Desert 5 Spot, LA’s favorite country bar, arrives in Williamsburg

By Hannah Berman

On opening night at Desert 5 Spot, I’m standing at the bar waiting for my “Dropkick Me, Jesus” cocktail when I decide to compliment the tall blonde woman to my left on her cowboy hat.

“I like your hat,” I say.

“Oh, this?” she says, grimacing.

“This,” she tells me, is her backup hat — she accidentally left her real ($900) hat at her cabin. The hat she’s currently wearing is so cheap that she would let someone burn a cigarette on it, she explains.

Luckily, my faux pax doesn’t stop her from chatting with me about growing up “in the sticks,” and the immediate sense of community she felt when walking in the doors of Desert 5 Spot. As she talks, a custom cowboy boot disco ball spins above us, washing every surface in rainbow bubbled light, and several couples move back and forth to the music, many of them wearing hats whose value I am not equipped to gauge. It’s clear that I’m the odd one out — this new Williamsburg country bar is brimming with diehard country fans.

Two-steppin’ (Photo by Hannah Berman)

Country is back, baby
Everyone I meet at Desert 5 Spot agrees: country music is having a moment in New York City right now. The honky tonkers name-drop existing country bars, like Dolly’s, Skinny Dennis, and Jalopy Tavern; they point to popular line dancing series like Honky Tonkin’ in Queens and Stud Country. They all use the word “resurgence” to describe what’s happening.

“I’ve lived all over the place, but I really identify with the country and Americana,” two-step dancer and teacher Sara Lott says. “I think people are very nostalgic for the country western scene in general, because it represents the beginning of America, and people are resonating with that.”

This is exactly the ethos that the Ten Five Hospitality partners wanted to capitalize on with Desert 5 Spot. Ten Five’s founders Dan Daley, Sebastian Puga and Kim Walker met eight years ago while working for Ian Schrager; together, they opened the first Desert 5 Spot location in LA in December 2021.

“Truthfully, we’ve always wanted to do a country bar,” Daley says, emphasizing that creating a “design-centric and experiential, but not pretentious” concept was at the heart of Ten Five Hospitality’s goals.

“Oftentimes, Los Angeles sort of guards its quote-unquote nightlife,” Daley says. “There’s a certain degree of pretentiousness. [But] coming out of Covid, there was this zeitgeist of wanting to feel and establish human connection, and to not experience each other or the world through the medium of a screen or a phone.”

Puga adds, “We wanted to create a very unique space where country and rock ‘n’ roll music provided a soundtrack [for dancing], and there really was nothing like it in L.A. And there really isn’t anything like it in New York.”

Betsy the mechanical bull (Photo by Hannah Berman)

In Dolly we trust
Their new Brooklyn space was selected after touring 25 different buildings; Daley says they chose it for its “great juju and great bones.” It’s totally different from the Desert 5 Spot in L.A., but he emphasizes that it still has “the same soul.”

That soul is, in a word, Americana. It lines every wall: Desert 5 Spot is decorated all over with depictions of horses, cacti and cowboys. A false wall greets you when you enter the front door. To its right, a mechanical bull with red eyes named Betsy bucks frustratedly; to the left, a door marks the entrance to the “saloon.” Inside, a long bar stretches down one wall, while large, comfortable couches line the other. On the back wall, there’s a small stage and a DJ booth. And to the side of the stage, hidden away from the action, is Dolly’s Corner: an all-pink VIP area decorated exclusively with Dolly Parton memorabilia.

“In Dolly we trust,” says Puga. Daley repeats it — ”In Dolly we trust” — like a mantra.

Then they laugh, and Daley explains. “Dolly Parton is an iconic country music figure — really, an iconic pop culture figure,” he says. “She’s the rare artist that’s transcended her specific industry and persona to become this immortal figure in America. We love her. We love everything that she stands for — her talent, her brashness, her je ne sais quoi. And so we wanted to pay homage.”

The Dolly wall (Photo by Hannah Berman)

ISO a two-step partner
Back on the outskirts of the dance floor, I start talking to country fan Ryan Ray, who is originally from Kentucky. Ray had been living in London until her move to New York a couple of weeks ago. She tells me she chose New York because of its blossoming country scene (she also refers to it as “the resurgence”). Country music is important to her — “It’s, like, my soul,” she explains — and she came to Desert 5 Spot in search of something very specific to kickstart her life in Brooklyn.

“I’m just here looking for two-step partners,” Ray says, grinning.

It only takes a couple of tracks for her to find one. Soon, she’s swaying in the arms of a man in a pink-and-orange striped shirt with cuffed sleeves. As they spin around and around, she gives me a thumbs-up behind his back.

Desert 5 Spot is located at 94 Wythe Ave and open Wednesday 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., Thursday and Friday 5 p.m. – 2 a.m., Saturday 4 p.m. – 2 a.m., and Sunday 2 p.m. tto midnight.