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Defying Extinction: New "Old" NYC Venues
- by aliciak
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- September 19, 2009
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There are many old-school venues in New York that have survived rent hikes and neighborhood changes over many decades. But then there are what I call the new "old" venues: places that look to the past for inspiration, a returning to a different time. Speakeasies, roller skating rinks, bowling alleys! Oldies but goodies and yet kind of newbies!
Speakeasies
The following aren’t true speakeasies, as it isn’t Prohibition anymore and with the whole internet and all, they aren’t secret places that require some sort of password or code that you must “speak easy” in order to enter. Nonetheless, they fall into what we/Yelp/whoever think of as a speakeasy, i.e., unmarked door or slightly hard to get to entrance.
They tend to be on the upscale side with well-thought-out design, low-lighting and exquisitely and perfectly made drinks. In other words, don’t wear your running shorts and don’t bring your frat boy friends. Try not to get too toasted either; perhaps speakeasies used to be the headquarters for drinking, but now there’s bodega beer around the corner. Keep it sophisticated!
What's Old is New is Old...
Milk and Honey
134 Eldridge Street New York, NY 10079
It used to be that you needed access to the super duper special phone number to get in to Milk and Honey, but now that’s out the window too? Cough up the hefty membership fees, I guess!
Weather Up
589 Vanderbilt Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11226
Marked by white subway tiles outside and a few lights, Weather Up is a tiny cocktail speakeasy that is fortunately in my ’hood. The garden in back is romantic and divine. And you can just walk in the door without having to go through hoops.
PDT
113 St. Marks Place New York, NY 10009
You enter into Crif Dogs, a little hot dog shop, where further you have to enter a phone booth, sometimes to call ahead for seats, in order to get to the speakeasy called PDT. Hot dogs with cheese and avocado aren’t a bad back-up plan, but talk about some serious contrasts!
PDT-Please Don't Tell
Little Branch
22 7th Avenue South New York, NY 10001
Most adorable bar name ever! Little Branch is a jazz lounge from the speakeasy king himself, Sasha Petraske. You can’t really claim to know the New York speakeasy culture today without hearing his name a few hundred times.
Apotheke
9 Doyers Street New York, NY 10013
Petraske himself at the Ice Seminar
Death and Company
433 East 6th Street New York, NY 10079
Death and Company, despite the name, does the romantic low-level lighting thing extremely well. But sometimes they close early for New York bar times. :(
You put your left foot in, you take your left foot out…
Roller Skating is cool again!
Yep, it’s true. Couple skating, sweaty palms, top 40 music, outfits carefully chosen to work with sand-colored skates and enough money for the snack bar and arcade games. My Catholic grade school had skating parties and we looked forward to them almost more than dances. Maybe it was the excitement of the limbo (which I won), doing the Hokey Pokey on skates, or the quintessential “couples skate,” the climax of the night where if all went well, you’d be a participant and not sulking onlooker trying to appear jolly.
If the above doesn’t send nightmarish shivers down your spine, then you’ll be happy to learn that even after recent roller rink closures, there are openings to report! Right this minute I’m thinking of my 4th grade boyfriend and how we skated to “our song,” Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers. Awwwww.
Studio B
259 Banker St, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Studio B only does the roller skating thing sporadically, but they’re heaving on the crazy “programming” the rest of the year. Take note: the club only re-opens October 17, so don’t lace up anything just yet.
Studio B only does the roller skating thing sporadically, but they’re heaving on the crazy “programming” the rest of the year. Take note: the club only re-opens October 17, so don’t lace up anything just yet.
Lola Staar Dreamland Roller Rink
3052 West 21st Street Brooklyn, NY 11224
The location of Dreamland Roller Rink in Coney Island’s historic Childs Building is pretty special to me. Walk down my memory lane for a minute?
In high school, I had my sister, who was going to college in Brooklyn, take me to Coney Island in the dead of winter for a black and white photography project for school I had decided to do there. I knew next to nothing about Coney Island, but the Childs Building was very striking and stood out from the then-shut down rides and deserted pier. A homeless man huddled underneath one of those arches you see told us a little about its history. I will never forget that.
Gone Bowlin'
I had my 10th birthday party at my local bowling alley, at which I took bowling lessons every Tuesday. That’s right, when you were in manner school or horseback riding, petite Alicia was launching the lightest ball possible down an alley in an attempt at breaking 100 each game. It happened rarely, but it was more important to have my pretty swirly purple ball, rockin’ bowling shoes and eating French bread pizzas at the snack bar.
Fast forward to the 2000’s in New York and bowling has seen a slight resurgence, probably because it’s ironic to be all old-school in this modern town. A dying sport no more!
The best bowling alley show ever
Okay, I can’t actually think of any others, but “Ed” was one of my favorite shows, airing in the early 2000s. Perhaps it started the bowling alley Renaissance, as its namesake character up and left his law firm job in New York to buy up a bowling alley in Stuckeyville, Ohio.
Leisure Time Bowl
625 8th Ave Ste 200, New York, NY 10018
It’s located in the Port Authority Bus Station. Can it get any better than that? Bowling alleys shouldn’t be nice. None of this fancy shit like at Chelsea Piers. If I wanted a lounge, I’d go to a lounge. Give me the blue collar, gritty bowling alleys any day where I will probably fear picking up some kind of infection or food poisoning.
It’s located in the Port Authority Bus Station. Can it get any better than that? Bowling alleys shouldn’t be nice. None of this fancy shit like at Chelsea Piers. If I wanted a lounge, I’d go to a lounge. Give me the blue collar, gritty bowling alleys any day where I will probably fear picking up some kind of infection or food poisoning.
The Gutter Bar
200 N 14th St, Brooklyn, NY 11211
It LOOKS like my childhood bowling alley, but it’s new…and in that part of Brooklyn that goes for old-school style because that’s what the hipsters like. So, I’m not sure if I approve…
It LOOKS like my childhood bowling alley, but it’s new…and in that part of Brooklyn that goes for old-school style because that’s what the hipsters like. So, I’m not sure if I approve…
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