public records: a guide to the listening room, the floor, and the Gowanus kitchen

public records occupies a low brick building in Gowanus, Brooklyn, that holds three functions in one footprint: a sound-system listening room with a custom Ojas rig, a plant-based restaurant and bar with its own programming, and a back dance floor that runs late on weekend nights.

It opened in 2019, founded by Shane Davis and Francis Harris. The booking direction is deep, slow, and selector-driven. House, disco, ambient, dub, jazz, modern composition, free-improvisation showcases. Closer to a serious listening bar than to a club.

The door

Open door for the front bar and restaurant. The listening room and dance floor require advance tickets for most nights. Staff scan tickets at the back door and run the same consent and conduct policy as the Mister Sunday and Nowadays family of rooms.

What works at the door:

• Tickets in advance through the public records site or Resident Advisor.
• Knowing whether you came for the listening room, the floor, or just dinner.
• ID at the bar, every time.
• Calm energy. The room is not a bottle service crowd.
• Dressing comfortably. Most regulars wear soft shoes and comfortable layers.

What does not:

• Trying to walk up to a sold-out listening room.
• Loud group behaviour in the listening space.
• Phones out during seated programming.
• Asking the kitchen for off-menu substitutions during peak.

The seated listening events sell out fast. Buy ahead.

When to arrive

For the listening room, arrive fifteen minutes before the seated start time. For the dance floor, doors are usually 10pm or 11pm and the room peaks 1am to 4am. The restaurant runs from 6pm and is the easiest entry into the building if you do not have a ticket.

Weeknight programming is the room at its most particular. Sunday afternoon listening sessions are also a regular fixture and the most relaxed format.

Inside

Three rooms with separate sound systems. The front bar runs a smaller rig and ambient or low-volume jazz selection most nights. The listening room sits behind it, seated, with the custom Ojas system tuned for low-volume hi-fi listening. The back room is the dance floor: smaller than the marquee clubs, with a custom rig built for proper club volume.

Programming spans Francis Harris ambient nights, Theo Parrish appearances, Kassem Mosse, Sassy J, Yu Su, plus a steady bench of New York selectors. Sets in the back room run three to five hours. The listening room programmes by album, by composer, by mix, with the curator usually on hand to introduce the work.

Phones are tolerated in the restaurant and front bar. In the listening room and back floor, staff will ask you to put them away.

What it costs

Listening room tickets are $20 to $35. Back-room dance floor tickets are $20 to $40. Restaurant is à la carte, with shared plates running $14 to $22 and a tight cocktail list at $14 to $18. Water at the bar is free.

Rules

No photos in the listening room or on the dance floor. Phones away during seated programming. Respect the room: no loud conversation during the listening sessions, no leaning on the speakers, no aggression at any bar in the building.

The space allows lingering at the restaurant before and after the room, switching between front and back, eating at the bar between sets, and staying for the closing set on dance floor nights.

Why it matters

public records is the room that argued listening culture deserved the same care as a club floor. The Ojas rig, the seated programming, the willingness to book Francis Harris ambient pieces alongside Theo Parrish dance sets, the kitchen that takes the food seriously: the whole building reads as one continuous argument about how a music space should feel.

It also gave New York a counter-model to the warehouse-techno format. You can run a small floor with care, treat a listening room as equally serious work, and put both inside the same building without compromising either. A handful of newer rooms in the city have tried to copy the formula. None have done it as completely.