Well, Greenpointers, the party is over.
The beloved Pencil Factory (142 Franklin St.) will close after nearly 25 years in business. An anonymous tip quickly turned into an official email straight from the source:
“It is with much gratefulness & a tinge of sadness that we announce the closing of the Pencil Factory Bar in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Our landlord has informed us that he will not be renewing our lease after twenty-five years. We plan on a number of events to celebrate the bar, our staff, our customers, our community and Greenpoint over the coming months.
Our final day of business will be July 27th, 2025. In the meantime, enjoy the bar & thank you for 25 wonderful years.
Louise Favier Sean O’Rourke Brian P. Taylor”
According to the website Who Owns What, the building is owned by Guy Smilovich.
Since 2001, the Pencil Factory’s prime location at the intersection of Greenpoint Avenue and Franklin Street made it a quintessential hangout and people watching spot. It has hosted countless dance parties, jazz nights, food pop-ups, or just tables of friends looking to catch up.
The story of the bar echoes the story of many Greenpoint residents who somehow made it out here and fell in love with the area.
“In 1998, after years of Manhattan living, Brian Taylor took the L Train to the Bedford Stop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and walked into the first real estate office he spotted. Agent Tomasz Smolinski took one look and decided that Williamsburg might be a tad too hip for Brian’s new home and found him a brownstone apartment at 93 Milton Street in neighboring Greenpoint.
Brian ended up loving Greenpoint and began begging every Manhattan bar owner he knew to open up a joint in Greenpoint. He finally gave up, recruited construction genius Sean O’Rourke and customer service magician Louise Favier, and the three friends opened the Pencil Factory Bar in December, 2001.”
Wow. Pencil factory moved into the area right after I did. Just like anyone in the neighborhood for the last 20 years or more, I feel like I’m mourning the Greenpoint I loved every damn day now.
Where am I going to go and dance on tables in Greenpoint now??
These landlords are absolute parasites, add zero positive value and remove any character from the neighborhood.
As a residential of Greenpoint for way more than 25 years I can honestly say that the hipster bar of overpriced drinks, no buybacks and rude bartenders will not be missed. Hoping the new owners bring some humanity back to the corner.
Agreed!!
Proud to have worked there for first 4 years. Really great bar.
Can Greenpointer’s reach out to the landlord and ask what they plan on occupying the space with? The community should apply pressure and try to keep PF in business
Seriously! This is ridiculous. I can understand people have issues with PF’s noise level but that doesn’t justify throwing out a central hub of the community. People also should realize that whatever this landlord, who has profited from the community for years, will simply put something much worse in PFs place.
The GP community DID apply pressure, lots of locals calling with noise complaints. PF got far outta control and they lost the plot.
Good riddance. The place went from great to awful in recent years. Forget buybacks- their tradition is to charge you twice for the same drink. And the Saturday night scene is worth avoiding at all costs. Time’s up!
Worked there for four years until the owners fired the entire staff over one week. Had done it more than once. Fuck pencil factory and fuck greenpoint. Fuck you too if you are reading this
Maturity at its finest.
Agreed. Greenpointers is a valuable asset and if it doesn’t start moderating its comments for civility (not censorship), it will go the way of social media ie a cesspool.
haha
Hope it becomes a Starbucks
I was there opening day of the Pencil factory with friends from “Splendid” that was just down the street. No tv and all wood, it was cozy and neighborhoodly, that was before the neighborhood became trendy. It was the only other non Polish bar that didn’t server the local drunks from the corner. What a shame.
The clientele is made of more normies than you would see at a bachelor audition. When it becomes a starbucks I dont think they’ll notice tbh.
Normies. Ha. Are they outies?
Congrats Emma, great but sad scoop, as evidenced by 15 replies, possible a world record for Greenpointers. Younger crowd then me, would pass it on the weekends in good weather and it was packed outside with attractive young people of all types enjoying themselves.
ADIOS
I liked it there, but there was an abusive MF named Jeremy who would haunt it.
Me too liked it there especially when not overly crowded with parties but with people reading or working on their laptops. Sunset views were still great one of the few places with a direct line to the river. Great local spot definitely changed over the years mainly along with the demographics but really was one of the first places on Franklin, a local old guard that will be missed.
It’s the owner’s right to do whatever he wants with the property not yours. It’s a sign of the times in this area as the neighborhood waterfront continues to get built up. Face it people, your going to get priced of the neighborhood
It used to be better before the pandemic, but the nosedive has accelerated rapidly since. The noise of drunk Basics scream-shouting (not to be confused with “singing”) the ABBA or T. Swift sing-a-longs? Frat bash gone wrong. Heard clearly in a block radius in every direction, oh yeah and at 2 AM, 3 AM, 4 AM? and you get it. Now imagine you live in that building? or even anywhere NEAR it? They were minting money from the brain-dead they lost control of. Good riddance, zombies!
Anonymous local sources have claimed this space is going to be turned into a Lululemon. I’m a Greenpointer and I work in the industry, so I’d bet pretty good odds on this being true. For the people calling out the Murray Hill-esque basic normies who have occupied Pencil Factory on weekends to re-live their “golden years” of frat and sorority houses (sadly, when their lives peaked) — a Lululemon is going to rake in 10x more of that crowd. SAVE GREENPOINT’S SOUL.
was my constant stop on the way back from buying records at Permanent Records… great beers, cash only.