Here’s something to look forward to in the new year: high-end Scottish whisky bar Duke of Montrose is hoping to open on Fifth Avenue and Bergen Street mid-January. Ideally, we’ll all be celebrating the Scottish holiday Burns’ Night on January 25 with their single malt Scotch.
Caricature of the Fifth Duke of Montrose, Vanity Fair, 1882. Or, just a dude in Williamsburg.
The bar– whose website proclaims it to be Park Slope’s first authentic Scottish pub– plans to amp up that authenticity with a commissioned mural from the motherland. Over on the other side of the Atlantic, the co-owners are holding a contest for art students at Duncan of Jordanstone College of and Design to come up with a design for the 8-foot by 3-foot space.
DNAinfo reports that the co-owners– who also run Caledonia Scottish Pub in the Upper East Side– are searching for “a piece of wall art that combines references to Belhaven Brewery [who will be serving their ales, stouts, and beers at the new bar], the bar’s co-owners, the Duke of Montrose, and the city of Dundee,” which admittedly seems like a lot of marks to hit. Entries will be displayed online until the panel of judges decide who has done it best.
The competition closes on February 11, and the winner will be flown out to New York to paint the mural and explore the city. Assuming that the artist will be spending a lot of the time where he or she is painting, a good chunk of that exploration will be done right here in Park Slope. Co-owners Michael Ferrie and Steven Owen will also launch Isle of Sky in Williamsburg in January.
Image: Glencoe, Argyllshire by William McCulloch, 1864
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