A Remembrance of Bars Past
by Audrey FerenceArticle Tools
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R Bar 218 Bowery
Downtown Bar & Grill 160 Court St.
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It’s the end of September and therefore time for our annual birthday edition. While trying to decide what two bars to recommend for birthday party hosting — a kind of stupid exercise since everyone knows the funnest birthday parties are house parties — I realized that nothing is more depressing than thinking up some place to have your party and then realizing that place doesn’t exist anymore. Is there anything more “getting older in New York” than bitching about how whatever bar used to be somewhere is better than what’s there now? No.
And yet I’m going to. Because here’s the thing: I liked Pioneer Bar. Maybe it wasn’t the best bar ever, but it was a nice spot with nice wood paneling and a nice bartender and usually you could bring a large group of people there. And now it’s gone, and R Bar is opening in its place. To be fair, I haven’t been to R Bar. Maybe the DJ booth and stripper poles and pleather walls and shitty, informationless, bad-song-playing flash website belies a nice place where pals can get together for some endrunkening. But I doubt it.
BLVD or Mission or whatever the fuck it is across the street is bad enough, but do we really need another shitty bottle club downtown? You know I love bars more than the average person, and clearly the State Liquor Authority’s freeze on granting liquor licenses to establishments with two other drinking establishments (even two restaurants!) within 500 feet is insane. But opening this kind of trashy Meatpacking joint isn’t winning anyone over. People, this is why we can’t have nice things.
I guess it’s crotchety to dwell on new bad bars without applauding improvements, so I submit that Cousins, that creepy pseudo sports bar on Court Street just down the way from Cody’s, has been replaced by a very nice if still somewhat empty bar called Downtown Bar & Grill. They have many fine beers on tap, and an old-timey Western mirror behind the bar.
Anyway, as far as birthdays go, if you want to depress yourself, try counting the number of places you’ve liked that aren’t there anymore. More than you’d like to think about, eh, old-timer? At least you’re not old enough to be one of those “cool” Park Slope dads or anything. Take comfort in that. And happy birthday, everybody.
R Bar 218 Bowery
Downtown Bar & Grill 160 Court St.
……………………………………………………………………………
It’s the end of September and therefore time for our annual birthday edition. While trying to decide what two bars to recommend for birthday party hosting — a kind of stupid exercise since everyone knows the funnest birthday parties are house parties — I realized that nothing is more depressing than thinking up some place to have your party and then realizing that place doesn’t exist anymore. Is there anything more “getting older in New York” than bitching about how whatever bar used to be somewhere is better than what’s there now? No.
And yet I’m going to. Because here’s the thing: I liked Pioneer Bar. Maybe it wasn’t the best bar ever, but it was a nice spot with nice wood paneling and a nice bartender and usually you could bring a large group of people there. And now it’s gone, and R Bar is opening in its place. To be fair, I haven’t been to R Bar. Maybe the DJ booth and stripper poles and pleather walls and shitty, informationless, bad-song-playing flash website belies a nice place where pals can get together for some endrunkening. But I doubt it.
BLVD or Mission or whatever the fuck it is across the street is bad enough, but do we really need another shitty bottle club downtown? You know I love bars more than the average person, and clearly the State Liquor Authority’s freeze on granting liquor licenses to establishments with two other drinking establishments (even two restaurants!) within 500 feet is insane. But opening this kind of trashy Meatpacking joint isn’t winning anyone over. People, this is why we can’t have nice things.
I guess it’s crotchety to dwell on new bad bars without applauding improvements, so I submit that Cousins, that creepy pseudo sports bar on Court Street just down the way from Cody’s, has been replaced by a very nice if still somewhat empty bar called Downtown Bar & Grill. They have many fine beers on tap, and an old-timey Western mirror behind the bar.
Anyway, as far as birthdays go, if you want to depress yourself, try counting the number of places you’ve liked that aren’t there anymore. More than you’d like to think about, eh, old-timer? At least you’re not old enough to be one of those “cool” Park Slope dads or anything. Take comfort in that. And happy birthday, everybody.
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