Smolen Bar & Grill

in 2010....

earlier this month (closed), minus one eagle, an "o" & a "g"... 

and today. 

Smolen is to be replaced by a bar named Mary's.  Robert Simonson, "Our Man in the Liquor Soaked Trenches", visited the place in 2009:

Smolen Bar and Grill, at Fifth Avenue and 22nd Street in Brooklyn, flies so far under the radar that, from a certain point of view, it barely seems open at all. They have a phone number listed, but it’s not in service. And, on a recent night, only the lights around the bar were flicked on, leaving one to feel along a dark corridor to where the barmaid promised the bathroom was.

The corner building, at 708 Fifth, is built like a brick bomb shelter, a couple small windows indicating life might be stirring inside. A huge red-and-white sign, with figures of eagles on either side, screams that you’re in the right place. The sign’s design scheme is odd for a bar, but not for a Polish bar, which this is.