October 2019 – Various locations in the Upper East Side and the East Village, New York
Next up in 9th place, on what it turns out is a top 10 list of the potential metal bars in New York, we have what I shall call The Dive Bars. Any of these 3 bars would be fine to hang out at, but they all fall pretty short of the title of Metal Bar.
So here is the list so far:
- The Hipster Bars: Arlene’s Grocery, Bowery Electric & Rocka Rolla
- The Dive Bars: American Trash, Iggy’s Keltic Lounge & 7B Horseshoe Bar
American Trash was the first bar we visited on the list since it is close by to the Pony Bar. The Pony Bar is epic in the world of Untappd as it one of only 3 places in the world you can get the Founder’s Hangouts badge. I was kinda paranoid that something was going to happen and we wouldn’t make it, so after our plane landed around dinner time we walked around Times Square for a bit, then booked it right over to Pony Bar. And guess what?!?!
American Trash was pretty typical of a dive bar taken over by college students. It was falling apart appropriately and had pool tables and a bunch of shit on the walls and the ceiling.
In traditional New York bar fashion, it also had a lot of graffiti. This really is a thing there.
Fun story. I had a notebook with me to take notes about the bars. And yes, I lost it before I could copy it into the blog. So once again I am left with only my lousy memory. I recall nothing about the music so assume it was not memorable, and I ordered a Goose Island so I assume they did not have craft.
Iggy’s Keltic and Horseshoe were both stops on our self guided East Village pub crawl.
Iggy’s Keltic was up first. This place was very divey. Like legit divey, not hipster divey. Almost too divey. I actually made an effort not to touch things too much.
I did manage to transfer some of my notes over on this one, so I can say that we heard Billy Idol, INXS, & The Rolling Stones. Pretty standard fare. The beer selection was also pretty basic, with mostly bottles of Bud and a couple of regional beers on tap.
There were some pretty cool murals here including, of course, the bathrooms! I told you there’s always something cool in the bathrooms.
Horseshoe Bar had some metal paraphernalia, but overall felt more like a sports bar. There was lots of NFL crap, and they were showing a game with the sound on. So maybe they play good music if there’s no game on?
The bar itself was old wood and cool looking, and shaped like a giant horseshoe. I assume that’s where they got the name. It’s bigger than average and runs up the whole length of the middle of the room. The logical thing to do here would be to post a picture of the bar, but of course I didn’t think to take one. I am really not good at this! So instead, here is a picture of the outside.
The beer selection was pretty decent. They had several regional beers on tap, both local and from other parts of the US. I finally tried the Coney Island Merman IPA that seems to be a fave in the city. It was alright. The highlight was definitely the sweet glassware. I took home the one on the left. 😊I never did find the Mermaid Pilsner though, unfortunately.
There were 2 bartenders working, one was a loud super annoying frat boy, the other was a friendly woman in a Goatwhore hoodie. Perhaps the 2 cancel each other out? Perhaps it also represents the bar when there’s a game on, and when there’s not?
Like I said, all of these bars were good. I wouldn’t go out of my way to go to them again but I wouldn’t be opposed to it either. Iggy’s was my favourite of the 3, and I’d be curious to see what Horseshoe is like without the football. I’d also like to go back to the East Village earlier in the day when more of the shops were open. It had a different vibe from the other areas of New York we visited, and I’ve heard nothing but good about Trash & Vaudeville.
Fairy Lights and Vines 