New York City (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [121]
Garage Restaurant & Café.
Good news for you budget-minded jazzers: there’s no cover and no minimum at this Village hot spot, where two jazz groups jam seven nights a week and a fireplace sets the mood upstairs. | 99 7th Ave. S, between Bleecker and Christopher Sts., Greenwich Village | 10014 | 212/645–0600 | www.garagerest.com | Subway: 1 to Christopher St./Sheridan Sq.
Knickerbocker Bar and Grill.
Jazz acts are on the menu on Friday and Saturday nights at this old-fashioned steak house, a longtime staple of the city’s more intimate music scene. | 33 University Pl., at E. 9th St., Greenwich Village | 10003 | 212/228–8490 | www.knickerbockerbarandgrill.com | Subway: R to 8th St.
Fodor’s Choice | Village Vanguard.
This prototypical jazz club, tucked into a cellar in Greenwich Village since the 1940s, has been the haunt of legends like Thelonious Monk and Barbra Streisand (who recently came back for a one-night-only gig). Today you can hear jams from the jazz-star likes of Bill Charlap and Ravi Coltrane, and on Monday night the sizable resident Vanguard Jazz Orchestra blows its collective heart out. | 178 7th Ave. S, between W. 11th and Perry Sts., Greenwich Village | 10014 | 212/255–4037 | www.villagevanguard.com | Subway: 1, 2, 3 to 14th St.
WEST VILLAGE
Bars
124 Rabbit Club.
Named for a 19th-century bar on, or near, its current site, this tiny-yet-charming exotic-beer bar could easily steal the motto of the punk band the Germs: “What We Do Is Secret.” There’s such a hushed, sacred (yet low-rent) vibe to this subterranean space of baby chandeliers, scratchy wallpaper, and rabbit images that the glorious menu will come as a surprise: on it you’ll find “autumnal ales,” Trappist monk–made beers, and strange American concoctions on tap, plus fantastic beers from Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, and the Baltic region. | 124 MacDougal St., between W. 3rd and Bleecker Sts., West Village | 10012 | 212/254–0575 | Subway: A, C, E, B, D, F, M to W. 4th St.
The Dove.
On a colorful block that evokes the Greenwich Village of yore—cigar store, vegetarian cafés, a bootleg music shop, and not one but two stores specializing in chess—is this wonderful bar whose elegant atmosphere (red-velvet wallpaper, white-wood paneling) is belied by the revelry of the very sexy young customers. | 228 Thompson St., between W. 3rd and Bleecker Sts., West Village | 10012 | 212/254–1435 | www.thedoveparlour.com | Subway: E to Spring St.
Fodor’s Choice | Employees Only.
The dapper, white coated bartenders—many of them impressively mustachioed—at this Prohibition era–style bar mix delicious, well-thought out cocktails with debonair and aplomb. Sip one in the dimly lit, unpretentious bar area and you’ll feel as if you’ve stepped back in time—if it weren’t for the crush of trendy West Village locals and visitors in the know at your back. Look for the green awning that says EO and the neon “Psychic” sign out front. Dinner is served in the restaurant at the back: it’s quality, but pricey. | 510 Hudson St. West Village | 10014 | 212/242–3021 | www.employeesonlynyc.com| Subway: 1 to Christopher St, A, B, C, D, E, F, M to West 4th St.
Hudson Bar and Books.
Along with its sister branches—Beekman Bar and Books on Beekman Place and Lexington Bar and Books on, yep, Lexington—the Hudson reflects a literary bent on its cocktails with names like the Dewey Decimal, the Cervantes Spritzer, and Alphabet Absinthe (topped off with floating letter-shape sugar cubes). Despite that, it’s hardly a hushed library where well-read butlers serve you; no—the atmosphere here is more about book decor than serious literature. (It’s usually too dim to read or write anyway.) Still, it is seriously gorgeous in a clubby way with wood paneling and leather banquettes. And the cigars and swell cocktail menu stimulate all kinds of conversation, literary or otherwise. |