Point Break: Good, But Not as Good as the Movie

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe it was time to introduce a happy hour column to the site. Every week, our Happy Hour Correspondent posts 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.

“Little hand says it’s time to rock and roll.” Though I wasn’t following Bodhi’s footsteps to a life of crime, I was hoping to find a little fun drink action when I agreed to review Point Break. About a five minute walk from Grand Central Terminal, this “surf bar” (yes, another one – it’s summer, it’s hot, and I want to at least pretend I’m not stuck in NYC and instead, am somewhere more…beachy) is in an ideal midtown location.

Greeted by some green glob dressed in Mexican attire, a couple of upright surf boards, poorly strung Christmas tree lights and their giant tagline reading “Bar. Grill. Risky. Business.,” I immediately had a good feeling about this place.

Already knowing they have a shot wheel (for $5, spin the wheel for a random shot) and that I’d have to at least sample the $5 fried pickles our reader, Logan requested, this night was already turning into a show.

Our crowd was small this week, but it didn’t stop us from staying well past happy hour (Monday – Friday from 5-7 pm). Soaring built-in liquor shelves, surf boards, broom sticks, rock and roll mug shots (cue in Patrick Swayze and Marilyn Manson), and a photo booth adorn this laid-back dive. Paying homage to the movie, one of Bodhi’s most memorable lines, “You want the ultimate thrill, you ‘gotta be willing to pay the ultimate price” leads drinkers upstairs to a lounge furnished with sofas (where beer pong is organized) and additional tables.

Being a Tuesday night, I opted for the Monday and Tuesday special – all day and night, Point Break offers a $4 Razz Fun, $4 Margaritas, and $3 Keystone Lights and Keystone Ices. Not typically one for pink-colored drinks, I still opted for the Razz – a fusion of raspberry vodka, soda and cranberry juice. At first taste, I swore it was watered down Robitussin, but after half a dozen, it actually started tasting quite good.

All that sugar led to some hungry bellies, so we ordered grub from their small plates menu – fried pickles ($5), pigs in a blanket with honey mustard and garlic ketchup ($5), and macaroni and cheese wedges with chipotle aioli ($5). Though the fried pickles were decent, I’ve definitely had better. If you want to eat something that’s actually kind of sort of delicious, try that fried mac. It was so good, my selfish fat kid self ate every bit before my friends could have even one.


Point Break Specials: Happy Hour is Monday through Fridays from 5-7, $4 drafts and well drinks; Mondays and Tuesdays, $4 Razz Fun and Margaritas and $3 Keystone Lights and Keystone Ices; Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, $4 Bombs and $10 Miller High Life 40s.

Point Break, 12 W 45th St (between 5th Ave and 6th Ave), (212) 391-8053

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