NY Barfly

25-Year Old UES Eatery Petaluma Spices Up Drink List

What’s an easy way to bring some new life to your restaurant without doing a complete renovation or canning your chef? Get a new drinks list! That’s just what 25-year-old UES restaurant Petaluma did with the launch of a new selection of libations for 2012. The neighborhood joint dishes out a menu of classic Italian fare, and now they’ve got not-so-classic spirits on their list like Absolut Berri Acai and Jim Beam’s Red Stag liquor. Some of the drinks also incorporate custom blends of tea from the Teaologist, meaning you can definitely justify drinks before 5 PM. Cause it’s tea time, right? Check out a copy of the drink list below, and stop by the restaurant at 1356 First Ave near 73rd Street.

Growler Station Now Offering Craft Beer To Go In The West Village

You lush, you have all of those empty growlers around your apartment, but you’ve been too busy to go back to your favorite bars and get them refilled. Well, a new opening in the West Village takes away any excuse you have not to top those suckers off. Growler Station is just what it sounds like – a gas station for brew hounds. You can fill up 32 and 64 ounce growlers with a wide selection of craft beer at this haunt – or opt for reusable plastic bottles that are a little easier to tote around than the glass varieties. The lineup of labels is pretty stellar – the opening options include Captain Lawrence Freshchester, Ramstein Double Platinum and Wandering Aengus Anthem Cherry (24 draft lines are available at any given moment).

They also have a selection of grab-n-go artisanal goodies, meaning you can do all your grocery shopping here. We assume that if you’re a growler addict, you’re able to live mostly on beer with a few cheeses, crackers and meats thrown in.

Growler Station is located at 26 West 8^th Street and is currently open.

Warsaw Bar in Greenpoint Shakes Things Up, Adds Drink Specials

The Polish National House in Greenpoint plays host to Warsaw, a drink spot that until recently has been mainly popular with the heavy Polish contingent in the neighborhood. Well, the owners just brought in a new management team, and they are mixing things up to bring in a wider audience. The first step? Getting the word out that they are not just open to the Polish community. Oh, and they’ve also brought in some DJs to spin everything from indie rock to classic New Wave (of course the spot is also known as a music venue that plays host to some awesome acts).

And what would any Greenpoint bar be without some awesome drink specials? Exactly. Warsaw has some very generous deals every night, and they will get you very drunk. Check out the list below, and if you want to stop by, the bar is located at 261 Driggs Ave.

Tuesday: ALL NIGHT
2-for-1 well drinks and beers
$5 whiskey shot and beer combo

Wednesday: ALL NIGHT
$3 beers
$4 well drinks
$5 whiskey shot and beer combo

Thursday: Ladies Night!
$1 well drinks for ladies 10p-12a
$2 Bud, Bud Lt., Warka for guys 10p-12a
$5 whiskey shot and beer combo - ALL NIGHT!

Friday:
$2 well drinks 9p-12a
$3 Heineken, Zywiec, Brooklyn Lager -ALL NIGHT!
$5 whiskey shot and beer combo - ALL NIGHT!

Saturday: ALL NIGHT
Polish Night!
2-for-1 Zywiec & Warka
$3 Polish vodka shots
$5 whiskey shot and beer combo

Sunday: ALL NIGHT
$3 Bud, Bud Lt., Brooklyn Lager, Zywiec
$3 well drinks
$5 whiskey shot and beer combo

Rock Out at Rokk City- The New Lounge Below Culture Club

Old school rock and roll is usually reserved for dancing on the bar at divey spots like Coyote Ugly (pour some sugar on that – you know what we mean?). Well, midtown’s newly opened Culture Club is trying to make your trip to paradise city a little less gritty with the launch of a new club in their basement. Rokk City is now open below the ‘80s club – it’s a totally separate space that plans to play the old time rockers in place of the new wave synth-pop that’s spinning in the multiple floors upstairs. While holding a cigarette lighter up to cheer for a song is probably not allowed anymore, we’re sure there’s an app for that.

Rokk City is located at 20 West 39^th Street.

OMG! Molecular Pickle Backs at Do or Dine!

Experimental restaurant Do or Dine has made waves with their foie-gras doughnuts, and we were pretty excited to hear that they recently got their liquor license. When we saw some details about the program from Thrillist last week, well, let's just say we freaked the fuck out. According to the lush-minded newsletter, Do or Dine will be offering NYC’s first “molecular gastronomy”-style pickle back shot. Whaaa??? Apparently, the pickle-juice portion of the libation will be shaped into some sort of gelatinous orb, which you’ll use to chase down the whiskey. You can read more about it here. Prepare to drool.

Photo via Thrillist.

New Sports Bar Alert: Bounce Sporting Club

Upscale sports bars are a trend these days. The newest to join the club, currently populated by Snap and The Windsor is Bounce, and this new entry is super-sized. The massive sports bar has over 30 screens where you can watch pretty much any game imaginable, and they’ll serve a pub-food inspired menu that contains upscale touches (aka crappy bar food this ain’t). You can enjoy treats like sloppy duck leg confit and truffle mac and cheese as you sip cocktails from notable mixologist Charlotte Voisey. The opening last week brought in boldfaced names like Mario Lopez and Richie Rich and the 4,000 square foot room is sure to pack ‘em in for countless game days to come. If you want to head over and root for your team, Bounce is located at 55 West 21st Street.

Lexington Brass Serving Kombucha on Tap

When we heard that the team behind Abe & Arthur’s was gearing up to open Lexington Brass, an American Bistro in Midtown East, we got excited. When we heard that they would be serving Kombucha on tap, we got very excited. The fermented beverage (which, let’s admit it, is a bit stanky) is touted in health food circles for its ability to replace the body’s healthy bacteria. Well, bacteria-schmeria, we say. We like the stuff because it’s an excellent hangover cure. A glass of that served with a Brass Bloody Mary and one of Franklin Becker’s brunch dishes? We think we’ll call that the ultimate hangover cure.

Lexington Brass is now open at 517 Lexington Ave.

There's No Bull at the Bull Moose Saloon

Ever watch a movie from the 1960s and wish you were an executive during that era (or, pretty much any episode of Mad Men)? It seems like every desk doubled as a bar and drawers that are now used for hanging files were the de facto booze rail. Those excellent work-a-alcoholics. Well, we can't promise a shift in the corporate paradigm, but we can give you an option for 2011. This bar is so divey your boss will never find out that you have a midday booze hut: the Bull Moose Saloon.

Bull Moose is a solid option for this reason: the Lunch special is a draft Yuengling or Bud and either a burger or 10 wings ... for $6.95. Yes, that was $6.95. You'll feel right at home whether you work in the lumber warehouse next door or a law firm in Times Square because of the familiar dive decor. There is a pool table, darts, music so bad it's good and bartenders who call you "Hun" no matter your age (or their ages). The entrance looks like it was requisitioned from an old Army tank, so no windows for your boss to look in and notice your midday binge. The food takes longer because of the small staff at noon, but all the easier to enjoy a second (3rd? 4th?) pint without a rush.

Bull Moose is located at 354 West 44th Street, making it easy walking distance from Hells Kitchen, the Theater District and Times Square. So - having a stressful morning? Projects are late? Boss gave you a smack down? Head to Bull Moose for lunch to ensure a much, much better afternoon.

-Katie Carroll

New Bar Alert: Four, an Outdoor Patio at the Yotel

What’s a Yotel, you ask? It’s like a hotel, but with a little “yo” – ok, even we know that didn’t make any sense. The new Hell’s Kitchen property just opened – and it’s bringing the “yo” with the robot busboys and the “pod style” rooms that are about as big as – well – your apartment. But, instead of what you pay in rent – it costs $300 a night – woop! Don’t let us knock it too much though – because it’s got a bitchin’ outdoor patio on the fourth floor that promises to be one of Midtown’s new draws – especially because all of the other open air places are MOBBED these days.

The deck is part of Four - which has grub from Richard Sandoval of Zengo. Yep – that’s the massive Mexican joint in midtown – you’ll find similarly international bites here, but more importantly you’ll find plenty of hooch – including tequila shaker service and two bars for you to get your margarita on. More importantly? They have what other alfresco bars, not to mention the rooms upstairs lack – space. But, that won’t be the case for long – head over and grab a beverage before everyone and their sister finds out about it next summer, and some other off-the-radar rooftop opens.

Four is located at 570 Tenth Avenue.

Checking in Gramercy Hotel's Rose Bar

The entrance is at the far side of the hotel’s Jade Bar, which seemed to mostly full of the jaded barflys who had attempted entrance into the Rose Bar. Those red curtains are guarded by the most nattily dressed “bouncers” in existence, so do not even attempt entrance if you don’t look better than them (warning: this could be a difficult task). The fabled room itself? At the risk of sounding redundant, it really is a rose room. Andy Warhol is all over the walls, except for the wall that is a massive stone fireplace, which looks like it was purloined from a Gothic castle in the wilds of Romania. There is one very classy, polished pool table. Do not attempt to put your drink on it. The bar is familiar: dark wood; DJ; countless bottles of alcohol. In the Rose Bar, though, the bottles are artfully arranged and lit, the better to seduce you, my dear, into a $19 martini or $27 cocktail. Apparently, its exclusivity extends to economic status as well.

Remember how in the old days “good breeding” guaranteed or determined acceptable social behaviors? Well if you possess the elite status required for entrance, anything you do seems acceptable in the Rose Bar, if you pay enough. Yes, young socialites, stand on our couches! Sing karaoke while standing on an armchair! It is really fine! The people-watching is quite the entertainment.

It just so happens that we were reading Mark Twain the next day and came across this: “He (Tom) had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it-namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain.” We’re not in any way comparing the Rose Bar to whitewashing a fence, but generally Tom, we concur.

The Rose Bar is located at 2 Lexington Avenue. They take pride in their exclusivity and you should be prepared for the price that comes with it.

-Katie Carroll