Célon Bar & Lounge — Local services in New York

If you like: paying obscene amounts of money for hipster bottled water and being told to f off if you prefer tap, being entirely ignored by people who are supposed to take care of you, and drinking cocktails with so much simple syrup in them that you gag, this is the place for you!

Cèlon Lounge has without a doubt the worst service I have ever experienced in NYC. This place is an absolute joke. We ordered 2 disappointing rounds of below-average drinks and some bland, lackluster appetizers, and each time our waitress forgot our orders and had to come back to our table to ask us what we had ordered. The wait was 30 minutes for our drink order despite the bar being mostly empty. The server was MIA for the majority of our 2 hour stay, and not because the bar was busy (it was not). She never came to check on our table and the only time she stopped by was after we asked the busboy and several other servers to have her come over. Our server also spilled a drink on one person in our party, stared at them, and did not offer to help clean it up or even bring napkins or a cloth to dry them off. She was indignant and entirely unhelpful. When we asked for water after eating our food, the server stated they "didn't have tap water" and that we would have to pay $8 for a tiny Voss water bottle per person. I can not even DESCRIBE how unprofessional it is to deny water to people who are ordering food and alcohol. Absurd and disgusting. When I approached the manager to complain about our server forgetting our orders and spilling her drink on us, she brushed me off entirely and acted as though she couldn't be bothered, and did not speak to our server about her mistakes or comp any of our flavorless and watery hummus or drinks. We felt extremely unwelcome as customers and you couldn't pay me to eat or drink here again. If I could leave negative...

So, I am not sure why this place has a two-star average on yelp. I remember this place when it was The Cellar Bar. I thought it was a fantastic space then and I remember that with the right DJ it turned into a bumping club party scene.

I visited Célon Bar midsummer and I was first floored by the decor change. The Moroccan vide is so SO cool. There are multiple sections and the bar looks sharp. This is a great date spot now!

The second thing that really impressed me was how nice the staff was! I had a fairly long conversation with a young woman named Vanessa (?). She was so pleasant and yet still efficient. She of course had a job to do and was excellent at transitioning to other tasks then coming back for follow-up. The bar tender Peter (Phil? I can't remember his name) was also very genuine and welcoming. I remember remarking about the probability of being able to hire so many nice yet efficient workers. If/When I come back it's definitely due in part to them.

The cocktails are great. They also had some stellar food made-to-order which you could have even at the bar. It's really a great overall setup.

My only issue with this place is that on Google and even now, as I look at the information Yelp has, the closing time is listed as late night (e.g. midnight or later). They were closing at like 10pm every time I visited (2x). On one occasion I was looking to use the venue as an after event spot but the 10pm closing time killed that plan. It's the one sticking point I even asked the staff about. I suppose you can ask for the place to be opened for special events but sometimes I just want to walk in and know the operation is rolling automatically.

I want to keep the place a secret but don't hesitate to go. Judge the place...

Came here last night for a friend's birthday. I can definitely see and agree with what some of the other yelpers have noted. I was immediately disappointed when I saw the massive slow moving line to get into this place but I figured it's NYC. I finally made it to the front of the line only after witnessing the poor guy in front of me get kicked out of the line and denied admission to the lounge because the bouncer just didn't like him. My friend had reserved a table and bottle service and knew a promoter on top of that. I was told I shouldn't have a problem getting in. I got my hand stamped and walked inside only to be told I had to pay a $10 cover. I'm not cheap but I'm not paying a cover when I was promised I didn't have to. Went back outside bouncer was still arguing with the guy and had to straighten out my cover charge. Once that was done I finally made my way inside.

I loved the atmosphere with the dark, dungeon like feel but boy was it hot as hell in there and way too crowded for such an "exclusive" place. It was also a lot smaller than I expected. I went and got a drink at the bar and absentmindedly left my tab open not thinking about the bottle service. I have to say the music was excellent and definitely put me in a good mood. Finally I went to close my tab and I noticed I was charged $30 instead of $15...$30 for 1 gin and tonic? When I inspected the check I noticed I was charged for two drinks that I had definitely not ordered. I told the bartender and she did actually reverse it without an argument. Towards 2:00 it started to clear out and that made it way better.

Overall good lounge, it's great for a fun night out but be prepared to wait in long lines. Staff needs to be...