The End of a Bartender's Bar
Jay Zimmerman Talks to The Mix About His Bar Basik's Beginnings and Last Days, and What Has Changed in the Bar World In Between.
Basik opened near the Graham Avenue “L” line subway stop in East Williamsburg in 2011. The fussy signage—with “[bā' sik]” spelled out of it would be in a dictionary—was actually the opposite of the bar’s vibe, with was humble and, yes, basic. It was an example of the more casual, laid-back interpretation of a craft cocktail bar that was beginning to be prevalent in New York at that time. Over the years, it never made headlines. It won no awards. It was rarely found on best-of lists. But, if you knew people in the bar industry, you heard them talk about it. You knew they went often. It was one of their locals. It was that trickiest of things to establish: a bartender’s bar.
Basik’s cocktail list was five drinks long. There were a few beers, some wine, a bit of food. The back bar was well-stocked but not comprehensive. The bar gave people just enough of what they needed. Which turned out to be what they wanted as well. But mostly it provided a sense of haven, of community, an atmosphere carefully, if imperceptibly, honed by owner Jay Zimmerman, who seemed less an owner or a bartender than just some friendly guy behind the bar opening your beers and pouring your shots for you. Maya Angelou famously said, “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Basik was the bar version of that sentiment.
Zimmerman announced a few weeks ago that he would be closing Basik on Aug. 12. The reaction was predictably mournful among the regulars, of which he had collected many over the years. Jay sat down with The Mix on a recent weekend before opening to talk about the bar’s legacy and what comes next. The interview follows. After that are a series of remembrances from bar world folks who made Basik a second home. If you like what you read, Basik is open for four more nights.
The Mix: So, why are you closing?
Jay Zimmerman: I think there’re two main reasons. There’s facts and feelings. The facts being, after the pandemic, crowds are different; and our lease ran out, so we signed a lease with increased rent.
The Mix: When did you re-sign the lease?
JZ: Two years ago.
The Mix: Was the rent increase large?
JZ: They tried to increase it one-hundred percent, and we were able to negotiate it down to just a sixty-percent increase. After that happened, we were like, let’s give it a year and see how we are doing?
The Mix: Did you have a good or bad relationship with your landlord?
JZ: Really good, but they sold the building to new people who increased the rent. But they’re good, too. They can just get more from the market now for this space. So, the rent increase; the way people drink and socialize is different than in 2020’ and everything got more expensive to buy and sell. All those things contributed to, financially, that the facts didn’t work as well. The feeling of it—I think my desire to serve had changed as I’ve aged and become a father. My desire to be here until the early hours and make those great memories has waned a little bit. It’s hard. It’s an uphill climb to do it day to day to day. My energy to do it has slowly tempered.
The Mix: When did you finally make this decision?
JZ: It was slow. Probably over the course of 2023. Most of the year we thought about it. At the end of last year, we decided to cut ties.
The Mix: You mentioned that people drink differently. How so?
JZ: Because there’s less people. Fewer people come out. A lot of this has to do with people working from home. We don’t get a crowd that’s getting off the train from work anymore. Or people who are trying to take the pressure off after a workday. They work at home and kind of just stay there. We do get the weekend warrior types that are a bit younger now, because all these new condos in the neighborhood are inhabited by much younger people. We don’t offer nightclubby kind of vibes. They have little interest in classic cocktail recipes. They want to dance.