Melanie Campbell and Steve Porto Keep Up with the Kids at Friends and Lovers

An “Asiadog” is deliciously simple. As Melanie Campbell, the thirty-five-year-old co-owner of pop-up restaurant Asiadog, explains, “We were really proud to take your most basic American freakin’ BBQ picnic food, like hot dogs, and Asia-fy it.” Using toppings like kimchi, Japanese curry, and Thai-style relish, normal American hot dogs become delectable Asiadogs.

Half Chinese and half Australian, Melanie grew up with all types of culinary combinations, and so did her husband and co-owner Steve Porto, who is thirty-six, half Korean, a quarter Italian, and a quarter German. “We have these mixed heritages,” Melanie explains. “So we’re used to mixing things up.”

While pulling crazy hours working the Asiadog pop-up two blocks away at the Berg’n beer hall, Melanie and Steve would come to Friends and Lovers to unwind with other vendors. “We became this tight-knit family,” says Melanie. Here they’d drink and dance for hours. These two know what they like in a place: the details, the crowd, the drinks and eats. The married couple (together for twelve years, married for one) also knows what they like in a social scene, especially Melanie, who’s originally from LA and is without a doubt the partyer in the relationship. Steve, who hails from Staten Island, is more of a homebody who likes to hang with his friends. Both of them, though, feel it’s very important to keep up with the “kids”—hip people in their young twenties, like their employees at Asiadog. It’s a personal and professional interest. Full disclosure: a few years back, I partied with Mel and Steve, as we had friends in common. That’s how I learned how awesome they are.

The bar at Friends and Lovers is set in the small front room with its red-and-white checkered linoleum floor and triangular shelving. Behind the closed door in the back is another story: during the day, you’d never know there’s a big yet basic backroom with a stage, an artsy hanging light fixture, and, when the music is playing, a booming sound system for bands and DJs. Another door in the back of that room leads to a walled-in space: a quintessential Brooklyn backyard with a narrow concrete lawn, open sky above, and the most perfect tropical mural—replete with a smiling sun donning sunglasses—to enjoy after midnight while the young twenties are hot ’n’ sweaty on molly. Even sober, on an overcast evening, you can just feel the chill vibes beaming at you, bruh.

Melanie: It’s super diverse. I love that. Even in parts of Williamsburg and parts of Greenpoint, there’s this super cookie-cutter hipster type. Here, everyone is a different age, different race, totally different. Like a totally different scene.

Steve: It could possibly be the start of the evolution of the Brooklyn bar—kind of a throwback to the old found-things from the early 2000 Brooklyn bars, where everything was hodgepodged together.

Everyone is a different age, different race, totally different.

Melanie: I have FOMO. I will go out until everyone is asleep, and then I’ll just fall asleep wherever I am. It’s pretty bad.

Steve: Like in any relationship, you have to meet halfway. So, I’ll try to keep count in my head: I’ve said “no” to going out five times, so I should say “yes” next time or make an effort when a friend comes into town. It’s compromise.

Melanie: The owner will be in here five nights a week just dancing up a storm. She has so much energy, and she’s someone I absolutely love. We would never frequent a place that doesn’t have an awesome owner. We know we’re giving our hard-earned money to someone deserving.

Steve: The one thing that put it over the top for me was the details, how they put the red tape over the air conditioner. It’s just continuing the line of the triangle, so it doesn’t break the pattern. It’s as simple as red tape on an air conditioner, so that it creates three triangles. I came from a design background, and I used to do window displays. Owning a business and seeing things people do, design elements, or even practicality elements, just seeing that, I was like, “Fuck, yeah.” If people that own a place look at the little things, everything else is going to fall into place.

Melanie: They have fernet on tap. Fernet is a big restaurant and bar industry digestif, and industry people drink it a lot. So that showed, y’know, that they are catering to our industry. And it is Steve’s favorite drink.

Melanie: I like being surrounded by people. I don’t go to movies by myself. I don’t go to dinner by myself. I’m always with people. Here, I know I can come by myself, and I will see familiar faces and friends and be comfortable. When you work in food and beverage, you need a good place to unwind where you can feel comfortable and let your guard down. That is what this place is to me. But unwinding to me is, if there’s incredible music in the back room, you can be like, “Let’s go dance and have a killer time!” You know, exercising. Sometimes I literally think I’m getting exercise.

I will go out until everyone is asleep, and then I’ll fall asleep wherever I am.

Steve: We want every flavor. We want some place that has five different hot sauces.

Melanie: We want five different hot sauces in our people.

Melanie: There’s this little Asian girl, Tammy, and she gets on one of the bartender’s shoulders, and then they pour whiskey into people’s mouths. Whoever opens their mouth. Anyone that witnesses that is like, “I’m coming back here. That’s so cool!” It’s very welcoming.

June 23, 2015

(Photos by Nicole Disser)