Nobody Told Me — Restaurant in New York

Nobody Told Me that my birthday celebration with friends would turn sour upon going here as Part 2 to yesterday's fantastic birthday brunch. My review prior to this shows how appreciative we are of the basic little things and that most if not all of my reviews are always about commending places and the good stuff.

Anyway.. Days prior, I was planning my birthday brunch with friends and since I really wanted to check out this place given all the 'good' reviews, the general plan was to stay Uptown then. That's fine because most of us live in UWS anyway and one lives in UES. We walked 11 blocks from W. 97th and arrived here at 4PMish. We were coming in next to a small group of older customers and since the place wasn't even 20% occupied, we were given the choice to which table to take. We took the one behind/beside the bar since we were 5 and could fit in, also following through our little private space from our brunch earlier. Pretty nice, despite the fact that the place was really hot. Overall, we liked the vibe of the place and the music. We were at least greeted hello by the guy in white shirt. I knew that you order by the bar so some of us ordered ahead then my husband and I followed and did too. The Asian bartender took our orders in a nonchalant way, turned his back from us, and I had to ask and offer my card, to which he says, "we already have a card from your table. You can ask us how to split it later." Again, unfriendly tone. Like why? Did you woke up on the wrong side of the bed and you hate the world? Anyway, we're all professionals and always believe in taking the high road, so we let it slide since we're there to celebrate. We could already feel something wasn't right though.

Drinks were finally made for our group of 5. The Asian guy puts it by the side for us to get, no issues really. And then we started to observe how different we were treated from the other tables. First off: they actually 'interacted' nicely with them. Second: they actually brought the drinks to their tables. Third: the rest of the tables were given a bottle of water and glasses. Now this was the little test that we wanted to see if there was some discrimination happening. I asked nicely, could we please have some water? The asian guy says, you can get it yourself and pointed a corner where the pitcher of water is made available. My friend stood up and got it for me and then we noticed another table who was served water again. Well, wow. That was the turning point. We were there to check out and support a new business which describes themselves as a 'friendly neighborhood bar'. I'm a regular at The Penrose in UES and Salon de Ning at the Península and they are not stuck up people. I also enjoy Danny Meyer's restaurants esp. Manhatta and Don Angie and their restaurant group and they are fantastic, expensive, yet so worth it, because of their friendliness and quality of food and drinks. We were prepared to stay for hours and try everything but I guess they're not into 'diversity'. We still left them a good tip because that's the right thing to do but even as we walked out the door, considering they weren't even 50% full, there was no thank you or anything.

There were 2 restrooms btw (that's pretty good, rare even), however one didn't have running water and the one didn't have any bathroom tissue.

Nobody told us that our experience would be subpar so we got out of there as soon as we finished one round and checked out Dive106 which was across the street. Turns out, their 5 star reviews are pretty legit. We ended up staying for the next 4 hours. A place we would happily come back and tell people about. :)

Moral of the story: You don't judge a bar...

4 1/2 stars

A few days ago when we were planning our up-and-down Manhattan hike, I asked my only UWS contact for a lunch/cocktail recommendation that was "edgy" and "open-minded about sweaty people." This was her immediate response, and yes, I will continue seeking her opinions on such matters. As soon as I laid eyes on the hipster snow globe lamp things by the bar, I knew we were in good hands. My chum and I stopped in for a brunch before noon this past Saturday. She'd also been here before and supported the spot, so the fact that this ended up being a positive experience wasn't remotely surprising given that I managed to get two separate endorsements on it beforehand. It might have been the slightly ominous weather slash humidity, but there was maybe one other table occupied and it was very quiet/chill in here.

Magnificent, magnificent progress had been made from Bowling Green to here (I think we did it in three hours, and that was with a prior diner stop, so yeah - gold standard urban hiking right there), so multiple cocktails were in order. I gave the bourbon one a long look but decided with the July heat to pivot to something more refreshing and went with the Pink Robots ($15), featuring carbonated lemon vodka and strawberry-champagne shrub. It was tasty but not mind-blowing - I think in hindsight I would have opted for something that wasn't quite as citrus, though the strawberry-champagne certainly helped the situation considerably.

We also split two apps, one sweeter, one more savory - the French toast sticks ($16) and the bacon dates ($15). Both were very solid. The best I've had? No, but still really good and worth recommending. This place knows what it's doing when it comes to supporting cast members with its dishes. Blueberry maple? Of course it should be included with French toast. Whipped ricotta and MORE maple? Yes, 100% should be hanging out with the bacon dates. Very strong optics and decisions made in the kitchen.

The service was excellent. The bartender was also the de facto waitress behind the counter, and was very friendly/hospitable/accessible. I also appreciate that even though it was a slower time there, she was ALWAYS finding ways to occupy her time - whenever I went up for a food or drink order, she was busily chopping up garnishes for future cocktails and/or tidying up. We also might have been suffering from price point PTSD after finding out 80 blocks south that disposable cameras are now about $45 (don't get me started), but given that this is an edgy brunch spot on the northern part of the UWS, I thought the prices were pretty competitive here. I'd absolutely come back,...

Stay away. This is my place and I do not need it to become popular. I could live here. Seriously. I would leave my wife and move here but she loves it too so would follow me and then we’d be that weird couple who live at the end of the bar. I’ve been coming here for a year and I think they’re trying to kill me. It started with a breakfast burrito. It got larger and tastier every time I ordered it. You know when something is that tasty….?? You take a deep breath as if you’re diving under water and just annihilate the food then breath deeply at the end. So I stopped that and came for summer Saturday afternoon drinks and again, better and stronger each drink until I skipped home down Amsterdam like the dodo bird in Looney Tunes. So I stopped that nonsense and stuck to chicken burgers. This is where things got messy. Literally messy. I attach the evidence. LOOK AT THAT WORK OF ART!!! The chicken is only missing head and legs and the bun is just there to act as a grip on the bird. First bite, I shut my eyes and ignored my wife. Bartender took the plate away and he’s into Dream Theatre. I love John Petrucci’s beard. We talked for an hour. It was a bromance. I ignored my wife. This place is trying to wreck...