Big-Deal SF Bartender Is Now Slinging Cheeky Drinks in Crown Heights

Booze is now on the menu at one of Crown Heights’s newest additions, an all-day cafe and bar from a San Francisco cocktail star.

Hunky Dory has been open during the day for the past month, at 747 Franklin Ave. and Sterling Place, serving breakfast and lunch alongside coffee, matcha, and non-alcoholic drinks. But the recent arrival of a liquor license means the bright space can step fully into itself and serve full-on cocktails from SF cocktail maven and owner Claire Sprouse, who previously worked at Sunday in Brooklyn and ABV in SF.

Here she’s making cocktails such as the “Saturn returns” with cachaca, Spanish brandy, fermented cinnamon, and grapefruit zest, or the “no big whoop” with lambrusco, cucumber seeds, honey, calvados, and lemon. Alcoholic drinks top out at $13. Low- and no-ABV options include hot sorrel hibiscus drink with pink peppercorn, as well as Parlor coffee, Ketti matcha, and In Pursuit of Tea tea.

Megan Rainwater/Hunky Dory

Along with drinks comes a new dinner menu and later hours, from Eater Young Gun nominee and chef Kirstyn Brewer. She describes her dinner menu as “creative, lively, and a little cheeky,” manifested in starters like salt cod “tots” and cippolini onion dip and chips. Bigger plates include pork schnitzel with black eyed pea salad and fermented broccoli rabe, as well as “green egg and ham,” or braised ham in a green chile broth with a soft-boiled egg and rice and beans. The full menus are below, and definitely lean on appetizers that pair well with drinking.

There’s a huge focus on sustainability here, too. Sprouse has spent much of her career finding ways to reduce waste in restaurants and bars, and she’s incorporating through cross-utilizing ingredients between the kitchen and bar; using off cuts of meat and sustainable fish; composting with local community gardens; and employing techniques such as dehydrating, jarring, and fermenting.

Take the cippolini onion dip for example: It uses any unused egg whites from savory cooking, plus leftovers from milk punch at the bar. Then, the aforementioned “no big whoop” drink uses cucumber seeds from a smashed cucumber appetizer.

As for the 56-seat space, there are plants everywhere, female-made art on the walls, and vivid purple tones contrasted by light wood.

Hunky Dory is now open Tuesday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m., with food served until 1 a.m.

Megan Rainwater for Hunky Dory [Official Photo]