New York Restaurants

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.

the food seemed like a good version of whatever it was, but nothing outrageously new or amazing

it's basically a pre-theatre place; that's their steez

steez

buggerme, I hate this word

stfu england

steez nuts

i hate it too, but it works

what was wrong with schtick?

too jewish

steez is one of the best most useful words ever /childofthe90s

what was wrong with schtick?

A shtick (Yiddish: שטיק) (or schtick) is a comic theme or gimmick.

people also use the word schtick to mean style or motif or what have you

hey, is anyone else going to the Vendys tomorrow?

i volunteered last year as a bartender, but i can't do it this year. my advice would be to go early.

thanks. i have to leave early anyway.

Coworker recommends I'll bagatto for dinner. Anyone been?

not in years, but it used to be really good. piadina, gnocco, and perbacco are a few other good italian places with similar price points in that area.

went to no 7 last night--starters were fantastic, gf got this broccoli tempura-type thing with a black bean sauce and i got some good pork with these amazing fried eggs... entrees werent quite as amazing but still way enjoyable--salmon with scallion pancake and vegetarian lasgna. also not too amazingly crowded. spent most of the night staring a dude who we think we went to college with.