New York Restaurants

i.e. im not broke for once

lol

http://nymag.com/listings/bar/clover-club/

"you can absolutely ask the bartenders (so hot and talented) for advice or a surprise"

SURPRISE! you're pregnant!

lol

IT"S TWINS!

The post is actually cut off -- it says "surprise for a drink"

stop ruining the fun, hurting.

Do *hot and talented* bartenders at swanky cocktail joints really give "advice"? I thought that was for, like, middle-aged bartenders at dive bars 30 minutes before last call on a Tuesday.

Er not dive bars, I guess, but neighborhoody bars

perhaps she means advice on which cocktail to drink.

stop ruining the fun, tehresa
(wah waaaaahhhhh)

following your example, yo!
plus roxy's was funny. yours was analytical!

True. Sometimes I just can't get out of law school analysis mode these days.

i posted my ? on wrong thread by accident! where to take visiting friend + gf to dinner tomorrow? have specified not seafood (dude doesn't like "seafood" but likes sushi, but girl does not like raw fishes). ian recommended bozu but i may need to stay in manhattan...

Hello again. Sorry to email again so soon, but it seems the new phone number has already made it's way onto the internet.
When I opened Milk and Honey in January of 2000 it was not reservation only, and had no lock on the door. It was open to anyone who knew the address, and attracted a community of people with one thing in common: knowing how to drink and remain polite, to each other and the residents of Eldridge Street.

The barrage of constant write ups forced us to start running reservations, in order to prevent crowds outside from bothering our landlord (who lives directly upstairs.) Changing the number each time it was published worked for several years to keep the chain of word of mouth relatively strong.

Now, however, with the advent of blogging, there is no chance for that to work. Since the number change of a few weeks ago, my staff actually report an increase in first time customers, who have evidently never heard that it was a quiet bar, merely that it was a trendy one. The landlord has given us his first noise complaints in almost 9 years of business, all regarding the conversation of smokers outside or people exiting loudly.

Over the years our "first call, first serve" policy, while being fair on the face of it, I now realize was quite unfair to our regulars. The people were awake at 9 AM to send in the earliest text message and people who quietly exit the bar at 2 AM seem seldom to be the same people. In an effort to get back the small, like-minded community that we had in the beginning (and regain the quiet that we need to get our year-by-year lease renewed,) I am taking steps to convert Milk and Honey into a private social club.

This process will take over a year, involving the granting of a Social Club Charter by New York State.

In the meantime, we will adopt a half measure that allows us to remain within the law. If membership in such a program interests you, read on. If not, for the next year or so, reservations will still be available on [REDACTED].

M&H Regular Program

Four of our six tables will be allocated to our regulars, who may make an advance reservation, call twenty minutes prior, or just stop by without calling. Regulars will be given a key to the front door. If there are no seats available, you may lock up the next table, and go to White Star or another nearby bar and we will call you when the table is ready. There will be no standing room, and no more advance wait list.

Cocktails will be priced for regulars and their guests at $9, Regulars may bring up to 3 guests., and the key is non transferrable. There are three types of key available. A Standard one, which is $300 a year plus tax. ($325) To renew the membership at the same rate, the regular must have attended at least 10 weekdays the previous year, defined as Sunday through Wednesday. Everyone wants to come during prime time, but without consistent weekday business we will fail.

An Unrestricted key can be used as seldom as you like, and is 3000 a year, with tax $3250. If you have more money than time, this is for you. The Unrestricted key in no way has any advantage in service over a Regular Key. Tables are allocated first come or call, first serve. It is merely that we need each of the 250 keyholders to contribute their share into the business, one way or the other.

Lastly, an Industry key is available for people in the restaurant business. This key has no minimum visits, costs the same as a Standard key and is only valid after 1 AM. If an Industry key holder wishes to come before 1 AM on they must make a reservation, through the normal channel, for one of the other two tables, and will receive no preference in the reservation book.

The program will go into effect the first of November. Payment is by check to "M&H Concierge Services, inc". I will be at White Star, 21 Essex Street between Hester and Canal from 7-9pm starting Thursday, signing people up until we have reached 250 Standard key holders. I would like to meet each key holder face to face., and look forward to reconnecting with some old friends.

Sasha Petraske
14 October 2008

i can appreciate the desire to find a quieter place to drink but there must be 6000 bars in this city--do u really need to pay $300 a year just so you dont have to see anyone from long island?

lol stupidest bar in the world

exclusivity is fucking c-o-r-n-y

do u really need to pay $300 a year just so you dont have to see anyone from long island?

Listen to what you're saying.

its all marketing - u go in there and its just another place - except its filled w/people being all omg this is NOT just another place

I mean, I've never been to M&H despite all the fuss (tho I would have liked to). But if $300 could remove every LI resident from my nightspots for 365 days? I like going out in Brooklyn but not when it's because Manhattan is basically off limits now.

i heard manhattan is the new long island

Also there's my story abt walking near some douche & his douchier girlfriend on 11th St, he was wheeling and dealing on his celly, trying to find out where M&H was. When person on phone told him it was on the LES (not the East Vill, as he thought), he said, "Oh fuck no, my girl won't stand for going all the way down there" and hung up. Which would be great if it were true of more people.

yeah but laurel thats my point--there are a zillion bars here, many of which feature absolutely 0 douchebags--and it wouldnt cost me $300/yr + $15/drink to go

Best whisky sour ever is about as much as you need to know about M&H

eh e village/les basically is what it is at this point - one giant douche bag playland

ooooh u gonna buy the golden key ed

Not unless the open one up in Pitsburgh, no. (also the London one still takes reservations for non-members)

Right, which is the main reason I've never been there; the lure of the quality and experience just hasn't been enough to pull me away from $4 Budweiser elsewhere. But I'm feeling angry on the subject of LIslanders because a recurring night that I like is having major problems finding a venue not already occupied by impossible people on the weekend.

lol well im from NJ so i have a fair amount of sympathy for my fellow b-n-ters

Yah, I lived in Jersey for 5 years (and was born there) and frankly anyone from the outer boroughs was originally a B&Ter, too. So whatevs. But you and everyone else know that we're talking about a specific style of behavior.

one time i was on the bowery in one of those 2am traffic jams yelling why dont you fuckers just go back to jersey then i realized thats what they were doing

This seems to be the nature of major city centre drinking at the weekends. I'm not sure if this would pan out for new york but I am getting into hotel bars somewhat at the moment, partly because lots of London hotels are really raising their game in this regards and partly because the experience is more relaxed.

i like hotel bars cuz u always meet people

fuck hotels their bars and their tedious sealed little worlds

M&H is just trying to turn themselves back into a place with some sort of community feel - it's kind of been overrun by out-of-towners, food board douches, etc. That said, if you have to implement some kind of tiered membership structure and priority lists it's already too late. Having a good doorman takes care of all of that.

fuck hotels their bars and their tedious sealed little worlds

lol please describe how hotel bars are 'sealed little worlds' vs. local bars where you see the same people every night.

i was describing hotels fyi - utter convoluted enviroments

I would say having a membership policy is no guarantee of that, take the zoo that the soho houses are. I can see what M&H are trying to cultivate and I feel very comfortable in it whenever I have been to the London one. Nice thing about M&H is anyone can buy a membership from their website but it is implicit in that that you buy into the culture that they are aiming for when you do.

if i had a bar no one w/dreadlocks would be allowed inside - thats the only rule

if i worked at that bar i would constantly book reggae acts and then lol heartily

The London Hotels are really trying to throw open their bars and restaurants to the wider world. OK so it started a while back by getting celebrity chef's to take on the restaurants but the bars are an extension of this. they have a more neutral space kind of a feel but that makes them easier to slip into I think.

so more importantly: where am i taking friends for dinner?

Are they rich friends who are picking up the cheque?

old bartenders at old hotels are pretty much the best bartenders in the world - great personalities, good drinks, total tenure and no hesitation to talk shit.

good question - how is the AUS$?

thats not a dollar THIS is a dollar!

not so hot, they could buy a dollar for a dollar in the summer but now on of theirs buys only 69 of your cents

Not-boyfriend, coming though in the clinch, wanted to do something nicer than take-out last night...so he said "Meet me on the west side after work" and it turned out we were going to Becco! Which was great, and I so seldom eat out except for neighborhood joints that just being waited on by someone who speaks English and carries a pepper grinder is a luxury to me.

That said, the food seemed like a good version of whatever it was, but nothing outrageously new or amazing. I'll order more adventurously next time, my pork scallopini rolled with pistachios and bacon, served over radicchio and cippolini onions was too breaded for me and too...samey-tasting...seemed like something "safe" on the menu so that's prob my own fault. But the gnocchi with wild boar ragout, which I was prepared to be KILLED by, was just...good. Better than "okay" but not what I hoped in terms of all-day taste and essential meatiness.