Everyone loves a comeback story — and Sunny’s Bar, at 253 Conover St. in Red Hook, might be the ultimate example.
The Brooklyn institution, which dates back to 1890, was recently named one of the most inspiring disaster comebacks in a survey conducted by financial media company MarketBeat.com. More than 3,000 people participated in the poll.
Sunny’s was nearly destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, but the community rallied around owners Sunny Balzano — who died in 2016 — and his wife, Tone Johansen, raising $100,000 to help restore the beloved neighborhood bar.
However, Balzano and Johansen faced another hurdle when 18 other Balzano heirs — the bar has been in the family for four generations — pushed to sell the property. After a years-long court battle, the now-widowed Johansen secured sole ownership of the beloved Red Hook dive bar by buying out the heirs for $2.8 million. Once again, with help from the community, she raised $68,000 — most of which went toward the down payment.
Johansen, who grew up on a small island in Norway before moving to the United States in the 1990s, credits her resilience to her childhood upbringing.
“There’s something about the way I grew up — very simple and very hands-on. I call that having practical intelligence,” Johansen told Brooklyn Paper. “I grew up knowing carpentry and how to fix things because there was nobody to call if the car broke down — ‘You fix the car.’ So I have very much a do-it-yourself attitude and a lot of problem-solving skills from the way that I grew up.”
The sculptor and bluegrass singer — Johansen recently released her debut album, “Homecoming” — said the lawsuit was almost worse than Hurricane Sandy because of its uncertain outcome.
“[The lawsuit] was quite the marathon,” she said. “If you want to do something at this level of difficulty, at some point you have to put all your chips on the table — like, all of them. You have to kind of risk it all. And that’s what I did. The list of demands was that they wanted an extra million dollars, which I, of course, didn’t have, but I said yes, and I got the contracts.”
These days, business is thriving, Johansen said, crediting her success to her staff.
“That’s another thing that you have to keep in mind because you have to have people that are in the boat with you and rowing,” she said. “And that also takes time.”
Once a hub where fishermen, longshoremen and sailors would unwind over a pint after a long day of hard labor, the longstanding bar has evolved into a popular live music venue, featuring genres like bluegrass six nights a week.
Johansen described the Brooklyn waterfront staple as “people-focused,” without any gimmicks.
“If you need to watch football…do you have a TV at home and a couch? That’s where you do that. You don’t do it here. Here, you’re present — here to be with other people,” Johansen said. “[It’s] all about community. It is a human necessity to be with other people. I don’t really play loud music. People need to talk, to come in here and have a conversation.”
She fell in love with the knickknack-adorned space, a time capsule of sorts, for its unpretentious and authentic atmosphere where social status doesn’t matter.
“I have a very hands-on understanding of a space like this,” Johansen said. “I think that’s why I fell in love with this space. I’ve always liked old spaces. They are just more comfortable than the new ones.”
Matt Paulson, founder of MarketBeat, said businesses like Sunny’s Bar demonstrate that grit, creativity and community spirit can turn even the greatest setbacks into powerful comebacks.
“These businesses remind us that resilience isn’t just about weathering a storm, it’s about rebuilding something even stronger,” he said.
Johansen’s advice for those facing hardship: If you can’t put one foot in front of the other, try wiggling your toes and take it from there.
“Screw all ambition. I think ambition is absolutely overrated. You can be ambitious later. Sometimes, you just have to figure out how to crawl out of the pits,” she said. “Do the thing that you can do, because anything you actually do in real life moves you forward.”
