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The epitome of kitsch, this great little bar has glittery red walls, an array of vintage hairdressing tools and salon furniture, with cute locals and a DJ every now and then with alternative and indie rock. The best part is the manicure and a cocktail offer (was $10). Getting a manicure in Beauty Bar is not a novelty feature - it really lasted!
Nearest subway is Union Square, 14th street between 3rd ave and ave A.
While it's not old by world standards, P.J. Clarke's is more than 125 years old, a fairly old bar for New York that has not changed much over the years. In midtown, it sits in the shadow of a skyscraper and miraculously was saved from the wrecker's ball, thank goodness. If you watched the classic 'Lost Weekend' movie, here's where it was set. After work it is mobbed. Other times it is not that crammed with people. Men will want to use the men's room as it features huge urinals. It harks back to a time when men were probably the only bar folk as it is easy to see into the urinals from the bar. (Women, please turn your eyes away.) Food is good here, by the way... fresh oysters on ice, delicious broccoli rabe, rare hamburgers (I once had two).
Located at 915 Third Avenue and corner of 55th Street. Web site is www.pjclarkes.com
This incredible bar is located in the Four Seasons restaurant, an architectural and culinary landmark since it opened in 1959. You can drink and/or have a light lunch while sitting under a stunning Richard Lippold sculpture of brass rods hanging from the ceiling. It's not cheap, but definitely a 'must-do' splurge. (It's nice to feel special and privileged even if it is only once in one's life.) The Four Seasons is still the place where New York's movers and shakers, political, financial, editorial and otherwise come for lunch ($100 at least per person) and the bar offers a nice perch to view them from. (Well, you can always rub shoulders with them in the lavish restrooms.) Plus there's a good view of what's happening on glorious Park Avenue.
99 E. 52nd & Park Avenue in the landmark Seagram's Building. Go to www.fourseasonsrestaurant.com for pics, menus, etc.
Fabulous all-American bar in one of the best NY hotels where the bloody mary was invented. You have to go in the cosy bar with comfortable leather armchairs, fabulously attentive staff, lovely nibbles and, of course, the best bloody mary in town.
Two East 55th Street, at Fifth Avenue, New York
www.starwoodhotels.com/stregis/index.html
The Circle Line is wonderful for a tour around Manhattan Island. It should not be missed. But much more exciting was our cruise on the Schooner Adirondack. There are some four sailings a day and we chose the sunset one.
You board at Chelsea Piers (on the Hudson near West 23rd). The two-hour cruise goes to the Statue of Liberty and returns, with champagne served by the crew.
The sunset cruise is particularly beautiful because you see the sunset to the west over New Jersey and to the east looms the skyline of lower Manhattan which is lit up brilliantly by the time you turn around and head back.
Unfortunately the cruise only runs from the end of April through the end of October. Cost is around $50, champagne included. We will never forget it!
A rooftop bar with a spectacular view of the Empire State Building. Drinks are expensive, but worth it for the view!
230, Fifth Avenue, at 27th St. www.230-fifth.com
Along Greenwich Avenue there's plenty of bars and food stops. Enjoyed a cheap Sam Adams during happy hour (forget the name but it was Irish!).
Bleecker Street seems to cater for every type of drinker so if you can't find a decent boozer there, something is wrong with you. Blind Tiger very popular and my sort of place with good range of ales.
The pace here is more laid back than midtown.
Greenwich Ave or Bleeker Street (between 8th Ave and 6th Ave)
Search out your own gem on any of the side streets
Small cluster of Irish bars away from the madness of Times Square. All have bar side and dining side so cater for mix of crowds.
Try Perfect Pint or O Lunneys. Beer served in those not-quite-pint glasses. Adequate, but don't expect to sample the essence of NY as they're in the heart of Tourist Central.
45th St, Midtown Manhattan
Tried two of their premises. One on 44th St near Times Square (I think) and another at a prime spot at the South Street Seaport.
Good pub grub and found both the lager and wheat beer very appealing. Good choice of ales and plenty of seasonal brews. Probably equated to about 3.50-4 quid a pint but hey, good quality microbrews in the middle of NY; you'd pay the same for cooking lager in a generic fun pub, anytown, UK.
44th ish.
South Street Seaport, Lower Manhattan
Other venues across the city (check the web)
Decorated with an extravaganza of white subway tiles, this Lower East Side haunt snuggled up against the Rivington Hotel is a funky hybrid - think old skool diner meets Islington gastropub.
A great place for brunch, lunch or dinner, traditional dishes like stewed lamb meatballs and Schiller's steak frites hit the right notes.
131 Rivington St at Norfolk St Subway: Subway: F to Delancey St; J, M, Z to Delancey–Essex Sts Mon–Wed 11am–1am; Thu 11am–2am; Fri 11am–3am; Sat 10am–3am; Sun 10am–1am.
I liked it. It’s just a dark bar with a pool table and a half decent jukebox. Nothing more, nothing less. The private booths are showing their age but a lick of paint and a spruce up wouldn’t do it any favours.
79 East 7th between Avenue A and 1st Avenue
Recently opened in Hells Kitchen. This really is a sexy place - with no attitude and a good vibe. It's billed as a 'stylish, sophisticated gay bar'. Early evening is happy hour, half-price martinis. America seems to like 'shaken' martinis - everyone knows they should be stirred but, what the hell, when in the USA, do as the Americans do.
They're lethal. The music gets going a little later, and an upstairs level opens up, doubling the capacity. It's dark, loud and full of gorgeous boys and girls - many still in their work suits, others out for the evening. I was out on the town on my own, and I really liked it there - the people were friendly and were happy to chat. I left, several hours later, staggering, but smiling.
VLADA LOUNGE
331 West 51st Street
212-974-8030
www.vladabar.com/index.html
One of the oldest and most authentic bars in Manhattan.
Frequented by many (it gets busy) but mainly by locals and workers around Grammercy and Union Square.
A very long zinc bar, an amazing tin ceiling, some of the best burgers in town and just a great place to hang out and feel as if you are a part of New York. As with most things in New York, this bar just 'works'...it's a great place.
18th street between Park Avenue south and Broadway
Notoriously it was once the most difficult velvet rope to negotiate in Manhattan and apparently they’ll soon be opening a sister venue in London. In it’s heyday, a key card was pre-requisite to gain entry. Whether this concept will work across the pond remains to be seen, and to be fair it’s the kind of place I’d usually avoid like the plague.
But when in New York, and when with a mate-who’s-mate’s-mate-knows-a-mate-of owner Amy Sacco, then why not.
Is it worth the effort? Well, the pretentious git in me did feel kind of smug at leaving the mere mortals behind on the sidewalk, but the place certainly didn’t blow me away.
Inside was “Beverly Hills themed” whatever that means. It was much smaller than expected, music was identikit hip-hop and R&B and there wasn’t a single celebrity du jour to gawp at. The only thing that blew me away was checking my Amex receipts in my wallet the following morning.
Chelsea, Manhattan
515 W. 27th St (between 10th & 11th Aves)
The best bar in NYC. Fact. Friendly staff, great food and well-priced drinks.
151 Bleecker St, Greenwich Village, NY.
Tel : (001) 212 260 9797.
www.redlion-nyc.com.
Really laid back, cool gay bar. It's the first gay bar in Williamsburg (Brooklyn) near the East Village.
559 Lorimer St, between Metropolitan and Devoe (take the L train to Graham or Lorimer);
tel: 718 599 4444
The Bridge Cafe is one of Manhattan's oldest boozers - and, thankfully, one of the least known. It sits beneath the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge and gives you good honest food and good draft beer at its long bar.
Walk down Water Street to get there - it's one of the city's last remaining cobble stoned streets and is a small shout away from the touristy South Street Seaport. Have a pint of Brooklyn Brewery white beer - made just across the East River - and then wobble up to the bridge, walk halfway across, turn around and take in Manhattan- it's just like the movies.
You'll never forget the view and to reacquaint yourself with the Bridge Cafe - right down below- totter back to the long bar for another Brooklyn.
279 Water Street, Manhattan; nearest subway: Chambers Street and City Hall
In a sea of cheap Indian and Pakistani restaurants and spice shops on the east side of Manhattan is one of New York's really distinctive Irish bars. Rocky Sullivan's was immortalized by the late travel writer Pete McCarthy when he wrote about reading there at one of the bar's weekly reading nights -- McCarthy's account of being accosted by drunken Glasgow Celtic fans is absolutely hilarious.
They have quite a schedule. Tuesday's is an anti-Bush satire night of stand-up comedians; Wednesday is a literary reading night; Thursday is a pub quiz and Friday and Saturday are hip hop nights. Pretty eclectic.
Rocky's is a real no nonsense New York bar with cheap booze and bar tenders with an attitude. It also has the cosy atmosphere Dublin bars used to have before that city's yuppification.
129 Lexington Avenue, between 28th and 29th Streets;
www.rockysullivans.com; tel: 212 725 3871
Take the 6 Train to Park Avenue South and 28th Street.
A haven amongst the sports bars of midtown, this is a friendly pub which offers loads of different beers - including local ones - on tap. Try the Blue Point toasted lager. I did.
11 East 36th St. www.gingerman-ny.com
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