A Look At L’ybane Wine Bar & Where To Get Your Drink On For Friday The 13th

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so every week our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” will post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap.

L’ybane restaurant and wine bar moved last year from their location on the UES to new digs on 8th Ave. just off the Times Square lights. The menu is a fusion of French and Lebanese with dishes like moules frites and kefta harissa. The look is warm, candle lit and ‘simple et accueillant’ (let’s hope that high school French class does me justice here.) The dinner menu favors small dishes that mostly fall just out of the ML $10 buck chuck, but what doesn’t is their happy hour. At the bar they serve $5 glasses of house wine, including mimosas, sake, sangria and chocolate martinis from 4pm till 7.

Check out the bar and my Friday the 13th drink picks after the jump!


This is a cozy spot for a wine lover or for a group that would like to avoid the beer and sports bar crowds. There is a hummus special for $6.75 which includes a topping of beef, chicken or veggies during happy hour, but I opted to stick to my glass of wine before the owner’s friend kicked me out the door for taking his picture. Tell me that’s not an evil eye I’m getting.

L’ybane, 709 Eigth Avenue (btw. 44th/45th St.) 212-582-2012

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Don’t be superstitious on Friday the 13th! Be super sauced!

For all you freaked out about walking under ladders and avoiding black cats on Friday the 13th, maybe a drink is in order. Personally, 13 is my favorite number and I do own a black cat. So this is an occasion to celebrate.

Turtle Bay, 987 2nd Ave, seems to agree and they are doing so with a “Black Out” theme: all the beer and liquor you can handle from 6-7pm for $10. Well, when a gauntlet like that is thrown down I expect ML readers ready, able and eager to accept the challenge. That’s right, damn the Gods, defy primitive superstitions, slug down all the booze you can in an hour and dare fate to bring on the unlucky! (They will be giving away free prizes later in the night, not that you’ll be coherent enough to notice by then.)

There is also a “Freaky Friday” meet-up at Croton Lounge, 108 West 40th street, with $4 Beers, $5 Well Drinks, $5 Margaritas & $6 Wine downstairs till 9 PM, plus free chocolate and goodie bags for women. There will also be face painting, because I guess that’s what you do after a few too many margaritas.

And lastly, Irish Exit on 978 2nd Ave. will have a Friday the 13th “Lucky Charm Contest” where you can apply for a job and get paid to party. Sounds like a job for Snooky. They’ll also have a happy hour special of $4 Jameson shots, $5 pints of Guinness, and $6 Irish car bombs that might cause you to make an Irish exit.

For those who live in Manhattan or are in the area this weekend, check out the 9th Avenue Fair! Sat & Sun from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm, running all along 9th Avenue from 37th Street to 57th Street. Grab some food and dive in to one of the many local watering holes.

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