Sunny Balzano with Lillie Haus, formerly of Lillie's Bar. (John Del Signore/Gothamist)

Red Hook native Sunny Balzano, 76 years young, still lives above what is arguably the best neighborhood bar in Brooklyn, but he doesn't come down to party in the eponymous bar that often these days, instead choosing to spend his evenings upstairs with his young daughter. Balzano also knows that if he appears downstairs, he'll likely linger there until closing time, smoking and drinking until dawn. But his spirit fills the big old ground floor bar, which is decorated with his art and filled with his favorite live music on Friday and Saturday nights.

Still, if you're there on a night when Sunny surfaces, the experience is definitely enhanced; to know this fascinating Brooklyn character is to love him, in part because Sunny is so full of love. Yeah, we just said that, and we're not even that drunk yet. So go soak up some Sunny's to see for yourselfâthe bar's open Wednesday nights, Friday nights, Saturday nights, and on certain Sunday afternoons when they hold a semi-regular reading series (also good for Sunny-spotting). This Sunday they'll have L.A. poet Chiwan Choi, among others. (You can subscribe to Sunny's weekly mailing list to keep up with who's playing when at sunnysbar@earthlink.net.) For more on Sunny, check out this expansive NY Times profile on the man, and this intimate video portrait.

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