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 don’t know anyone who actually commutes to and from Grand Central Terminal. But if you do, I’m sorry. Working in Midtown, you’d think I’d be used to the pushing and shoving hoards, but I can’t. I can never get used to strangers invading my box (which is far more intrusive here than by my Herald Square office). That said, Grand Central commuters, if you haven’t discovered it already, you have a retreat around the corner, should you choose to use it.

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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.

Iced. Cold. Beer. That’s exactly what you’ll sip (or chug) on every time if you sit at the bar of Lansdowne Road.  Oh, and built into the bar top is an ice rail for resting whichever of the 14 beers on their tap you decide to order…

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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.

“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.

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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.

Unstingy, heavy pourers. Those are my favorite bartenders. And bars that encourage this sort of behavior? Well, those are my favorite bars. Typically, in NYC, the only way to make sure you get a fair amount of scotch in your glass is to ask for it neat; otherwise, you just end up getting a glass of ice with a measly splash of the good stuff. At Katwalk, however, a scotch on the rocks means a full glass of scotch accompanied by 3 cubes of ice. And with half off ALL drinks during happy hour (daily from 4 pm – 8 pm), my $7 spirit hit the right spot without adding any financial guilt.

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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.

Board shorts…check. Aquarium…check. Gaudy décor…check! A place where Dory and friends would happily call home, Réunion, a French surf bar marked by, you guessed it, a surfboard, was totally on my (very) short list of themed midtown places to check out.

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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’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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