Midtown Happy Hour: A Look Inside Mercury Bar

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.

Mercury Bar isn’t terribly noticeable when compared to the other watering holes on 9th Avenue. It always seems a bit dark from the outside but once you come inside the ample, black naugahyde booths, cocktail tables and enormous bar reveal a lounge with many possibilities. I stopped in this week for a beer and to give you all a look inside.

They have plenty of local beers on tap like Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, Blue Point, Magic Hat, and Chicago’s Goose Island craft beer, as well as imports like Bass, Stella, Newcastle, and Paulaner.

The liquor selection is as long as a limo and befitting of a Manhattan nightclub but the multi-flat screens scream out sports bar which makes sense seeing their sister bar, Tonic, is also very sports centric.

The beer specials are a let down with $4 drafts of Coors, Bud, Miller and Yuengling and cocktails at $5 from 4 to 8PM. The $20 for a pitcher of margaritas (serves 4 people) or the Dos XX bucket ($18) is a reasonable deal compared to some midtown bars but if I know my ML lushes this would only be a short chapter in a long night out.

The hostesses tend to be pretty ladies and the vibe is very convivial. The atmosphere can be mercurial and change from loud and crowded to laid-back given the time of day.

I didn’t get to try the food in this first pass but I am curious to check out their ML friendly $7.95 lunch.  Has anybody tried this place out? Give your opinion in the comments, I’ll reserve my +/-  once I visit a few more times.

Mercury Bar, 659 9th Ave. (btw 45+46th), 212-262-7755

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