Cool Actor builds and opens bar in Brooklyn
on 22/07/11 at 5:49 pm
Booze News
ShelterPop: Let’s start from the beginning. How did you get started in carpentry?
Anthony Mackie: My dad was a carpenter and a roofer, and every summer he would make his sons work with him — I did it for three years. I have a lots of carpenters and contractors in my family so that’s how I got the bug. There’s just something remarkable about taking a piece of wood and making it into something. It’s gratifying, really fulfilling. Anybody can buy a $2,500 designer table but not everybody can make one. When I was in college I couldn’t really afford furniture so my internship boss — the head of the foremen at Julliard — let me use all his saws and tools so I could make my own furniture.
Do you still have any of it?
You know what, I don’t. This is not a testament to my work but it all fell apart. But that was a long time ago. It did last more than ten years.
Fair enough. Now, at NoBar, you’ve built everything but the chairs. Can you elaborate?
I built the bar, the bar back, the footrest, all of the tables and I made some of the frames for the artwork. I also re-framed the entire place and taped and floated all the sheetrock. In a few places, the wood on the floor was kind of destroyed, so I got 1×4’s and tongue-and-grooved them.