Help The Empress Splurge!

October 29, 2009 5:48 AM

NYC Filter: I'm getting a financial windfall in a couple weeks, and have decided to treat myself: salon, massage, and then taking myself out somewhere. but...I've been broke so long I don't know where to go. Help?

I know where to take care of the salon and the massage, but the "going out somewhere" stumps me a bit. Ideally, the place I'm looking for is:

* Upscale without being "velvet rope" -- classy instead of exclusive
* Lively, but not loud -- I want to be able to hear myself think
* Not outrageously priced (I don't mean inexpensive, more like, I want to be able to say that the amount of money I spend was absolutely "worth it")
* Possibly a place where I could get a delightful gentleman approaching me for a chat, but a place that's so awesome in its own right that I won't care if it doesn't happen
* If it's got a fabulous view, perfect.
* Doesn't have to be a restaurant. In fact, just getting a drink would be great.

I just plan on looking and feeling fabulous and living in the high life for a night, and I'm looking for the right setting.

Thanks!

posted by EmpressCallipygos to Food & Drink (19 answers total)

Drinks:

As for "worth it", Little Branch will make you perfect cocktails and has a jazz trio so skilled you feel like you're in a movie with an awesome soundtrack.

Only slightly less jazz-age, Death & Company has a similar cocktail perspective but no band - on the other hand, a little easier to get into.

For beautiful views at the price of silly-priced drinks and a high douche quotient in the clientelle, Ava Lounge at the Dream Hotel is nice if their roof bar is still open. I haven't been to Empire Hotel's similar deal but it's also an option.

Also, depending on your definition of beautiful view, the lounge at the Marriott Marquis has a sweeping view of Times Square - nice to go at night and get a beer, but the drinks are definitely hotel-bar quality. The view is worth an $11 Heineken once, though.

Food:

If you're really looking to blow cash on "worth it", Gordon Ramsay at the London has both a bar/restaurant and the full super-fancy restaurant. I have simply not had better food and service anywhere, ever.

Less furniture-priced but still great in an old-school Fraaahnch sort of way is La Grenouille. Try the soufle for dessert.

If you can get into one of the momofuku spots, I hear they're worth it too but I don't have personal experience in that direction.
posted by abulafa at 6:13 AM on October 29, 2009

Drinks: the rooftop bar at the Empire Hotel on the UWS is great. However, there is usually a velvet rope there on Friday and Saturday nights, so if that's really a constraint for you, go during the week.

The Trump World Bar @ Columbus Circle is also fun.

So is the Stone Rose Lounge, on the 4th Floor of the Time Warner Center.
posted by dfriedman at 6:29 AM on October 29, 2009

Response by poster: Oh, I forgot to add: I'm also looking for a place I can wear a dress to and not feel overdressed. (abulafa: how does Death and Company rate on that front?)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:37 AM on October 29, 2009

Why not treat yourself to drinks, dinner and a late show at Dizzy's? The crowd is, in my experience, diverse and up for a good time. Plenty of singles, couples, and groups. If I were you, I'd sit at far end of the bar by the window.
posted by minervous at 6:38 AM on October 29, 2009

D+C is very receptive to a little upscale dress, although if you go earlier in the evening you'll catch the East Village tourist crowd who are inevitably dressed down (like, shorts in the summer). No enforced dress code that I've seen but the overall fanciness has dwindled - on the other hand, they're now open later than midnight (they had a long battle with the neighborhood over noise).

Little Branch is more upscale - that is, I think they do enforce a dress code. If you go early (7pm) you can get in on a weeknight pretty easily if you don't mind standing for a bit.

I also forgot to mention Bourgeois Pig, a block up from D+C - fancy wine and beer cocktails and really great fondue. Word of advice though: once you've cleaned up a meal fondue, DO NOT let the very nice staff talk you in to a "dessert fondue" - you think it'll just be a tiny little.... but it isn't. (Still shuddering form the Night I Ate Two Fondues.)

(Disclosure: D+C and Bourgeois Pig have the same part-owner which is how I heard of one from the other in the first place.)
posted by abulafa at 7:08 AM on October 29, 2009

I came in to recommend the Stone Rose as well- great views and amazing drinks (the appletini comes with an apple chip on top, if you're into that). People will be dressy and high class business-y and you won't look out of place in a dress. Plus the views of c park are great from there.
posted by rmless at 7:08 AM on October 29, 2009

Oh! As for overpriced but really, really pretty, the Campbell Apartment at GCT is neat. The clientelle, again, are a mix of tourist and people-who-want-to-afford-$13-well-drinks, but the interior is very spacious and delightfully retro.
posted by abulafa at 7:09 AM on October 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I also forgot to mention Bourgeois Pig, a block up from D+C - fancy wine and beer cocktails and really great fondue.

You warn me away from the dessert fondue, but that actually gave me an idea that getting drinks AND a dessert isn't a bad idea either. Hmm.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:42 AM on October 29, 2009

Little Branch is my favorite bar in the city and you can find me there at least a couple nights per week. Everyone is entirely correct that they make incredible cocktails. And I love the environment. That being said... I would disagree that it is a particularly dressy place. You certainly wouldn't look out of place in a dress, though. I'm pretty sure I've been in there in shorts and sandals, so I don't think they have a dress code, though I normally am more dressed up. The jazz trio only plays weeknights and Sundays - not sure they play Thursday either.

Most importantly, in my experience it is not the sort of place that you go to meet people. It's not Milk and Honey with rules saying you can't approach a woman, but the size of the crowd is controlled, people are usually seated at tables with friends they know. I don't usually spend much time at the bar, and while I have struck up conversations there, it just doesn't give me a meet people vibe.

My other favorite bar is Raine's law, though it suffers (benefits) from the same infirmities.

Flatiron lounge has good drinks, and a much more happening scene on the weekends - too much for my taste and might be a bit loud. Not really an interesting part of town either. Employee's only is also an interesting place and imo makes the best cocktails, though I prefer little branch and raine's law because of the atmosphere. D&C is a nice place as well, though I've never liked it as much if only because it seems to take longer to get in.

Have a great time!
posted by slide at 7:45 AM on October 29, 2009

Response by poster: Hmmm, the Campbell Apartment is also pinging me because of the "it used to be a tycoon's office" and that just is a neat extra. The Stone Rose also seems like an option -- but the fact that it's in a corporate building gives me pause (how "tourist-y" would that make it?)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:49 AM on October 29, 2009

Oh! As for overpriced but really, really pretty, the Campbell Apartment at GCT is neat. The clientelle, again, are a mix of tourist and people-who-want-to-afford-$13-well-drinks, but the interior is very spacious and delightfully retro.

It also attracts the after-work crowd on weekday evenings, if that is a consideration. I've never found the Campbell Apartment drinks to be that good -- always a bit sweet/unbalanced. They're not really in the same realm as a Death & Co or Milk & Honey or PDT, etc.

Right now, I would go have a drink and a light dinner at the bar at Scarpetta. It's gorgeous, lively, you would not feel out of place in a nice dress, and the spaghetti pomodoro there is deceptively simple but life-changing (as in "Oh! This is what spaghetti is supposed to be like?").
posted by kathryn at 8:34 AM on October 29, 2009

Response by poster: Sorry, I keep thinking of other personal quirks: I don't usually do swanky bars well if they're crowded, or if they're just bars and that's it. If there's no other thing for me to do/listen to/watch/look at, and it's filled with people who are all talking amongst themselves all standing elbow-to-elbow, I end up wandering around looking for a place to sit, smiling tightly at everyone and thinking vaguely that "is there something I'm supposed to....do, here? Other than just finish my drink and leave?" I also tend to nurse my drinks, so if it's a "scene", I end up standing around feeling out of place for a long time and feel so uncomfortable by the time I'm done I end up running out.

That's why I'm hoping there's somewhere with something I can do -- a great view, music, weird architecture I can wander around looking at -- so I don't just feel like just chugging my drink and leaving because I'm too bored or awkward.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:16 AM on October 29, 2009

the Pegu Club [warning: autoplay] has superbly-made cocktails, awesome vaguely-Eastern colonial decor, and the best food of any place I've ever cooked. It's not particularly crowded on weeknights.
posted by Jon_Evil at 12:53 PM on October 29, 2009

I frequent The Campbell Apartment because I take the train to Westchester, and I think you'll find it a bit crowded for your taste. Definitely overpriced, too, but a very cool space to have a drink before you get on the train! (Also - many suits there like me...so not a "cool" place.)
posted by mtstover at 1:00 PM on October 29, 2009

Temple Bar on Lafayette?
posted by vronsky at 2:46 PM on October 29, 2009

I was going to recommend Pegu Club, too. I really dislike bars, but Pegu Club makes me happy - you sit at a table with your drink and you are able to savor it as if it were a four-course meal. And the decor is very soothing.
posted by Shebear at 5:56 AM on October 30, 2009

I put up my hair, wore a dress and went by myself to Le Bernadin for my 40th and was treated graciously.

At Jean Georges, I was not treated rudely, but it was made clear that single women are not first tier-clients at dinner (the receptionist pretended not to hear me when I first said "dinner" when I made my reservation, I had to ask for the last of the bottle of wine I had ordered and I was put in a high traffic area in front of a banquette. I had made my reservation a month in advance).
posted by brujita at 7:57 PM on October 30, 2009

Response by poster: Oh, wait! Isn't there some hifalutin' place in Brooklyn, "The water Club" or something of that nature? Anyone ever been? What's that place like?

If it's the place I'm thinking of, it'd also be easy for me to get to and would have a knockout view.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:35 AM on November 2, 2009

Response by poster: The River Cafe is actually what I'm thinking of; they have a dessert menu, which would probably be what I'd do. Unless anyone has a big warning against it?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:39 AM on November 2, 2009