income
neighborhoods, the comptroller’s
report found. Children
in homeless shelters have also
been largely left out of virtual
learning due to a lack of internet
service in many shelters,
according to the Daily News,
which fi rst reported that the
city plans to install WiFi in all
family homeless shelters next
summer, after the end of the
current school year.
The largest of the city’s
tech-gaps is in Brooklyn,
where 30 percent of borough
residents and 40 percent of
low income households do not
have access to broadband.
The Bklyn Reach initiative
at the library aims to connect
residents who live near libraries
with high speed internet,
and to allow for more websurfers
to gather outside the
library if need-be.
“Access to the internet is
a basic human right and an
absolute necessity during the
COVID-19 crisis, especially
as some neighborhoods in
Brooklyn are now going back
on short-term lock down due
to a surge in infection rates,”
said Wes Moore, CEO of Robin
Hood Foundation, a supporter
of the new library program.
“No one should have to crowd
outside of a public library
building in hopes of accessing
WiFi to complete school
assignments, make medical
appointments, or search for a
job.”
New antennas will be installed
at the branches over
the next couple of weeks to extend
service.
The branches due to receive
the upgrade are:
Arlington
Bedford
Borough Park
Brighton Beach
Cypress Hills
Jamaica Bay
Kings Bay
Macon
Midwood
New Lots
Saratoga
Walt Whitman
Washington Irving
Flatbush
Two branches — Red Hook
and Flatbush — will also receive
“Street Seats” from the
city’s Department of Transportation,
which will allow
people to comfortably gather
with their laptops in an open
air setting.
Look back in Angry
Brooklyn Public Library expands
its wireless internet off erings
BROOKLYN
Hooking you up!
A Brooklyn Public Library branch. 14 locations will be increasing access
to broadband internet. Photo by Kevin Duggan