Went to Brushstroke two weekends ago. Great meal.

Really want to get a reservation at Atera, but seems impossible right now.

jws,

Would love to hear more about your Brushstroke meal.

Normally take notes but didn't so my recollection isn't as good as my meals at Ko, Per Se or Alinea.

That being said thought it was a really good experience. Sushi was great, and the chawanmushi with black truffles and uni was incredible.

Sea bass with miso and chrysanthemum was another great dish. The rice with crab was also incredible.

Was a unique meal in that it didn't blow me away as much as some others, but was just solid all the way around and a really enjoyable experience.

Think I have a few notes jotted down on my computer at home and will post them if I have them. Actually ate the with Mench so he may have thoughts as well.

Went to Comedy Cellar in the village the other week on a Thursday. Sarah Silverman and Jim Norton showed up unannounced and the rest of the show was funny too. If you're looking for a fun, not expensive, night out, you could do a lot worse.

For those that can't stand the boring and drab bar scene in New York check out this interesting and accurate article in GQ detailing the 5 best cities to drink in America (or the best cities with the best bars). Great for those that are looking to get away from the monotonous, small, and overpriced bar scene in the Big Apple.

5 cities: Los Angeles, Denver, Philadelphia, Cleveland, San Francisco

http://www.gq.com/food-travel/restau...s-october-2012

I think you suck at New York.

Also L.A is probably the worst city in America to drink unless you like everything closing at 2 and having a designated driver or driving drunk.

Err also the article is best beer cities in America

I don't make the lists. I interpreted the list as top cities to drink in America. Your beloved New York didn't crack the top 5. GQ is a reputable magazine, they do their research and they obviously picked up on the stuff myself and all of my friends (lots) pick up on. There is nowhere fun to drink. That's why our weekends are primarily spent kicking around ideas of what mediocre bar we have to settle at.

By the way, if there were SO many quality and awesome NYC bars why is this thread filled with food, comedy, and broadway show recommendations? Wouldn't many people want to rush in here and discuss how they were blown away by this bar or that bar? I'm not seeing that out of 13 pages of New York City.

Man, someone must hate NYC. Are there more creative places in terms of the bar scene, yes I would guess so.

But there isn't a city in the world that beats NYC for number of places, diversity of offerings, etc.

It doesn't make it a good city to drink if you have 550 bars and none are good. And most are either super popular and trendy (long lines, $300 bottle service) or completely empty. I've gone out most every day of the week to experiment and most places are absolutely dead on Sunday-Wednesday night.

I'd rather a place with 5 bars where 3 are great.
Versus a million bars with this breakdown on a weekend

Small and overcrowded.
Small and empty.

There is ZERO atmosphere. It's just people standing around talking sipping on expensive drinks with obnoxious bartenders and obnoxious clientele.

Can you seriously name some bars that you have to get back to because they were so fun? Please answer me that.

I'm not sure why i'm doing this but:

1. The article is best "BEER" cities, I agree NYC is not top 5. Even so none of those top 5 are probably in the top 5 best beer cities in the world

2. I think one of the biggest advantages to NYC is weekday drinking, everyone works hard but still go out most nights and the nightlife on any given day is second to none, I agree weekends can be harder to find 'fun' not over crowded bars. I prefer house parties and other events for weekends. Boozy brunches and drinking during the day are also great on the weekend.

3. GQ has another article for top 25 cocktail places in USA and NY has 4 (Angel share, death & co, PDT + one in BK) in the top 10. I'm pretty sure the three in NYC have been mentioned in this thread although i'm not going back through 1k posts to quote them.

4. I think the reason more bars haven't been mentioned is because it's harder to recommend a good bar to people, just walk around in NYC at night and chances are the place you go will be entertaining as long as you are with entertaining people. Most people coming for holidays and ask for suggestions in this thread aren't looking for the same thing people who live here do.

5. Esquire has a list of top bars in USA (here) the top three by count are:

California 34
New York 26
Illinois 11

Considering California includes SF, LA and SD it's hard to argue that NYC isn't #1 on that list.

6. "Your beloved New York" I've been to 14 out of 15 of the best bar and club scenes in the USA according to this list by U.S. News so I'd like to think I'm not being biased here.

Wait... You live in NYC? How long for? How old are you?

mid to late 20s, about 5 years...grossly disappointed as are a collection of females, males from work, college, and high school that live here. We never know where to go because we haven't liked any of the places. I'll be honest, I don't hate the place (even though I come across that way) but it's supposed to be a place where we have a great time. I have fun in every other city I travel. And it's not the people because I have an amazing time with these collection of people in different places.

One bar is exactly like the other. No atmosphere at all. Too small. Too pricey. The cheaper places are filled with 20-22 year olds that we don't want to hang out with: have watered down beer and smell awful.

I've been to those cocktail places and they are too trendy for us. And I've done dates at two of them which are good for dates but not for people to go out to.

by the way my issue here is this

I want good bars on Friday and Saturdays from 9 PM to 4 AM.

I've had good times with brunches and watching football on Saturdays/Sundays.

Don't necessarily disagree with this, especially in the EV. I'm sure you've been to the down the hatch, 3 sheets, 13th step, off the wagon chain definitely fun for a night out but not really the best place to meet females that can hold a conversation or walk straight.

agreed, i only go on dates or when i have friends visiting.

For lower key 'clubs' that are still fun on weekends i like

- affaire (4/B)
- penny farthing (13/3)
- von (bowery/bleeker)
- arlo & esme (unfortunately closed now)
- B-Bar
- phebes (older crowd, more after work)

all are in the EV the first three have downstairs that have good dancefloors and upstairs that are good for chatting

Also really enjoy LES for weekends, places i've been this year that i have had good times at:

- la caverna (rivington/essex)
- beauty & essex (essex/stanton - slightly older crowd)
- sweet & vicious (spring/bowery - delicious jar-garitas, nice outdoor area pretty relaxed atmosphere)
- arlene's grocery (stanton/Allen)
- back room (norfolk/delancy - who doesn't enjoy drinking out of teacups)
- the box (kind of burlesque can be a b*tch to get in without enough females)
- The delancey (delancey/clinton)
- fat baby (rivington/essex)
- max fish (ludlow/houston - lights always on, quiet but busy)
- R Bar (bowery/spring)
- Rockwood music hall (houston/allen great place for live music + delicious caramel apple martinis if you are comfortable enough with your sexuality!)
- hotel chantelle (delancey/ludlow)

Anyway those are just off the top of my head (had to look up some addresses) have you been to any, what are your thoughts?

Let me break these down. First, I'm being brutally honest and I'll say that a bar that you haven't listed (Anchor Bar) should be included because I prefer it over these.

Affaire--awesome space, decent music...absolutely the weirdest crowd of people I've ever seen. Weird Eastern Europeans or weird nerds. Zero attractive girls. I brought 2 of my closest friends from home here and they asked me to leave in 10 minutes because of the people that surrounded us. They aren't stuck up people and are down to earth...we all felt uncomfortable. It wasn't the first time I was there. Trust me: go in there Saturday at 11 PM and take a look at the crowd.

Penny--gets hot girls. Pretty good music. Awkward bar layout. if you stay in the front you have a zillion people coming in through the front door passing you. The basement scene is sort of the same way. It ruins the experience.

Liked Arlo & Esme. Disappointed it's not an option.

Never been to Von.

Phoebes--sort of disagree about the age difference. Think it's really young It's OK. I have friends that absolutely hate it and if anything I defend it for the size and that it gets attractive girls. Usually there forms a tremendous line and gets super, super crowded after 11 PM. Trust me, you will get shoved around a lot, get disgusted and want to leave.

La Caverna--went to a birthday party here 2 summers ago...decent time from what I remember but forgot about it and haven't been back

B Bar--cool for the summer since it's indoor/outdoor but it's just bland to me. Tons of standing around, no real music being played and I never know which bar to hang out. Would be better to maybe start the night here IMO.

Beauty and Essex---been there..good for food, not a fun place to spend a night is my reaction.

Sweet and Vicious---another place that gets really crowded. I actually would list this in my top 3 though. I haven't had a particularly great time here but I was never annoyed or wanted to leave. You didn't list Ella but I sort of hold it in the same regard even though they have some differences

Delancey--was here on a dead Sunday, want to go back

Fat Baby---I had two girls Im friends with robbed at this place so I have a bad opinion of it and won't go back. If that didnt happen I'd give it a shot

R Bar---been here, can't really remember much specifically

Max Fish---sort of dead, didn't do it for us, we left quickly..same as Pianos. i can't say what specifically but hated that place

Haven't been to Arlene's Grocery, Back Room, Rockwood Music Hall, or Hotel Chantelle so cannot comment.

Solas is another place that I would find decent if they monitored the crowd but found it impossible to get a drink.

But looking for lower key clubs that would ideally have a layout of an Affaire but a better crowd. The reason we haven't been to a Rockwood Music is probably it wouldn't interest our type of group. Same with Arlene's.

Will look into Back Room.

I tried to give a legit couple blurbs. If you want rankings of 0 (worst bar of all time) to 10 (sickest bar ever) I'd rank like this

Affaire-5
Penny-6
La Caverna-6
B Bar-4
Sweet and Viscious-6
Delancey-have to go here on a Fri/Sat but this could be possibly an 8 after walking around and meeting a few bartenders...
Fat Baby-I think it's shady but as mentioned I had two girls get pick-pocketed so I'm not going to rank it
R Bar-can't remember but probably 5-6
Max Fish-4
Anchor Bar-6 (has one bathroom for each gender...if bathroom situation was different this is a 7 maybe an 8)
Solas-5
Ella-6

I'd be interested in your rankings. My point is that I'm honest and the highest I can rank for a city with a zillion bars is basically a 6-7. No 8s, 9s, or 10s.

I'd like you to be honest and tell me if you are blown away enough or find a place cool enough to go with higher than an 8.

Rankings based mostly on clientele, size, staff, bar layout, drink specials, music, and location. Focused on Friday/Saturday evenings roughly 9 PM-4 AM.

A good bar/club experience is usually more of a personal thing and not about the place itself once it reaches an acceptable threshold. I've been to half the bars on that list, and honestly it matters more what/where I did to pregame, who I'm with, and the mood I'm in. I was at La Caverna maybe 2 weeks ago and it was a blast, but like 3 months ago it was lame, and nothing about the place changed obviously.

M15 was pretty lame when I didn't have an asian posse with me, but going with some friends that knew a lot of people it became a blast.

Barhopping during happy hours and then turning it into a night out is also pretty awesome since you can see small specialty bars, music bars, etc before going into a louder drunker bar.

As someone recommended earlier for some younger friends of mine, I'll be hitting up East Village for one of those all you can drink sake bomb bars tomorrow night. If you consider that a fun place, maybe we can meet up.

I have a more lengthy response to give later, but I'll start off by saying any list that has LA as a top 5 city to drink in is absolute ****ing insanity.

jwhitt, between you and new york, i'm not sure that it's new york doing the sucking.

your first mistake is wanting to go out drinking in manhattan on friday or saturday between 9 PM and 4 AM. bridge and tunnel meets amateur hour.

hor,
FU. we're full.

JWHITT,
i believe what you're looking for is hoboken. maxwell's is cool but is most likely definitely not your thing.

These bar reviews are good. I also like la caverna and R bar. I had a good time at affaire a few weeks ago, but it was for a friends birthday so can't comment on the crowd.

I'm relatively new to town and live in the west village, but so far my favorite places have been Jane Hotel, Little Town in Union Sq (cheap and good beer selection), and I got hammered Wednesday night at crocodile lounge (free pizza with your beer, and they have skee ball).

don't worry fed, i don't think he's coming to brooklyn.

true fact: i went to a pietasters show at maxwells some years ago in the middle of a blizzard, they showed up 2 hours late, poured whiskey all over everybody and we found 100 bucks lying in the snow on the way home, at a time when that felt like a totally life changing amount of money.

skank it up brah!

I'm assuming that subconsciously Jwhitt is looking for bars that specialize in beer, because that linked article is all about beer, and taking the time to post that on here and then complain about bars in NYC, without reading the headline in the article, well that would just be super silly. So, what about Spitzers? Communal tables, always a good crowd, insane craft beer selection in a hot hood.

Also, I'm completely up on Pianos, it's like all the hipster rage from 2001 where they were selling "Anywhere but Pianos" shirts in LES boutiques has come full circle, and the place is just non diverse and non judgemental now. I could have just went on a weird night though.

Had some friends in town and went to No Fun, it took over the old Palodar restaurant space on the LES, lot's of wood tables and floor, and a big room in the back for people to dance. It could definitely be fratty and douchey, but I could see it fitting some peoples needs if the speakeasy scene and clubs are too pretentious for you.

Or maybe if you have a nice group of friends, you just make a bar scene for yourself pick some small place with a cool bartender that has a decent layout you like, go a few weeks in a row, and all of sudden you and your friends are regulars and the bartender lets you stay in when all the awesome afterhours parties happen. The bar I frequent, looks like Moe's Tavern at 10pm on Sat night, and a Ciroc commercial at 5:30 AM sunday morning.

NYers: Please ignore JWhitt. You can read more about his thoughts re: NYC and other ridiculousness here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/79...hread-1176800/ If you want to discuss NYC bars or anything else w/ JWhitt, please do so in that thread there.

Jwhitt: please don't tard up this thread anymore. If you have more questions about NYC bars, please post them in your thread. Future posts from you in this thread will probably be deleted.

i cant even take what jwhitt says serious..some of his posts r so lol...

he said there are NO good bars in nyc..not one, can you beleive that???


also..they are all exactly the same ...i agree...gansesvoort is exactly like pacha wich is exaclty like 13th step which is exactly like revel...how can you guys not see that

also all bars in nyc are just a bunch of ppl standing around drinkin expensive drinks and talking..once again see pacha...i get that its not everyones cup of tea, but just because you have only been to 1 type of bar doesnt mean others dont exist in the city