Public Records is a music venue, bar, and eatery in

Gowanus Gowanus ( ) is a neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community District 6. Gowanus is bounded by Wyckoff Street o ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. By day, the space serves as a vegan café and

wine bar A wine bar is a tavern-like business focusing on selling wine, rather than liquor or beer. A typical feature of many wine bars is a wide selection of wines available by the glass. Some wine bars are profiled on wines of a certain type of origin, ...

; by night, it features a nightclub and performance complex. The venue is known for eclectic programming, with a focus on

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

History

Public Records was founded by hospitality director Erik VanderWal, musician Francis Harris and designer Shane Davis. It opened in April 2019, part of a wave of

adaptive reuse Adaptive reuse is the reuse of an existing building for a purpose other than that for which it was originally built or designed. It is also known as recycling and conversion. The adaptive reuse of buildings can be a viable alternative to new con ...

projects in the historically industrial Gowanus neighborhood. The property's second floor was occupied by the guitar repairer and supplier Retrofret until 2022, at which point Public Records took over the space and opened the Upstairs Lounge. In 2024, the venue's founders created the Public Service agency to consult with developers on design-centric hospitality projects. In 2020, ''Esquire'' named Public Records one of the 27 "best bars in America," noting the quality of the establishment's sound systems and cohesive sense of flow. The actresses Abbi Jacobson and Jodi Balfour were married at Public Records in 2024.

Facilities

Located at 233 Butler Street, Public Records covers in a 1910s-era building formerly used as an

ASPCA The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing animal cruelty. Based in New York City since its inception in 1866, the organization's mission is "to provide effective mea ...

office and animal shelter. The Sound Room, the central performance area hosting both live music and DJ sets, is a minimalist space featuring perforated

plywood Plywood is a composite material manufactured from thin layers, or "plies", of wood veneer that have been stacked and glued together. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards, which include plywood, medium-density fibreboa ...

acoustic panel Acoustic panels (also sound absorption panels, soundproof panels or sound panels) are sound-absorbing fabric-wrapped boards designed to control echo and reverberation in a room. Most commonly used to resolve speech intelligibility issues in comme ...

s, with capacity for up to 200 attendees. The room's sound system has been widely praised for its clarity and high fidelity. Genres featured have included

avant-garde jazz Avant-garde jazz (also known as avant-jazz, experimental jazz, or "new thing") is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. It originated in the early 1950s and developed through the late 1 ...

and

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

. The Upstairs Lounge, an intimate cocktail bar and listening space, was designed by Studio Kos and engineered by

Arup Group Arup Group Limited, trading as Arup, is a British multinational professional services firm headquartered in London that provides design, engineering, architecture, planning, and advisory services across every aspect of the built environment. ...

. The property's former parking lot was converted into the Nursery, an indoor-outdoor dining space and dance floor featuring a modular DJ booth. Davis told ''

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is an American business magazine published monthly in print and online, focusing on technology, business, and design. It releases six print issues annually. History ''Fast Company'' was founded in November 1995 by Alan Webb ...

'' the Nursery is "temporal; something that could be disassembled," assembled using timber and polycarbonate shipping containers. The Atrium restaurant centers

vegan cuisine Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...

, with a menu designed by former Little Pine executive chef Lou Oates. Per ''

Time Out New York ''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 333 cities in 59 countries worldwide. In 2012, the London edition became ...

'', the restaurant's "innovative dishes," including Spanish fried rice, deconstructed vegan pastrami, and fermented

bok choy Bok choy (American English, Canadian English, and Australian English), pak choi (British English, South African English, and Caribbean English) or pok choi is a type of Chinese cabbage ('' Brassica rapa'' subsp. ''chinensis'') cultivated as a le ...

, "still feel a touch overpriced." Visitors can purchase records and

zine A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is, as noted on Merriam-Webster’s official website, a magazine that is a “noncommercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject ...

s at the adjoining Café Public, which serves coffee, pastries, and sandwiches.

References

{{Reflist Music venues in Brooklyn Restaurants in Brooklyn Nightlife in New York City Electronic dance music venues 2019 establishments in New York City Gowanus, Brooklyn