Monthly Archives: August 2014

A review of Crimson and Rye in Manhattan's Midtown East

Located at 198 East 54th Street (at Third Avenue), Crimson & Rye may be the first ever lobby bar for an NYC office building.  No joke, Crimson & Rye is located in the north section of the lobby of the Lipstick building.  Crimson & Rye is a cocktail bar with a good selection of amber-colored liquids; wine and beer also available.  Food consists of mostly small bites.  The oval-shaped bar takes up most of the space and seating along the windows looks out onto the 54th & 3rd intersection.  Our only beef with the place is the bathroom situation. Remember how it’s in the lobby of an office building?  Well, there is no bathroom in the lobby of that building (at least one for the bar patrons).  Therefore, bar patrons must go through building security, take an elevator down one flight, exit the elevator, take a couple of lefts to get to the facilities.  Perhaps, since Crimson & Rye just recently opened, such a situation is temporary.  Either way, Crimson & Rye is worth a visit.

Crimson & Rye 2

Crimson & Rye 1

A review of The Jolly Monk in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen

Located at 701 Ninth Avenue (in the old Traffic spot), The Jolly Monk is a Belgian Beer Bar from the same owners as nearby beer bars, New York Beer Company and House of Brews.  Continuing in the same vein as those locations, the Jolly Monk offers numerous tap beers, with a focus on Belgian and Belgian-style brews.  For those not fans of Belgian beers, The Jolly Monk offers several other styles of beer.  The layout is fairly spacious (same layout as Traffic) with a square bar in the middle of the place.  The Jolly Monk is a nice addition to the Hell’s Kitchen craft-beer NYC bar crawl!

Jolly Monk 2

Jolly Monk 1

A review of the Ludlow Hotel Lobby Bar in Manhattan

Located at 180 Ludlow Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, this is the lobby bar for the Ludlow Hotel.  It’s located toward the back of the lobby of the hotel.  There’s a small outdoor area beyond the main bar.  Cocktails cost $16 a piece and there’s a wide selection of French wines.  This spot is definitely worth a visit the next time you’re pub crawling in the Lower East Side.

Ludlow Hotel 2

Ludlow Hotel 1

Our review of Thrillist's Bedford Avenue tour

Thrillist recently published suggestions on spots to hit on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg for each block between South 5th and North 12th Streets.  It’s a great piece by Thrillist.  Although it wasn’t specifically a bar crawl Thrillist describes in their piece, they do recommend several bars.  For the block between N.10 and N.11th, Thrillist recommends The Bedford.  This is the one block recommendation with which we disagree.  We would have picked Mugs Ale House for this block. With a great beer selection, Mugs Ale House has been around for nearly 20 years and was the first bar we ever visited in Williamsburg.  And Mugs is a bar we try to include on any NYC pub crawl through Williamsburg.