courtesy of the New York Times . . .
June 25, 2006
Weekend in New York
Bellying Up to Some Bargains in New York%26#39;s Bars
By SETH KUGEL
THE going price for a martini in New York City is $12, and beer is $7 or $8 a bottle or pint. But just because you%26#39;re visiting doesn%26#39;t mean you have to drink (and pay) like some out-of-town sucker.
All you need to do is get a handle on the city%26#39;s nearly endless happy hour options, which often feature great food specials as well as discount drinks; some of them are even available on Saturdays and Sundays. So, if a drizzly day happens to ruin your Central Park jaunt, you can drown your sorrows in something other than rainwater (and nearly as cheap). Afterward, seek out New York%26#39;s two-tiered designated driver system: the guys in the yellow cars aboveground, and the subway conductors below.
HEDEH Third Street and its eastern continuation, Great Jones Street, is a pulsing happy hour vein that runs through the heart of Greenwich Village near New York University. There are $5 espresso martinis at Five Points, a $7 sorrel caipirinha (a cocktail in which Jamaica hugs Brazil) at Negril Village and the $4 burger-and-fries to go with your $4 Sam Adams beer at Groove. But Hedeh beats them all (happy hour, 5 to 7:30 p.m.) with its unusual drinks and quirky snack menu. Drinks appeal in their creativity, from the sake-tini, the margarita with yuzu fruit and the sake sangria (all $5 or less). Snacks include maki rolls or a seared tuna sashimi with onion soy dressing. The place, pretty expensive for dinner, is an affordable delight before or after. And, if you can ease into the table by the window on a warm evening, you%26#39;ll wonder why people eat in the back at all.
SAPA This French-Vietnamese restaurant in Chelsea got one star from Frank Bruni of The Times in 2005 for a menu that has entrees in the $30 range. But during its seven-day-a-week 5:30-to-7:30 happy hour, you can get two drinks and a whole lot of appetizers for the same price. Sit either at the inviting bar or at the low-slung white cushioned seats in the lounge and take advantage of $5 martinis (the real gin or vodka kinds, not the litchi/raspberry/apple interlopers) and glasses of wine. Other highlights include a happy hour menu with items like the $2 oyster shooters: a shot glass with an oyster, sake and wasabi for those with rarefied tastes. Then there is the $4 bowl of barbecued pork wontons for the rest of us.
FIVES As most everyone knows since the remake of ';The Omen'; came out on June 6, repeated uses of the number 6 means you%26#39;re dialing the devil%26#39;s area code. What fewer people know is that repeated fives are associated with great deals on wine. Starting at 5 p.m. on all five weekdays, the Peninsula hotel at Fifth Avenue and 55th Street serves glasses of five different wines for $5 each. The subdued bar in the subdued hotel may not be so different from hotel bars in other cities, but it is a soothing place to relax after a late-afternoon check-in or a day of shopping on Fifth Avenue. There are also nice touches: a piano player, the bamboo toothpicks you use to pluck up the olives, chunks of Parmigiano-Reggiano and house-made candied walnuts that come at no extra cost. The wine selection changes weekly.
RINK BAR For those who prefer things a little more lively after their Friday afternoon adventures on Fifth Avenue, there%26#39;s the outdoor bar on what is, in winter, the ice-skating rink at Rockefeller Center. During the winter holidays, people pay $25 (including skate rental) to glide beneath the world%26#39;s most famous Christmas tree. But on a Friday night in summer, the same money will get you three $6 margaritas and two $4 Coronas, with change, from 5 p.m. till closing. (There are other drink specials on other weekdays, but none on Saturday or Sunday.) Though there%26#39;s no tree, you can still stare up at the flags and the Rockefeller Center building, or gaze at a mixed crowd that is lively and unintimidating.
PAZZA NOTTE If Fives is too highfalutin and Rink too touristy, a deeper New York scene that bustles with very good-looking people drinking two-for-one $12 martinis is just blocks away (and just south of Central Park). The discount runs from 5 to closing every day, although Saturdays and Sundays lack that high-pheromone after-work edge. Martinis come in endless flavors, from white peach to litchi, but don%26#39;t ask for two different flavors. Two-for-one means two-for-one, from the same shaker.
LOTUS CLUB The drink specials here from 4 to 7 p.m. essentially serve as transition hours from a bright, scone-loving-newspaper-reader-friendly daytime cafe to a bustling nighttime bar. Perfect if your group is split between those who want a great choice of $3 draft beers and those in need of a late-afternoon caffeine pick-me-up. You can even check your e-mail on the wireless network if, sadly, you have taken your laptop on vacation.
VENUE INFORMATION
Hedeh, 57 Great Jones Street between Bowery and Lafayette Street, 212-473-8458. Open Monday through Saturday, happy hour daily from 5 to 7:30 p.m. and, Monday through Thursday, 10:30 to closing.
Sapa, 43 West 24th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, 212-929-1800. Happy hour 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. daily.
Bar at Fives, Peninsula New York, 700 Fifth Avenue at 55th Street, 212-903-3918. Five at Fives special available Monday through Friday, 5 to 7 p.m. through Sept. 4.
Rink Bar, at Rockefeller Center, Fifth Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, 212-332-7620. Drink specials from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Pazza Notte, 1375 Sixth Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets, 212-765-6288. Two-for-one martinis 5 p.m. to closing.
Lotus Lounge, 35 Clinton Street at Stanton Street, 212-253-1144. Happy hour 4 to 8 p.m. seven days a week, midnight to 1 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday.
Also:
Five Points, 31 Great Jones Street between Bowery and Lafayette Street, 212-253-5700. Happy hour 5 to 6 p.m. daily, $5 martinis and $2 oysters.
Negril Village, 70 West Third Street, 212-477-2804. Happy hour 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. Drink specials $5 to $7.
Groove, 125 MacDougall Street at West Third Street, 212-254-9393. Happy hour 1 to 9 p.m.. All food and beverages, $4.
Bargains at New York City Bars . . .Where is a beer $7 - $8? I can get falling down drunk for $30 and I live in Manhattan. If you tip, every third or fourth idrink s free anyway. You obviously are not going to the right places, and the places you list (most of them) I wouldn%26#39;t go to if the drinks were free.
Bargains at New York City Bars . . .Well, Bobby C- since livetotravel was willing to take the time to post an article with a variety of drinking choices- how about you? What are some of these ';right places'; that you enjoy for a $30 drunk?
Dear BobbyC - read closely and you will see that the recommendations are from the NY Times. (very first words at beginning of post)
Maybe you should address your ';falling down drunk'; experiences in a letter-to-the-editor at letters@nytimes.com
Question about Fives - that%26#39;s not the rooftop bar, correct?
Thanks, ltt. The special at Fives looks good!
Here%26#39;s a nifty website - Drinkdeal.com - that shows all happy hours and drink specials around town:
http://drinkdeal.com/home.aspx?cityid=
Correct - the rooftop bar at the Pennisula is the Pen-Top
vacationidea.com/articles/gallery/peninsula_鈥?/a>
You would think the NY Times would know that 24th between Broadway and 6th is NOT Chelsea.
only a slimey realtor try to would pull that!
If you live in Brooklyn, why not post something of your own experiences. There are plenty of good bars there, and not many I have ever been to charge $7 - $8 for a beer.
The article is stupid and lacks any basis in reality, why post it? Trying to name the ';best'; bars in New York is a fruitless task and really the Times should know better. Simple as that
I don%26#39;t think the article was stupid at all (thanks Live). We are visitors to New York and don%26#39;t want to go to Brooklyn (or wherever) just to drink cheaply, we want a great-looking place, too, and the fact that some of them have bargain prices, too, well, isn%26#39;t that a nice bonus?
Live, thanks for the link to the Peninsula pictures...I don%26#39;t recall its name being mentioned when people ask about a pool, but it looks like a pretty nice one.
Too bad we%26#39;re coming in November so we%26#39;d freeze to death at some of these great looking rooftop places (if they are even open at that time of year).
QB, that%26#39;s a great link to the Happy Hours - another keeper.
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