Blackbird Parlour Brings Bread & Honey(and Pie...and Wine) to Bedford & North 6th

We're wagering that the name of newest anchor at the ever-changing intersection of Bedford Avenue and North Sixth Street in Williamsburg is a reference to the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Six Pence". If not, that headline makes no sense whatsoever.

Either way, when Blackbird Parlour opens at 197 Bedford, it will offer the very European hybrid of a pastry café by day and wine bar by night. Which is really not so unorthodox, given that the American alternative is usually either a café that's shuttered in the evening, or a bar that - if open during daylight - caters to a few regular bloodshot boozehounds and serves lousy burgers with greasy fries.

The interior of the corner shop got a full renovation with a pair of bars, lots of wood, and new lighting. Locals will remember it as the super-shady video store that papered their windows with the same fading B-movie one-sheets for years at a crack. It was never clear to passersby whether they were still renting Porky's 2 on beta, or they had just given up and gone out of business...but didn't have the wherewithal to post a sign saying so.

Blackbird joins the recently-relocated Uva Wines which opened a couple weeks back, across the corner at 199 Bedford, and what appears to be an upscale replacement to the classic Pepé's Deli - an old-school bodega that occupied the Southwest corner for decades. Pepé's closed about six weeks ago, and the space has since been gut renovated and looks close to reopening. We'll miss Pepé's tin ceiling, its classic plexiglass and chasing lights canopy, and the friendly couple that ran it...but not its funky odor and half-stocked shelves.

Blackbird Parlour opens at 197 Bedford Avenue the first week of October.