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Entries tagged with 'Bars'
Posted Jun. 13, 2008,
Red Hook Bar Round Up -- Ikea Edition!
By Elizabeth Thompson
Next Wednesday is the opening day of the Red Hook Ikea and we'd be lying if we said we weren't pumped. We are so pumped. Some Red Hook residents, however, remain none too pleased that their remote maritime nook will soon to be stormed by the masses coming for their Flärkes and Ektorps. Here are two new spots where locals can drown their sorrows over lost parking spaces, and those of us brave enough to suffer the crowds can celebrate escaping alive with a post-Ikea drink.
Annabelle's, located across the street from the store, is the latest venture from Brooklyn chef Neil Ganic (Petite Crevette). Formerly Red Hook staple Lillie's, Ganic has kept some of its former tenants, with renovations including a new stage for live jazz on weekend nights, a mahogany bar, and the restoration of an original hexagonal tiled floor. These classic elements, unfortunately, are drowned out by panels of neon lights running around the bar. Thankfully Lillie's tiered back garden, complete with a pond, is still out back where a new ad-hoc kitchen is tucked away for serving up items like mini burgers, oysters and clams, and lobster rolls al fresco. The drink menu's also still coming together, and mixologist Julia Niego has created a collection of $8-$12 summery concoctions made with nectars and herbs from the neighborhood Fairway -- look for the Rosewood, a combination of whiskey and pomegranate liqueur, and the Pout, rose petal vodka and pear nectar liqueur. La Bouillabaisse, Ganic's reincarnation of his former Atlantic Avenue spot, is located next door and will also open next week.
Around the corner on Van Brunt Street, another beloved erstwhile establishment, Pioneer Bar-B-Q, has been transformed into Brooklyn Ice House, a beer geek haven from Ginger Man owner Trevor Budd. Five brews on tap include the Bitburger Pilsner and Guinness ($5), while the cans and bottles steal the show: Fin Du Monde, Chimay Blue Label, Bluepoint Hoptical Illusion, are a few of the 30 options available. The frosty name, according to Budd, is a nod to the ice houses of Texas and southern costal towns, most of them converted into bars as they were abandoned. Brooklyn Ice House, however, has foregone any industrial décor schemes and kept its former tenant's saloon look -- the wood paneling and tufted red leather banquettes remain -- along with its smokers which serve up hot dogs ($2), po' boys, pulled pork sandwiches ($3) and other grilled fare (grab a handful of their complementary pretzels and Hershey's Kisses while you're there). And, rest assured, there isn't a lingonberry or a meatball in sight.
Annabelle's
44 Beard St., (718) 643-1500
Brooklyn Ice House
318 Van Brunt St., no phone
Posted May. 2, 2008,
Bar of the Week: The Habitat
By Elizabeth Thompson
Bars with outdoor seating are rare creatures in Greenpoint, but The Habitat, with its blue and green walls, hanging plants and porch-style seating, brings the outside in. The kitchen, where chef and co-owner Ashley Engmann (formerly of Park South and Lotus) serves up small plates like mac and cheese, empanadas and waffle fries, has been transformed into a little house with a façade of cedar siding and antique windows shipped from Maine. A few tables and built-in benches on an attached porch, made with pine salvaged from Williamsburg's Moon River Chattel, add to the illusion of being in the great outdoors. Just ignore the flat screen TV above the bar. Drink specialties include lazy afternoon classics like pink lemonade made with Absolut Citron and cranberry,($7) and an enjoyably potent rum punch. A dozen beers on tap, including Blanche de Bruxelles ($7) and Coney Island Lager ($6) leave plenty of options for the brew-drinking crowd (i.e., everyone there the night we visited), with red and white wines by the bottle and glass for the rest of us. When kicking back on a cozy deck isn't an option (fire escapes don't count), Habitat's a reliable go to. Extra! Bike-riders who take it to the max in the Five Boro Bike Tour can stop in this Sunday for Beers for Bikers, a $1 beer and empanada special. 988 Manhattan Ave., Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (718) 383-5615.
Posted Sep. 27, 2007,
Upstairs = Old PAPER Offices
By Gary Pini
Though we haven't been there, we just realized that the bar Upstairs is in PAPER's old office! The summer's supposedly "hot celebrity hangout" is located above Cafe Bari at 529 Broadway at Spring Street in SoHo. We have many fond memories of that space and hope all the celebrities still feel our presence. If you're interested in starting a trendy club, we suggest looking a little further downtown to 365 Broadway where we moved after 529.
Posted Apr. 29, 2007,
Bar of the Week: The Bar at the Bowery Hotel
By PAPERMAG Editors
There is a certain hubris in calling your new posh hotel the Bowery. For about the past 400 years, the street has primarily been associated with lowlife, heavy drinking, homelessness and Joey Ramone. Now, Sean MacPherson and Eric Goode have set up shop, and if anyone can change the Bowery's reputation, it's them. The two are the media-blitz sophisticates behind the Waverly Inn, the Park and the Maritime Hotel, Chelsea's converted Covenant House. The latter's nautical-themed and opium den-decorated basement has made it incredibly popular over the years. Like the Maritime, the Bowery is rumored to feature an Italian restaurant, but this time the overall theme is 19th-century Black Forest hunting lodge. It's beautiful. And, by the way, it makes Freemans seem minimalist by com-parison. (Freemans honcho Taavo Somer is an architect of the restaurant, and it looks like he's really indulged himself here.) If you like taxidermy, deep woodsy colors, smoky oil paintings and a real live fireplace, look no further. As of press time, the hotel is still under construction, although it is definitely open for business. On a recent visit, even the waitstaff seemed impressed. “If you like this, you should see the bar upstairs,” my waitress said breathlessly. “It's gorgeous." 335 Bowery, (212) 505-9100. Jonathan Durbin
Posted Mar. 30, 2007,
Bar of the Week: The Anchor
By PAPERMAG Editors
If you’ve been a fixture on the New York nightlife scene since your teens and you’re starting to feel like you want a mellower vibe than those fully fabulous Bungalows and Marquees, you might just have to open up your own place. That’s what the three friends (and now business partners) Amanda Silverman, Chrissie Miller and James Cruickshank have done with The Anchor. Silverman, one of the most powerful celebrity publicists in town, says with a laugh, “We’re getting old, and we wanted our own place to get drunk at.” The Anchor has the cozy and relaxed vibe of your friend’s basement, and is the kind of place where you never know what you’ll stumble onto. One night it’s a bunch of cute JAPs chilling; the next, a birthday party hosted by supermodel Jessica Stam, featuring an alarmingly well-endowed male stripper. Or it might be all boldfaced Hollywood names like Bosworth, Olsen and Dunst or the street-cred crowd with Eve, Drea de Matteo and Damon Dash. It’s equal parts hipster, hip-hop and high-end all brought together for cheap drinks in a regular hangout. 310 Spring St., anchornewyork@gmail.com. Mickey Boardman
Posted Mar. 23, 2007,
Bar of the Week: Pravda
By PAPERMAG Editors
A recent Friday-evening visit to Pravda yielded no clandestine encounters with former KGB agents and zero sightings of stray oligarchs, although some of the more expensive caviar on the menu seemed priced exclusively for a Khodorkovsky or an Abramovich. The pre-glasnost design of the decade-old vodka bar from Keith McNally (Balthazar, Pastis) still evokes Russia’s aesthetically rich Soviet past, augmented by the Cyrillic writing on the walls, the gunmetal tables and the thickly accented beauty who served us that night. She called the $22 appetizer sampler “Russian sushi,” a delightfully mixed metaphor that somehow served to describe the Zakouski platter’s selections admirably: smoked salmon on potato pancakes, roasted eggplant dip, and spinach and cheese pastries. But Pravda’s charms lie in its $12 cocktails, despite their kitschy names. The Bohemian (vodka, passion-fruit puree, wild berry) was thick, rich and just a tad cheeky; the Leninade (house-infused citrus vodka, lemon juice, fresh mint) was bright, fresh and utterly convincing; and the Russian Mary is perhaps the best Bloody Mary south of 14th Street (fresh, spicy horseradish makes all the difference). If those are too theme-parkish for your taste, then try the $9 vodka infusions—a tumbler filled with ice, vodka and flavoring. Those with a sweet tooth might want to go with the black currant, but for a winning combination, try the chili and horseradish. It comes with three olives and tastes bitter and crisp, a little how one might imagine winter in the Gulag Archipelago. 281 Lafayette St., (212) 226-4944. Jonathan Durbin
Posted Mar. 16, 2007,
Bar of the Week: Russian Tea Room
By PAPERMAG Editors
Is the Russian Tea Room's long winter finally over? After a deal to turn the legendary restaurant into a golf museum fell through in 2004, the property underwent an extensive restoration -- not to the original design, but to the lavish interior wrought by Warner LeRoy in the 1990s. Son of Wizard of Oz producer and director Mervyn LeRoy and grandson of studio founder Harry Warner, Warner LeRoy channeled his namesakes' Hollywood glamour into restaurants such as Tavern on the Green -- and brought along the Technicolor sets. The RTR's new owners have preserved LeRoy's most flamboyant flourishes, like the 15-foot bear-shaped aquarium and the golden tree hung with Fabergé-inspired eggs, but if Czarist Russia via Las Vegas isn't your style, try a selection of their 40 vodkas (shots are $10–$18) at the ground floor bar. Sedate decor is a relative term at the Russian Tea Room, but here, where the green walls, bright-red banquettes and shining samovars are warm and welcoming, it's easy to relax and remember all those who have passed through the famous revolving doors. The cocktails salvaged from vintage RTR menus are refreshing in their simplicity ($12–$16), and stocks of pre-ban Caspian Sea caviar are still available ($180–$300 for 30 grams). 150 W. 57th St., (212) 581-7100 David Shamoon
Posted Mar. 9, 2007,
Bar of the Week: The Big Lug
By PAPERMAG Editors
The thriving downtown bear scene that prowls Westside dens like the Dugout, Ty's and The Eagle NYC has a cozy new East Village cave to hibernate in this winter. This basement boîte is an offshoot of owner/manager Alfredo Troche's long running Tuesday-night furfest at Nowhere Bar, and promotes itself as a "friendly, reliable, neighborhood men's bar." It's seven nights a week of playful theme parties and cheap booze. A pint of Heineken costs just $5, but for real skinflints there are $3 cans of PBR and Milwaukee's Best. The bar's logo, a cartoonish lunk who bears more than a passing resemblance to Popeye's old nemesis Bluto, signals that Big Lug doesn't take itself too seriously. The maroon walls festooned with framed ads for men's grooming products from the '70s give the place a pleasingly retro, post-Stonewall vibe that's a refreshing contrast to the typical non-decor of most places that cater to the manly-man set. A visit to Thursday night's trucker party found a surprising number of Skinny Minnies swaying to the deep house of DJs Bill Pfeiffer and Paul Ferrer, but there were also plenty of beards and bellies to keep the big game hunters warm on a long winter night. Angelo Pitillo
85 Ave. A, (212) 673-1775.
Posted Mar. 2, 2007,
Bar of the Week: GalleryBar
By PAPERMAG Editors
Art and alcohol have long been constant (if not co-dependent) companions. So it seems a foregone conclusion that a new art-themed bar would eventually open on the lower Lower East Side, the city's liveliest geographical pocket of creativity (Max Fish and Lit have had the more northern art-bar market cornered for years). That's what GalleryBar, a fastidiously clean, exceedingly well-lit new watering hole is hoping to capitalize on. The bi-level space has an industrial-gallery feel upstairs and a rustic, candle-lit basement, a lovely combination of airy and convivial vibes. Owners Josh Boyd (of Plan B), Darin Rubell (cousin of Studio 54 magnate Steve Rubell) and Derrek Vernon have done an impeccable job creating the sort of environment that will feel welcome to both collectors and party people. When they launched the bar in late January, they were showing the work of Kevin Berlin, a painter and sculptor whose exhibit was called "Slaves of Fashion" and featured, in addition to plenty of naked-lady paintings, a 240-pound bronze sculpture of a bellybutton (inny, in case you were wondering). The owners say they're going to cycle through artists once every six weeks, displaying artwork and photographs that will be for sale while also function as conversation pieces as the crowd imbibes the usual beer, wine and spirits. That's to say nothing of the old-school photo booth at the back upstairs -- an invitation to make your own art. What a welcome addition to the neighborhood. Jonathan Durbin
120 Orchard St., (212) 529-2266