Timboo's, Classic Brooklyn Dive, Closes

Timboo's, a classic old dive on Fifth Avenue in the South Slope, has served its last Bud.

I passed by recently, and found the bar, which was founded in 1969, had been supplanted by a cheery-looking place with the cheery name of Skylark.

Timboo's was the haunt of rummies and barflies, the folks who lived in south Park Slope when it was seedy and dangerous and ungentrified. It was a roomy saloon, with a big pool room in the back. The facade was priceless: a mirrored black glass sign with the faded, cursive white lettering and badly drawn Martini glasses, glass bricks, and a sun-bleached awning. A couple years ago, the bar tried to spruce up its act a bit, getting a new awning and replacing the old sign with a new facsimile. It was a mistake.

A reader told me at the time (June 2009) that the owners lived in Florida part-time, and Timboo's was now run by their daughters. Skylark is run by the same people who own Abeline's, a bar on Court Street in Carroll Gardens. At least it will be taken over by local people.

The weird name, by the way, was a conflation of the first name and last name of the two owners: Timmy Hodgens and Bobby Booras. Guess we could have been stuck with Hodbob's Bar all these years.