Farrell’s Bar Park Slope Windsor Terrace

Hey everyone, welcome back to *Brooklyn Echoes*, the podcast that keeps the borough’s legends and memories alive. I’m your host, Robert Henriksen.

Farrell’s Bar & Grill, located at 215 Prospect Park West in the Windsor Terrace neighborhood of Brooklyn (near Park Slope), is one of the borough’s oldest continuously operating taverns. It opened in 1933, the year Prohibition ended, when Eddie Farrell established it as a hub for the largely Irish working-class community around Prospect Park. The spot quickly became a landmark of Irish-American life, known for its no-frills vibe, loyal regulars, and role as a neighborhood anchor.

For much of its history, Farrell’s was a classic “old-school” saloon. It served only a handful of beers on tap—originally Knickerbocker, later Budweiser and Stella Artois—and earned fame for its extremely cold drafts poured into large 32-ounce “containers.” These started as iconic styrofoam cups (a tradition that drew crowds and even Anheuser-Busch executives curious about its massive Bud sales) and later switched to paper or plastic after New York’s styrofoam ban. The interior remains spare and timeless: a long wooden bar, pressed-tin ceilings, dim lighting, and no table service—patrons belly up and shout their orders.

Ownership has stayed tied to the bar’s roots. Eddie Farrell ran it until his death in 1995, followed by a group of longtime bartenders (including Jimmy “Hooley” Houlihan, who worked there for over 50 years and became sole owner until his retirement in 2019 and passing in 2022). The bar has always been a community center—hosting fundraisers, memorials for firefighters and police officers, and celebrations. It even closed briefly for events like Eddie Farrell’s funeral or the rare tile floor replacement in 2006 (its longest shutdown). Early on, women were not served at the bar counter (they sat in the back), a policy that gradually changed.

Farrell’s has drawn literary nods (Pete Hamill wrote about it in his memoir *A Drinking Life*) and featured in a 2019 documentary, *Why Farrell’s?*, which explores its endurance amid gentrification. As of 2025, it remains open and unchanged—cash-only, cash-only, no-frills, and still pouring some of the coldest beer in Brooklyn. It’s a true relic of old-school Brooklyn, a place where locals say it feels like a “neighborhood living room” for births, deaths, and everything in between.

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