Sip ’n’ slide
Kiddie playrooms now serving booze
After longtime Greenpoint resident Jenna “JD” Dosch had her first child, she became attuned to a strange phenomenon. The local bars were crawling with squirming babies.
“Whether you have a kid or not, it sucks to have babies in bars,” Dosch says. “The kids don’t want to be there, and so it’s not fun for the parents, who have to choke down their drinks while chasing after their kids.”
So Dosch, 33, and her husband, Andy Shaw, 44, set out to create a space where kids could run wild while their parents enjoy the thrill of a grown-up beverage.
In September 2016, the couple founded the Little People Party, a drop-in play session that takes place at an indoor soccer facility in Williamsburg. At 3 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, a bar connected to the facility opens. (The cost per child is $20 a day or $125 for a monthly pass; parents purchase beverages separately.)
“I don’t feel guilty about having a beer and chatting with other parents, knowing my kids are also having fun,” says Megan Drye Harper (below), 32, who regularly takes her two toddlers to the Little People Party on Friday afternoons. “If I want to go to a bar and socialize [instead], I have to leave my kids at home and pay a sitter.”
The trend isn’t limited to Brooklyn parents.
This past October, Sunnyside Plays in Queens added a snack bar that carries an impressive selection of brews, alongside juices and nibbles for kiddies. (The venue charges $7.50 per day for drop-in tots under 1 and $15 for older children; the price of admission for kids includes two adults.)
“People are often surprised when they see we serve alcohol,” says coowner Ed Kim, 48. “One or two people have made negative comments, asking, ‘Aren’t you a play space for kids?’ I answer that we’re a play space for families. We want adults to be able to play, too.”