NYC - One Night Only?

September 11, 2008 7:57 AM

I'm going to be in NYC this Saturday and I'd like to see as many of my friends as I can. I'm planning on picking a bar, and just letting everyone known I'll be there from, say, 8-11 or somesuch. I need a bar in NYC that's accessible to people coming from Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey. Our tastes run on the slightly-geeky side. Think pinball and old arcade games. There will be 10-20 of us, mostly in our late 20s.

So far, I've had a few recommendations:

Ace Bar

Barcade
Crocodile Lounge

That said, I haven't really lived in the area in 8 years, so hivemind, any suggestions?

posted by Oktober to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

I was going to suggest Barcade. It's pretty geeky, but awesome and the L is easily accessible from anywhere.
posted by youcancallmeal at 8:05 AM on September 11, 2008

Ace is what I came in to recommend. If you get there on the early side, it won't be too packed and you can actually get a chance to play skeeball.
posted by rmless at 8:05 AM on September 11, 2008

I will second the Barcade recommendation. It's easily my favorite bar in the NY area. Arcade cabinets from the 80's and 90's line the walls and they have an excellent selection of craft beers. It's in Williamsburg, so it's not super accessible to Jersey folks. But to me, the trip is worth it.
posted by DrDreidel at 8:27 AM on September 11, 2008

The people in New Jerey had better really love you, or else they probably won't make it all the way to Brooklyn. I think it's more considerate toward all involved to meet up in a hub area of Manhattan, like Union Square, so that no one feels undue expectations.

For MetaFilter meetups we've relied on bars such as Revival for this very reason. And as at meetups, once your group is assembled, you can call move on together to a different locale, something more fitting to your tastes (isn't there still a bowling alley off of Union Square, btw?).
posted by [NOT HERMITOSIS-IST] at 8:36 AM on September 11, 2008

Barcade is a good suggestion, but just in case it's too uncomfortable or crowded on a Saturday night, there's also The Levee in Williamsburg. A couple arcade games, pool table, and a bunch of board games. It's pedestrian in every sense of the word, but it's just out of the way enough that every time me and my friends go there we have a lot of fun. (And the bartenders are always super nice to us.)
posted by greenland at 8:38 AM on September 11, 2008

How about Fat Cat (Christopher St)? Pool, foosball, ping pong, shuffleboard, board games, live jazz band, and beer. Unfortunately they also charge cover ($3).
posted by Succa at 8:41 AM on September 11, 2008

For the sake of the New Jerseyans, seconding what [NOT HERMITOSIS-IST] said. Pick a place in Manhattan so it will be accessible to all. No matter how cool Barcade is, going out to Brooklyn is going to be a major pain in the butt for your Jersey friends, especially if people are using public transportation (often ends around 2 a.m., depending what train/bus lines they use). Pick a spot downtown--much fairer for all involved.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:43 AM on September 11, 2008

Careful with Barcade on a Saturday night with that many people. It may get mighty uncomfortable (it's usually chest-to-chest in there at that time.)
posted by griphus at 10:21 AM on September 11, 2008

Don't pick anything that isn't in Manhattan. No matter how much fun it is to go to barcade and play Gauntlet, anyone who doesn't live in Brooklyn/Queens/reasonable part of Manhattan will hate you for it.

But at the same time, Barcade sure is fun.
posted by Damn That Television at 10:57 AM on September 11, 2008

I'll second the Fat Cat recommendation - something fun for just about everyone there. Succa forgot to mention the chess and scrabble tables.
posted by ripple at 11:02 AM on September 11, 2008

Seriouly? Barcade is TWO stops into Brooklyn. I think anybody from Jersey can easily catch the L or take a cab to the second exit off the Williamsburg bridge. Really not that tough.
posted by atomly at 3:11 PM on September 11, 2008

Seriouly? Barcade is TWO stops into Brooklyn. I think anybody from Jersey can easily catch the L or take a cab to the second exit off the Williamsburg bridge. Really not that tough.

It's enough of an inconvenience that, if I were in Oktober's friends' position, I probably would bow out. And I mean, understandably, my friends who live in Brooklyn tend not to want to come to New Jersey to go to a bar, at least not if I'm not offering to put people up for the night. Dealing with multiple forms of public transportation (or worse, driving into/out of the city) isn't fun, even if its easy.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 3:34 PM on September 11, 2008