The First Annual L Magazine Bar Awards
We love bars. We love them in the morning, when they smell of disinfectant and headache and the tomato juice tastes like coffee. We love them in the afternoon, when the light slants in and all the men are witty and all the women beautiful (or vice versa). We love them at 5am, when the doors are locked and you’ve finally forgotten and someone’s dancing alone in the corner. We sure do love bars. Particularly these ones.
Best Bar Where the Afternoon Bartendrix Will Let You Whip Your Own Cream For an Irish Coffee: Iona
Seriously, it was a Saturday, she watched as we whipped. Best Irish coffees of our lives, so good we had to go to confession after.
180 Grand St, Brooklyn
Best Bar in the Midtown Gulag Archipelago: Siberia
They keep trying to close it, it stays open. It’s like hitting a piece of iron.
356 W 40th St.
Best Bar for Pretending to Care About Art or Literature While Actually Just Being Interested in Getting Drunk Galapagos
“My friends think I look like Paul Auster… You look a lot like Nico... Wanna go to bed?”
70 N 6th St, Brooklyn
Best Snug: Local 138.
Features a dangerously intimate little room with a drive through-style window that gives onto the bar.
138 Ludlow St.
Best Bar With Staff (and atmosphere) Plucked From an Early Godard Movie Zebulon
Go on a weeknight. Great live music, no cover(!).
258 Wythe Ave, Brooklyn
Best ‘90s Theme Bar: Bill’s Gay ‘90s
Opened in the 1920s as an 1890s-themed speakeasy. Wrap your head around that, 70s buffs.
57 E 54th St.
Best Back Room: Freddy’s Back Room
Poor doomed Freddy’s Back Room and their, uhhh, back room are still keeping the faith in the shadow of Ratner, hosting great music, comedy, and the awesome Cringe reading series.
485 Dean St, Brooklyn
Best Late-Night Bar Kitchen: Snacky
Chap Chae at 2am, Wong Kar-Wai on the TV... What else do you need?
187 Grand St, Brooklyn
Best Bar For Live Music: Lakeside Lounge
Rock ‘n’ roll and two-dollar Old Milwaukee never tasted so good.
162 Ave B
Best Monday Night Football special The Palace
There's dollar beers and a free buffet cooked by the bartender's mom. Plus, the best hair metal jukebox in the city kicks in once the bartender decides the game is over, usually somewhere in the third quarter.
206 Nassau Ave, Brooklyn
Best Jukebox: The Library
What is there to say about a barroom jukebox, really, except “the people programming it have the same taste as me”? Well, the people at the Library do. Except without those 2 Live Crew records we’ve always been too embarrassed to sell.
7 Ave A
Best DIVE BAR Bathroom to Vomit In Rosemary’s Greenpoint Tavern
Frankly, between the 32-ounce styrofoam cups of Bud, the bleary-faced hipsters and the old Polish drunks, it seems to be a pretty natural fit.
188 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn
Best Luxury bar Bathroom to Vomit In The Hotel On Rivington.
The private apartments-cum-bathrooms with wall-covering mirrors makes puking a luxury. Until, that is, you see yourself in the mirror.
107 Rivington St.
Best Bar In Which Most of This Issue Was Conceived: 68 Jay
Close to our hearts, and close to our offices.Honorable mention for one of the classiest bartenders in town. Hi Karen!
68 Jay St, Brooklyn
Best Bar To Root For Your Fantasy Football Team at the Expense of Your Real Team: Croxley Ale’s
Also a good place to take a break from your fantasy relationship.
28 Ave B
Best Place to Drink Before Noon Spring Lounge
Yes, it’s touristy, but an 8am beer usually takes care of any rubbernecking; and the light’s real nice in the morning.
48 Spring St.
Best Soccer Bar: Floyd
The key here is being able to order the English breakfast from the Atlantic Chip Shop a few doors down. Also, they have bocce.
131 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn
Best Free Bar Snacks Three-way tie: Alligator Lounge, Capone’s, Crocodile Lounge
Pizza, pizza, pizza. Beer, beer, beer.
600 Metropolitan Ave; 221 N 9th St; 325 E 14th St.
Best Bar Where Young Dudes Dressed Ironically in Old Man Outfits Have Supplanted the Actual Old Men That Used to Drink There: Turkey’s Nest
Used to serve a mean to-go margarita. Oh well.
94 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn
Best Bar in Which to Overhear Tomorrow’s NY Post Headlines Today Langan’s
You know, “Mother is Booed Amid Boo Hoos” does sound a lot better when you’re shit-faced.
150 W 47th St.
