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In partnership with Marx Realty, PDT veteran Jeff Bell just opened Highball Ltd.—a pretty little bar meant to evoke “the golden age of luxury train travel.” But don’t mistake Highball Ltd. for a place you should build plans around: it is, in essence, an office building cosplaying as a cocktail bar.
Despite its thematically appropriate address at 10 Grand Central, Highball Ltd. is not housed in the same structure as the train hall. The entrance is actually on Third Avenue between 44th and 45th, the service entrance of an office building. The bar isn't hidden per se: there's a red light, a plaque, a guy stationed on the door checking reservations on an iPad—if you’re not led astray by the street address, it’s not hard to find.
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Invoking “speakeasy” was a PR solve when the decision was made to open this bar to the public. Highball Ltd is, in reality, one quadrant of The Meeting Galleries, a larger planned set of “hospitality-inspired” amenities for people who work in the building. Think a stylized set of connected spaces where managers can host meetings, screenings, holiday parties, etc.
Credit where it’s due: the design and decor are all well realized, very pretty and way more interesting than any office I’ve ever set foot in. But make no mistake: Highball Ltd is, quite evidently, a part of an office. Inside, you’ll find private workspaces with writing desks and chairs, a presentation room, and a screening room. The only actual bar at which to sit is a dry bar–it has no plumbing and no dedicated bartender. The place isn’t even open on weekends. If you want to go, you can, but first and foremost, it’s for hosting corporate events and allowing employees to let off some steam before they leave the building for the night.
Once you understand all of that, everything else makes sense.
Bar snacks include a cheese plate, grilled cheese, pigs in a blanket, sliders, oysters, and spinach artichoke dip—the canon of boring American cocktail bar snacks you don’t need a range to prepare. All were perfectly fine.
Drinks come from the service bar at the back and run $20 to $23. In case you didn’t know, ‘highball’ is a fancy term for a liquor-and-soda over ice in a tall glass, traditionally whiskey and seltzer. For a bar named after a single format, that's fair to note. But the fact that this menu devotes an entire section to listing different varieties like vodka soda, Jameson & ginger, rum & coke, etc., is utterly mystifying. The signature highballs are in the same format, only with infused liquors, juice, and aromatics. The Pep Talk (tequila, bell pepper, pineapple, lime soda) and the Fresa Fizz (rum, strawberry, lime, mint, soda) were exactly as described, but in each, the ‘seltzer’ was flat, so the drink was quite literally watered down. Turning to the more cocktail-y side of things, a martini was good but meager in size. The Royal Scotsman (Scotch, oloroso, hazelnut, lemon, honey) came recommended by the staff, but only the Scotch and some sweetness registered.
Highball Ltd. feels like part of an office because it is. They opened it to the public, so you can go if you’re killing time waiting for a commuter train or just find yourself in that part of midtown and feel like going someplace quiet. Will it make midtown actually cool? No, but it might make working in that building feel cooler.