On a Saturday evening earlier this month, an ethnically diverse group of local guys in their 30s and 40s hung close to the bar. At the center is a long, winding bar framed by two giant TV screens. These digs are also more colorful, with chartreuse walls, peacock-blue tabletops and an aqua banquette.
While the previous spot was known for its tiny, homey interior and expansive garden in the back, the new Excelsior is the opposite: a large two-floor interior and a small outdoor patio (mostly for smokers). “It’s more than double the original square footage.” “We’re still a neighborhood bar, but we’ve kind of grown to a miniclub,” said Mark Nayden, 50, who owns the bar with his husband, Richard Kennedy, 52. Like other things in the increasingly pricey neighborhood, the bar moved south, reopening in August in a larger storefront nine blocks away on Fifth Avenue.
After a 15-year run, Excelsior, the go-to gay bar in Park Slope, closed a year ago when the building was sold local guys found themselves suddenly without their de facto living room.
