NYC hip-hop tiki lounge??

May 29, 2012 2:43 PM

Recommend a Hip-Hop lounge in NYC. Is there such a thing as a hip-hop tiki lounge?? Snowflakes inside.

I'm trying to plan some low-key birthday drinks for a friend this Friday. We're looking for (in priority order):

- Fun vibe!
- Good hip-hop music. Mix of 90's and recent stuff would be great!
- Room for ~10 people. Booking a private room or table/booth would be ideal. Seats for lounging would definitely be appreciated.
- Someplace to dance. Even if it's just around the bar.
- Avoid crowds. Some space to breathe and move around would be nice.

We're not too picky about drinks and it doesn't need to be fancy (kitschy is fun!) and let's pretend money isn't an issue.

Our go-to place used to be bOb bar, but we're wondering if there's a bigger lounge-y grown-up version that we don't know about. Manhattan preferred but all boroughs welcome!

posted by pooya to sports, hobbies, & recreation (3 answers total)

PKNY has a back room for larger groups. The decor is a mix of tiki and graffiti. There is definitely old school hip hop on the playlist. It's usually a little cramped in the bar area, but the back booths and private room are much better.
posted by kathryn at 2:53 PM on May 29, 2012

Another tiki-oriented bar which can accomodate groups of your size is Lani Kai, though the decor is elegant where PKNY is deliberately downscale. Like PKNY, though, the drinks are serious and there's no dancing, so I think kathryn and I are both sort of homing in on your "tiki" desire, which seems to be pretty subordinate to your hip-hop/dancing desires. If those are your priorities, you may want to wait for some other suggestions, though as between the two places, I think PKNY (f/k/a Painkiller) is probably the better bet for you.

(FWIW, I really like the drinks at Lani Kai, though I give the edge to PKNY. I just had my own birthday party there and the management was, shall we say, a bit challenging to work with.)

Ah, staying on the tiki-ish theme, there's also the Rusty Knot, though I'm a bit reluctant to recommend it (see here). It can get pretty crowded, though I think it's more of a "dancing around the bar" kind of place than the others.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 11:00 PM on May 29, 2012

Yeah, Lani Kai's vibe is more "upscale Hawaiian hotel lounge" (in the words of the owner) and the playlist tends to be heavily weighted towards current indie rock. The drinks are not tiki per se, but more "tropical influenced."
posted by kathryn at 9:49 AM on May 30, 2012