Mission Dolores in September 2019 (Photo: Chris O’Leary)
This one hurts. After more than ten years serving craft beer on Fourth Avenue, Park Slope fixture Mission Dolores has announced it has closed permanently. The bar opened in April of 2010 to much acclaim. I called it “this year’s summer jam” the day after its grand opening, and it was my summer jam for many summers after that. It was a truly special place with a layout that encouraged social interaction over good beers. And even on days with a cold wind, its protected courtyard made three-season outdoor drinking possible.
Mission Dolores was a major supporter of the beer scene, hosting many brewery launches and beer releases over its history. It’s where I drank my first post-Sandy Barrier beers. It was a stop on what I [vaguely] remember as an epic Park Slope bar crawl with the staff of Green Flash on a sunny April afternoon a few years ago. It’s where I drank Other Half’s first-ever beer, an IPA collab with Peekskill called Nuggy Num Num. It played host to countless get-togethers, birthday parties, and dates.
In the past two years, Mission Dolores got a one-two punch that made a 2021 recovery daunting: the bar was closed for most of the summer of 2019 after scaffolding from nearby construction crashed into its courtyard, and then in 2020, the bar was closed for three months during the first wave of the pandemic, and then closed again in December when indoor dining was halted.
If you’re looking for any good news in this sea of disappointment, nearby sister bar The Owl Farm announced that it will reopen today at 2pm with sidewalk seating and limited indoor seating — the first time it’s opened its doors since a winter hiatus that began in January.
For beer nostalgists, here’s Mission Dolores’ tap list from opening night on April 1, 2010:
Sly Fox O’Reilly’s Irish Stout
Flying Dog In Heat Wheat
Brooklyn Blast
Reissdorf Kolsch
Genesee Cream Ale
Yuengling
Stoudt’s Pils
Sixpoint Autobahn IPA
Avery Anniversary Ale – Fifteen
Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary – Fritz & Ken’s Ale
Captain Lawrence Captain’s Kolsch
Founders Dirty Bastard
Dogfish Head Chicory Stout
North Coast Pranqster
Speakeasy Double Daddy
Pretty Things Jack D’Or
Mikkeller Chinook IPA
Schneider Aventinus
Franziskaner Hefeweizen
Rodenbach Grand CruCASK: Defiant IPA
A legendary start to what became a legendary bar. Mission Dolores, I’ll miss everything about you.
