Midtown Lunch

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.

I’m normally not one to host a happy hour in a bar and grill, but when you call yourself “Best Bar & Burgers” … well, this “fat kid” just can’t help herself. With a flashing “bar” sign hanging above its door and a hookah silhouette on its awning, you’d be amiss not to instantly spot this place.

Walking into the patron-less bar, I wondered if this would be a huge mistake. Curiously (and more selfishly, looking out for the future of my stomach), I asked the manager, David, if and when the restaurant would pick up. Being that the restaurant opened just four months ago (taking over what formerly was 36 West), and offers happy hour specials ($4 well drinks and $3 domestic bottles, which consisted of Bud/Bud Light and Coors/Coors Light) starting at 7 pm when most other bars end theirs, Best Bar & Burger lights up around 7:30.

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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.

I don’t care how old you are or how much you make, hearing the word “free” is always music to the ears. As oftentimes “free” comes with a catch, this week’s post does carry a small stipulation. At No Idea Bar, each night is assigned a different first name, and anyone so named gets to drink for FREE from 5 PM – 11 PM. But make sure you bring friends, as you will not be eligible to receive free drinks if you show up alone. (They are a business, after all!). Ranging from Jen and John to Xizi and Aditi, No Idea’s Name Night allows for just about everyone to drink for free. There’s even a section on their site for you to pitch your (or a friend’s) name for Name Night.

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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.

Okay, I get it. No one enjoyed last week’s review of Player’s. But as life has it, you win some and then you lose some. This week, hopefully you’ll agree, my visit is a win. Every once in a while, or for most, once in a blue moon, you walk into an unassuming bar for the very first time, and realize instantly that you’ve found “home” (or at least, as home as you can get inside a Midtown bar). Not since my visit to Dublin’s Temple Bar years ago, have I been able to garner such instant camaraderie with a bartender as well as the bar’s patrons…that is, until my friends and I found Nelly Spillane’s.

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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.

My K-town excursion a few weeks ago got me thinking. Where there’s one hidden gem, there must be others…right? This week, I was determined to find another est. 1986 Wine Bar. You know, the kind of place that’s so good, it pains me to tell you about its existence.

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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.

Last week, while drinking on Lucy’s rooftop and taking in the scenery that is TGI Friday’s, my friend Nina noticed an obnoxiously large ad on top of Roastown Coffee for Beer Town. A sports bar located on the second floor of a “healthy food bar?” Sounded like Midtown Lunch material to me!

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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.

6:18. That was the train I used to always run, literally run, to catch. Working above the Manhattan Mall and living in the suburbs of New Jersey, I quickly learned that good, fast happy hour spots are not easy to find. Sure, there were the usual suspects, such as Stout, Feile and Blarney Stone, but oftentimes, those spots get so packed, I’d have to dart out almost as soon as I was able to (finally) get my drink. Oh, Penn Station, how I do not miss you and your time constraints. That said, all is not lost, my fellow Herald Square workerbees and Penn Station commuters. Lucy’s Cantina Royale, located steps from Penn, is a great spot to meet up with your friends and coworkers for some standard Tex-Mex fare, tequila, and every co-ed’s favorite – fishbowls.

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Call me naïve or call me boring, but for some reason, I never think to organize a happy hour in K-town. Hidden above the packed sidewalks of Korea Way, est. 1986 Wine Bar & Lounge is the sort of speakeasy I wish I wasn’t telling you about. By the time this review publishes, I will have already endured pleas from my coworkers, imploring me not to share est. 1986 with you.

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Truffles – not your typical Midtown Lunch focus; but for this review, truffles are my star…well, truffle fries anyway. And Brickyard’s White Truffle Frites were so good, my fellow happy hour-ers and I ate every little crumb.  Check them out after the jump…

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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. This week our new Happy Hour correspondent Jackie hits up an old restaurant row standby.

Surveying my friends (out of pure curiosity, boredom, and the need for inspiration) regarding the top three things that come to mind when they think of New York state, I realized how UN-New-York-y, they are. That said, there were quite a few “sensical” things that overlapped, including pizza (we’ll tackle that one later), the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Buffalo wings, and Brooklyn. Inspired by New York and the “little towns” in it, Little Town Restaurant Row pays homage to the Empire State in its entirety, including the “New York-y” things mentioned above.

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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. This week, instead of our usual bar review, we decided to offer a special video for St. Patty’s Day!

In anticipation of every beer drinkers favorite holiday this Saturday, I convinced Clay and Blondie to join me at one of the Irish pubs in Midtown that doesn’t have chicken picatta or lobster ravioli on the menu. Mulligan’s Pub is a good old fashioned Irish bar on Madison and 39th that’s been serving Grand Central commuters for almost two decades.

Clay captured it all on video and so we present our first video special to all our readers after the jump. Please drink, eat, and be merry tomorrow. Enjoy and sláinte!

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