New York City's Best Dive Bars. Ben Westhoff
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Название: New York City's Best Dive Bars
Автор: Ben Westhoff
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Книги о Путешествиях
Серия: Best Dive Bars
isbn: 9781935439295
isbn:
TELLTALE SIGNS YOU’RE IN A DIVE BAR
• It looks closed, but it’s open
• Christmas lights
• The women’s room has a sign that says, “Ladies Only!”
• Upright, chrome cash registers
• Witty signs like: “Free Beer! Tomorrow”
• Wood-grain linoleum
• Tonic and other mixers dispensed via individual bottles
• When you pay for a five buck drink with a ten, you’re given a five as a change instead of five ones. (This shows they’re not scheming for a tip.)
• Red lighting and red vinyl booths
• Poor drink selection
• You’re IDed not because you look young, but because you don’t belong
• Multiple TVs on different channels, each with the sound on
• People making (and taking) calls on pay phones
NYC’S TEN BEST DIVES
(in no particular order)
O’Connor’s Bar
Dublin House
Jimmy’s Corner
Nancy Whiskey Pub
Blarney Cove
Holland Bar
Holiday Cocktail Lounge
Tip Top Bar & Grill
Alibi
Sunny’s Bar
NEW YORK CITY’S BEST DIVE BARS
(IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
Freddy’s Bar, R.I.P.
119 Bar
119 E 15th Street (Irving Place & E Union Square) Transit: 4, 5, 6, L, N, Q, R, W to Union Square
(212) 995-5904
Tucker Max says he hopes they serve beer in hell. Well, they do. The only problem is that they serve it at Dave & Busters, which means that the suds are overpriced and you’re surrounded by screaming video games. Heaven, however, is full of dives. Though their patrons aren’t much to look at and the televisions aren’t high definition, nobody cares. They had their entire earthly lives to stare at screens and lust after people they’d never be able to sleep with, so they come to dives for someone to talk to.
119 Bar has taken that minimalist aesthetic to its logical conclusion. There’s virtually nothing to do here besides drink, play pool, talk and eat Zapp’s BBQ potato chips. The walls are barren save for a poster of Frank Sinatra’s mug shot, and the TV above the bar is left off, save for Mets and Giants games. “People get too distracted by television,” the bartender told me. “They tend to just stare at it.”
Though it is dark and the windows are obscured by thick curtains, 119 is a clean establishment: the tables are wiped, the floor swept. And while the seats and Chaise lounge may have foam showing, and the tables may feature graffiti on top of other graffiti, it’s still a very sanitary type of disorder.
As in heaven, 119 Bar treats you to random, arbitrary discounts. When I ordered a pair of Jack and ginger ales the bartender had a moment of contemplation. “It would normally be $12,” he said, “but we’ll just say 10.”
Dive Bar Rating
169 Bar
169 East Broadway (Rutgers Street) Transit: F to East Broadway
169barnyc.com (212) 473-8866
A woman sitting at the bar was ignoring the complimentary peanuts in front of her, in favor of her own plastic bag of cashews. Black, mustachioed, and flirting with the halter-topped barkeep, she was serious about her liquor, evidenced by the fact that she was drinking from two glasses simultaneously.
Most 169 Bar denizens fit this description. (The part about being serious about their liquor, not the part about being hirsute females.) With its leopard-skin pool table, Chinese lanterns, red vinyl booths and palm fronds nestled in bottles of Patron, the place offers a terrific environment to be off your rocker.
The David Lynchian vibe is almost enough to make you forget that they filmed an episode of Flight of the Conchords here. After all, Bret and Jemaine’s music would have a hard time finding its way onto the speakers at this eighty year-old Chinatown haunt, as owner/ musical curator Charles Hanson tends towards big band, jazz, blues and funk when there isn’t a DJ or live rock band. The stage is right next to the front door, so you’re forced to listen to the music no matter how bad it sucks. Thankfully, each act plays only thirty minute sets, and there’s substantial down time between groups.
If you’re interested in performing here, keep in mind that Hanson, a former New Orleans punk player who took over the place in 2006, has redecorated and reorganized the booking process, and there are tons of rules for bands nowadays; they must use the house drum kit, bring in a certain amount of customers, etc. After sets, the musicians become part of the crowd and begin eating their own cashews, grooming their own mustaches, or whatever.
Dive Bar Rating
2A
25 Avenue A (at East 2nd Street) Transit: F, M to 2nd Ave-Houston