Protect New York’s most endangered species: small business!

When an indie movie theater located inside a bar states that a movie starts at noon on a Sunday, it’s actually more of a suggested time rather than set in stone. Especially when that Sunday marks the first day of daylight savings time, and even more so when the bartender who is running the movie is hungover. “The movie runs on MY time, basically,” Karla Allen, resident bartender and the lucky person in charge of running the movie at reRun Gastropub Theater explained. The reRun Gastropub Theater is located inside reBar, a bar/restaurant located in the heart of the Dumbo neighborhood in Brooklyn. For those of you unfamiliar with the term (don’t be embarrassed, I had to google it too), Dumbo stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, not after the lovable Disney elephant with the oversized ears.

The neighborhood is filled with lots of local businesses, and everyone seems to support each other. “I come into work with a Starbucks cup, and they nearly chew my head off!” Karla says, “But in the Bronx (where she lives) there’s nothing but chains as far as the eye can see.” This is not the case, here in Dumbo, Brooklyn.

The bar itself houses an independently owned coffee shop, the bar, and the movie theater, which only plays indie films. Paintings adorn the hallways which were painted by local artists and are changed once a month. Some of the movies played are directed and written by locals of the area, who come to the Friday screening of their films for a Q&A with the audience before the show. Even the decorations in the theater are comprised of old scraps from the local junkyard. The 60 seats themselves were taken from old minivans, and hubcabs are plastered on the outside of the bar.

An old fender hangs precariously above Karla’s head as she talks, her hands animated as she reveals these secrets to me. The way Karla explains these things to me, I feel as though I’ve tapped into a secret world all hidden here under the Manhattan Bridge. The owner of the entire place, Jason Stevens, used to be a VP at Morgan Stanley before he got fed up, quit his job, and opened reBar and then reRun last July. It’s a Cinderella story in reverse: from big business to small business, no fairy godmother required.

The entire place felt relaxed and personable, even the audience, which consisted of myself and five other people. “Six people on a Sunday is a GREAT turnout,” Karla clarifies, “Most people in New York have only gone to bed like five hours earlier anyway.” This is definitely true, although the audience seemed to have no problem nursing their beers at 12:30 in the afternoon. I couldn’t even stomach the thought of drinking again so early, so I stuck with coffee.

As exciting as the thought is of being able to legally enjoy a drink while watching a movie, there’s one huge overlooked problem: nature. And nature was definitely calling, as I sat there on the edge of my seat, for more reasons than one. The film that was playing was Brotherhood, (tickets were only five dollars!) an intense film about the sadistic side to fraternity hazing. The film starred Trevor Morgan, who is a “that guy” actor. Meaning, you watch the movie and say to yourself, “Oh! He’s that guy from that one movie..” but you never remember their names. The film was definitely more than I could handle on a pleasant Sunday afternoon, hopped up on caffeine.

The great thing about New York City is that even if you’ve lived here your entire life, there is still always something new to see, somewhere new to discover. ReRun was a great introduction to the subculture of local business owners that populate New York City and the treasures that lie under the Manhattan Bridge.