Immaculate Infatuation

Last weekend, we went out for a buddy’s 30th birthday and wound up at the friends and family opening party at Rye House. Awesome. A timely new review sitting and waiting to be written without having to go out of my way. Perfect timing too considering both UrbanDaddy and Grub Street blew this place up that same morning.

The recent movement in NYC nightlife away from red ropes and bottle service might actually make this city fun to ‘go out’ in again. We’re huge fans of these new school drinking establishments that deliver the goods with their beer and cocktail repertoire, but also make sure the kitchen plays a big role in defining what they’re all about. Rye House is a perfect example of this trend. It’s not fancy or trying too hard. It’s the kind of place ideal for grabbing beers and grub with friends after work on a Friday night. When I think about bars in this city I actually enjoy hanging out in, Rye House definitely fits the mold.

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We are spoiled in this city…especially when it comes to food, booze, and the general pursuit of things that make us feel good. In a place where pretty much anything you can think of is no further than a cab ride away, it’s easy to become jaded and complain about the few things you can’t get. We have our own list of luxuries that we feel deprived of, and it includes, but is not limited to the following: good Mexican food, streets that don’t smell like pee, and true beer bars that know their shit.

Now that we’ve been to Blind Tiger, we will retract that last part. I grew up in Colorado, and went to college in Fort Collins, which is place that several very successful breweries call home. Needless to say, I became accustomed to drinking in bars with incredible beer selections. What I also became accustomed to, was eating some kind of terrible chicken ranch sandwich for dinner in these places, because that’s what you get in Fort Collins (ranch dressing is a religion in this part of the country). What we have found at Blind Tiger is a New York City bar that actually has an extensive microwbrew selection AND excellent food. Unfortunately, we’re not the only ones that know it. The place gets very crowded at times, but weekend afternoons are perfect, as are late nights when you need a good beer and a grilled cheese. The wings and sandwiches are also excellent, and it’s a great place to mix it up and meet people. Be warned though – the bar staff know their beer, but they’re not very friendly. We’ll let it slide…but only because there are Colorado brews on the tap every once in a while.

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Respect. We’ve got a lot of it for Old Town, a straight forward burgers, beer, and whisky kind of place. Over a century of Big Apple history lies within these walls, saturated into their prohibition-era marble bar and stained all over their vintage urinals and toilets. Old Town’s no frills formula has been working for generations. It’s all about the company you keep and beer you drink. It worked back when my grandfather used to come here for a game of checkers. It worked when my father used to come here with his law school buddies, and it works now when I want to grab a low key burger and beer with friends. Old Town is a true throwback. One of the few old-New York bar/restaurants that still exists in its original form from the 1800’s, unfazed by NYC’s always changing trends and fads.

Old Town sports a full menu of salads and sandwiches, all of which I’m sure are relatively tasty in their own right. I wouldn’t know though, because I come here for one reason and one reason only: burgers. Stick with what they do best and you’ll be just fine.

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Good bar food is not such an easy find in Manhattan. Generally speaking, the wings in NYC are a joke and usually wind up costing way more than they should. Not at Reservoir. Looking for a good place to post up for a night of grubbing, game watching, and beer drinking? This is your spot. On a good day, Reservoir boasts some of the city’s best Buffalo wings (sometimes the wings can be too small) plus I have serious love for their perfectly done waffle fry. Yes, the crowd is very NYU bro-dawg heavy but it’s a great sleeper spot to kick it with your friends and not break the bank (burger + fries $8.50, 20 wings $8.50). Oh, and two tips. If you’re getting a burger make sure you order a ‘Buffalo burger’ – it’s better than their normal burger and not on the menu. Also, Sunday night is wing night, thirty cents apiece.

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Here at immaculateinfatuation.com, we put a lot of effort into marrying our passions for both music and food, and we love it when we find examples of other people doing the same. If you have ever been to Pianos to see a band in the back room, you probably didn’t expect that it’s the kind of place that would turn out some damn good bar food. It’s usually crowded as hell with a mix of indie music nerds and girls that just moved to the city who loooove the Lower East Side. Also, it smells like a dirty basement. Regardless, they have a great selection of bar fare that you wouldn’t expect to see on a menu in a place like this, and it’s obvious that they care about quality. The only downside is that tables can be hard to come by if you’re there during the Lower East Side high tide of humans and if you sit upstairs, there is a good chance you’ll be eating to the special sounds of an amateur musician on a borrowed guitar. Either way, next time you’re at Pianos, sit down at a table and grab some chow to soak up the booze. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

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