Working bars

June 26, 2008 4:41:33 PM EDT
To: inyc@timeoutny.com
Subject: what’s lacking

The unemployed-people angle was great for your Ultimate Bar Guide [TONY 685], but you missed an important point. When I was laid off in March, I spent many a slow afternoon at a bar, but I still needed to stay connected to the world. Thus, my bar priorities shifted around and free Wi-Fi became a bar’s most important feature. Where can I drink and work at the same time?

Matt Toder
Park Slope, Brooklyn

Whether you’re turning a tragic layoff into freelance gold or you’re just escaping the cubicle, you need a boozy home base. We rounded up bars with worker-friendly features: Wi-Fi, outlets and halfway decent hours.

Black Rabbit
91 Greenpoint Ave at Franklin St, Greenpoint, Brooklyn (718-349-1595, blackrabbitbar.com)
Take yourself back to your thesis-carrel days in one of Black Rabbit’s “snugs,” private booths with their own swinging doors. The Welsh rarebit fondue might be too messy for a working lunch, so opt instead for the mini Angus cheeseburgers. Stick around on Tuesdays for the “Nerd Alert!” trivia night—maybe you can muscle one of the brainy trivia geeks into finishing your assignment for you.

Caf Bar
3290 36th St at 34th Ave, Long Island City, Queens (718-204-5273, cafebar-lic.com)
Head to this bar early to secure a spot on one of the well-worn, living-room-worthy tufted leather couches thrown in among smiling Buddhas, beaded curtains, stained-glass windows and hanging globe lights. The eclectic menu has a Mediterranean bent, so hunker down with some hot or cold meze and a caipiroska (vodka, orange, lime and sugar).

Ditch Plains
29 Bedford St at Downing St (212-633-0202, ditch-plains.com)
This seafood shack has been known to lure the laptop-toting crowd to its 14-seat bar with the siren song of comfort food: potpies, fish-and-chips, “sloppy” hot dogs, and mac and cheese. But the aesthetic is more sophisticated than kitschy, so try one of its modestly priced wines, available by the bottle or half bottle (no glasses). Bonus: The place opens at 7am for early workers (or up-all-nighters).

Dive 75
101 W 75th St at Columbus Ave (212-362-7518, )
The suits pile into this Upper West Side haunt for bourbon or single-malt Scotch come quitting time, so take a break and challenge one of them to a round of Connect Four or one of the other games strewn about the wooden tables. Hit it up on a Friday, when the bar opens by 3pm and you won’t be distracted by TVs blaring sports.

Flight 151
151 Eighth Ave at 18th St (212-229-1868)
It’s easy to work away the hours at Chelsea’s Flight 151 without giving your entire paycheck back to the bar, but you might have to endure some kind of cheesy, watered-down drinking game to take advantage of the discounts (like winning a free drink for predicting a coin toss). It’s best to visit on Mondays, when margaritas are $4 with no silly strings attached.

Greenwich Treehouse
46 Greenwich Ave at Charles St (212-675-0395, greenwichtreehouse.com)
Mac on the fritz? Ditch the Genius Bar for this one, which keeps a communal computer on hand for patrons. (No hogging it just to update your Facebook page, you hear?) Happy hours on most weekdays keep you in $3 draft beers, or you can spring for a newly created drink called the Recession: gin, PBR and limeade.

Pacific Standard
82 Fourth Ave between Bergen St and St. Marks Pl, Park Slope, Brooklyn (718-858-1951, pacificstandardbrooklyn.com)
Californians work at a different pace than the rest of us. Imbibe some of their attitude, along with 18 mostly Left Coast brews, served in a skylit library that is appropriately officelike. Make it a habit, and you’ll want to join the Frequent Drinker Program, in which downing yards of beer can earn you intellectual rewards like memberships to BAM or the Film Forum—or, fine, more booze.

V Bar & Caf
225 Sullivan St at 3rd St (212-253-5740, vbar.net)
The cutesy chalkboards hanging over the counter may give V Bar a down-home caf look, but they’re packed with info about the more than two dozen wines available by the glass, and another two dozen beers. Make your decision quickly, because while the place has some of the coziest tables to work at, the Wi-Fi turns off at 9pm. No matter: You’ll want to get there early anyway to have your pick of the fresh-baked goods, or a Nutella-and-peanut-butter sandwich.

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