i heart nyc bars

iheartnycbars.wordpress.com is now iheartnycbars.com

hahaha678910 — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:03:58 +0000

Hello dear readers!

We have moved our blog to iheartnycbars.com

Our editorial style is the same, but now it will be easier to navigate and find bars by Location and Type under CATEGORIES.

Thanks for making us a success and please keep on reading, We promise that this will only get better!

Cheers!

Filed under: Uncategorized

The Ace Hotel Lobby Bar

hahaha678910 — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 01:00:39 +0000

It seems that all the hot bars are now in hotels or call themselves hotels or inns (see earlier posts). Maybe it’s a good thing to have beds in such proximity to drunkenness (or maybe not, insert your most awful one-night stand story here). Well, now we can add the Ace bar/hotel to the list, which was previously an SRO (a homeless housing program) in the old Breslin hotel and now home to the hot restaurant with the same name (more on that to come). Beers are tad pricey at $7-8. But the rooms are pretty inexpensive (for NYC) starting at $170. So finally, a hip hotel hip middle class people can afford -a noble cause no doubt, almost as noble as housing for the homeless. As for the bar, rather being the typical trendy uptight hotel bar trying really hard to seem laid-back, this one is the real thing, the crowd and staff are actually relaxed. Plus, there is free wifi for “guests”, a nice alternative to Starfucks.

Hours: daily: 12 am to 4 am

20 W 29th St, nr, Broadway, NY 10001 tel. (212) 679-2222

Filed under: Flatiron, hotel

Metropolitan

hahaha678910 — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:58:04 +0000

Williamsburg’s long overdue first gay bar. I know, with hipsters sometimes it’s hard to tell. And this joint certainly is nothing like Chelsea’s gay scene, but rather uberly mixed. The perfect place to bring hetero gay-shy friends. Regardless of your sexual or social preferences, you can have a fun time here. And what’s not to love, there’s a friendly dancefloor, 2 fireplaces and even video bowling. For the warmer months there is a good-sized backyard with free barbecues on summer Sundays.

Happy Hour: Daily, 3pm-8pm; two-for-one well drinks and domestic beer

Cash Only

559 Lorimer St., btwn Metropolitan & Devoe, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211 tel. 718.599.4444

Filed under: BROOKLYN, cheap, dancing, fireplace, gay, outdoors, Williamsburg

Manhattan Inn

hahaha678910 — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:48:43 +0000

A sweet newly opened cocktail den. Yes, yet another speakeasy-ish place. But, this one has a grand baby piano for live ragtime music. It’s a widely know fact that bars with pianos are more fun. Disclaimer: this place is in Greenpoint, not Manhattan. I guess the name Brooklyn Inn was already taken. (BTW neither are Inns) Cocktails are just $9 bucks, but just as fancy as what you find in the pricer and snottier zip codes and with a lower douchebag ratio. On a busy B&T weekends, trust me, this is a better Manhattan to be Inn.

Mon. – Thurs. 4 pm to 2:30 am, Fri.- Sat. 4pm to 4 am, Sun. opens 11:30 for brunch

632 Manhattan Ave. Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY 11222, 718-383-0885

Filed under: BROOKLYN, brunch, designer cocktails, food, Greenpoint, piano bar, speakeasy-ish

New York/Delhi

hahaha678910 — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:40:11 +0000

I am back from my 2-month trip to India. I saw some amazing things, but I also witnessed extreme poverty. Once you see kids digging through trash, you start to wonder if it is ever ok to pay $14 for a cocktail. Anyways, it isn’t all misery in India, this is a pic of the Mannekin bar (yes, that is how they spell it) pretty cool, right? Well, time to get back to NYC’s best bars!

Mannekin bar, N-2 Greater Kailash I N Block Market, New Delhi, India, tel. 011-41631814

Filed under: Uncategorized

GOING ON VACATION!

hahaha678910 — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:27:18 +0000

Dear readers,

Iheartnycbars is going on holiday. But we will be back mid January to bring you more of NYC’s best bars!

Happy Holidays!

Posted in Uncategorized

Star Lounge

hahaha678910 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:38:52 +0000

Fridays are gay night, which is probably their best and least cheesy nite. The bar has a sister bar in the Hamptons with the same name. It was once hard to get into, but now the scene is pretty lame. However if you want to get on the list here is the trick as my treat to you: call them a day before and say you are getting a bottle, that will get your name on the list. The thing is that once you get in, no one checks to see if you actually go to your table. Anyways, what makes the Star Lounge blogworthy, especially around the Halloween season is their VIP, called room 101, which is supposedly directly under the original room 101 of the legendary Chelsea Hotel. So what happened in that hotel room ? Well, that is where Nancy Spungen was found stabbed to death October 12, 1978. Yes Nancy, as in Sid and Nancy. And for those born in the late 80′s or 90′s that is Sid as in John Simon Ritchie aka Sid Vicious, the Sex Pistols’ pretty-bad-boy bassist and “singer”. Ritchie was arrested in connection with the murder, but was later released on bail. To this day it is still not clear who killed Nancy. Sid himself died of a drug overdose on February 2, 1979. R.I.P. Sid & Nancy

Hours: Daily, 11pm-4am

222 W. 23rd St. nr. Seventh Ave.NY 10011 212-255-4646

Posted in Chelsea, dancing, doorman, gay, history

Hotel Delmano

hahaha678910 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:47:30 +0000

A swanky cocktail den that seems more in place in Tribeca than Billyburg. I guess trust-fund hipsters like the speakeasy trend just as much as the next guy. That said this place really does it right. Very nice decor! You will feel that Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald will waltz in any minute, until you realize that their drunken ways torn them apart and that both died at an early age. Anyways, this once tattoo parlour may not be a real hotel, but you will still want to spend the night here.

Cocktail: Commandant’s Cocktail: pear cognac, Cointreau, lemon juice, and green chartreuse

Hours: Sun-Thu, 5pm-2am; Fri-Sat, 5pm-3am

82 Berry St., nr. N. 9th St., Brooklyn, NY 11211 718-387-1945

Posted in BROOKLYN, designer cocktails, speakeasy-ish, Williamsburg

Irish Brigade

hahaha678910 — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:02:08 +0000

This bar was opened in 1939 and originally named Park Gate (it does face Tyron Park). Barbara, the current owner, bought the bar 28 years ago and later renamed it the Irish Brigade (after an infantry brigade, consisting of mostly Irish immigrants, that served in the Union Army in the Civil War.) She explained that it was in honor of the Irish hunger strike of 1981, in which ten paramilitary prisoners had starved themselves to death. There is a lot of history in this bar with nicknacks everywhere: one of them being a piece of the USS enterprise, which rests over the door. This bar is a true classic and Barbara is an amazing lady, one of the few bartenders with who you can sit back and talk to like an old friend, after just meeting her for the first time.

Hours: daily 12 pm to 4 am

4716 Broadway, nr. Arden St, NY 10040

Posted in dive, friendly barman, history, Inwood, pool table

JG Melon

hahaha678910 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:27:09 +0000

This place was opened in 1932 and was originally called Bar Central, prior to that it was a speakeasy. Then owners Jack and George took it over in 1972 and it quickly became a preppy mecca. Soon the parents of these prepsters started going too, on account of the bar’s quirky decor (everywhere you look there is a painting of a melon.) Then it got to the point that the Kennedys were coming and then, none other that Grace Kelly ended up kicking back a Heineken at the bar, while waiting an hour for a table. To this day, although less, celebrities like Seinfeld keep on coming for the famed burgers and Bloody Marys. So if you hear someone say “look at those melons” you can be sure it’s a preppy’s sad attempt to be funny.

Cash Only

Hours: Daily, 11:30am-2:30am

1291 Third Ave., at 74th St., NY 10021 212-744-0585

Posted in brunch, history, restaurant, UES (Upper East Side)