Meet the Regulars: People of Brooklyn and the Places They Love

Based on the column The Regulars on the New York magazine partner Bedford + Bowery, the celebrities and everyday people who love the local joints of the world’s coolest borough.

Meet the Regulars captures a previously unseen and entertaining portrait of the people of Brooklyn and the places they love. In talking with the regulars at bars, restaurants, and shops in the world-famous borough, author Joshua Fischer delivers deep and delightful stories presented alongside stunning snapshots from accomplished photographers including Nina Westervelt (Vogue.com, New York Times), Phil Provencio (Variety, Saturday Night Live, and CBS), and Nicole Disser (Bedford + Bowery and Brooklyn Magazine online). Meet the Regulars reveals the great power in the connections we make with the people and places where we live.

Originally an interview series on the New York magazine partner Bedford + Bowery, Meet the Regulars introduces us to a diverse and changing Brooklyn through its regulars: the first-generation American Latino café owner who drinks Coors out of a can and loves a good debate with the lawyer and plumber at his corner bar, the blogger who fixes her hair and heart at her cherished salon, the lady so loyal to her local bar she has its logo tattooed on her arm, the Asian hipster couple who drink and dance for ＂exercise＂ at their new-school Brooklyn hangout, and the burgeoning filmmaker who walks twenty blocks for sage advice from a legendary bartender inside a bowling alley.

Familiar faces include party rocker Andrew W. K. spicing things up at the Thai joint from his early days, Saturday Night Live performer Sasheer Zamata reliving a break-up at her go-to brunch spot, Radiolab host Jad Abumrad sippin’ whiskey to Black Sabbath, beloved NY1 news anchor Pat Kiernan chowing down on meatballs, actor Jessica Pimentel (Orange Is the New Black) championing her local metal bar, actor Kevin Corrigan (Goodfellas, Pineapple Express) contemplating a Guinness at his favorite Irish pub, and more.

From Meet the Regulars:
＂These are stories about people finding a home in an ephemeral world of bars, restaurants, shops, and clubs that open, explode, and burn out like so many stars hidden in that bright and sleepless New York night sky.＂ --Joshua D. Fischer, from his introduction

Meet the regulars of Meet the Regulars:
＂It’s a sense of continuity. You thread your history through a place. . . . That’s what makes me a regular.＂ --Jad Abumrad, host of public radio’s Radiolab, regular at Splitty

＂Once you have the cell phone number of the bar owner, then you’re a regular.＂ --Twin comics the Lucas Brothers, regulars at Tutu’s

＂I can tell if a person is cool if their vibe mixes with this place.＂ --Sasheer Zamata, Saturday Night Live cast member, regular at Enid’s

＂Brooklyn is this unattractive, could-never-go-to-the-prom borough. And now, not only does everyone want to take you to the prom, but everyone wants you on their arm.＂ --Eric Adams, Brooklyn borough president, regular at Woodland

＂Read the book. Talk to everyone about it. . . . Move to Brooklyn with nothing but the contents of a suitcase. Be in the world’s most annoying band. Get a bunch of hideous tattoos. Whatever.＂ --Meredith Graves of punk band Perfect Pussy, regular at Roman’s

＂This bar saved my life.＂ --Ariel Pellman, costume designer, regular at the Way Station

Joshua D. Fischer is a writer in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where he’s lived in the same apartment for twelve years. He is a graduate of the Cultural Reporting and Criticism master’s in journalism program at New York University, and his work has been published in the New York magazine partner Bedford + Bowery, Nylon, and Salon, among others. Originally from the Detroit area, Joshua currently lives with his lovely wife, Suzanne, and their crazy-cute dog, Ernie--who also happens to be the unofficial mayor of the block.