Brooklyn cocktail bar angers locals with fake bullet holes and wine served in paper bags

A new bar in Crown Heights has caused controversy with its style choices

Summerhill has divided opinion (Instagram/Summerhill BK)

Summerhill, a cocktail bar and sandwich shop in Brooklyn’s rapidly gentrifying Crown Heights neighbourhood, is already proving divisive, having only been open a month.

It launched in June on Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights, where an increasing number of trendy bars and restaurants over the last few years has brought affluent people flocking to the area, pushing up rents.

The neighbourhood's majority-black population decreased between 2000 and 2010, while the white population nearly doubled to 16 per cent. The 11216 zip code, which covers parts of Crown Heights, also had one of the biggest rises in the number of high-income renters in New York City between 2011 and 2015, according to a DNAInfo analysis.

Into this dynamic has come Summerhill, which ruffled feathers when it sent out a press release recently promoting the bar’s “bullet-hole ridden wall” plus “a rumoured backroom illegal gun shop”, reports Eater.com.

The “rumour” was an anonymous comment left on a community website post about the building, which said: “If I'm not mistaken this was the corner store where you could buy a 'certified pre-owned' firearm back in the day." The bar’s owner, Becca Brennan, told Gothamist she didn’t investigate the story any further – but thought it good enough to weave into Summerhill’s marketing.

"Just looking at the angle I don't know if that is possible that that's a bullet hole,” she told Gothamist.

The bar also has plans to serve wine in paper bags alongside $12 cocktails, leading to claims it is commodifying the area’s less affluent past while erasing its West Indian roots.

The response to the bar using “bullet holes” to promote itself has been largely negative on social media. Twitter user Justin tweeted: “The hipsters and rich are destroying Brooklyn. Send them back!” Indigo W, meanwhile, wrote: “So now we're gentrifying and turning it into an ‘instagrammable’ cartoonish attraction?? This is embarrassing.”

Scrolling Summerhill’s Instagram feed, it’s even clearer that not everyone is happy with the area’s continuing slide into gentrification, with angry comments adorning many of the bar’s perfectly filtered pictures.

Jenlafemmexx commented under a post about running a small business: “You are exactly the kind of white person that terrifies us. Move into our space, pretend to be an ally all while ridiculing us in the process with your subtle racism.”

However, in a profile of Brennan on Hello Living, she said she was keen to give back to the neighbourhood by hiring local residents and providing culinary training to those who may not otherwise have access to it.