First up is The Belfry located in the East Village (222 E 14th St.). Since it lacks an in-your-face sign, one can easily pass it up. But if you're really paying attention to your surroundings, a simple glimpse inside will make you cancel your plans to meet at a bar across the street for the experience of stopping in for a drink. The joint is fairly small and skinny, but it extends back to an area with space for seating. But sitting at the bar gives you the ultimate experience (everywhere you go people, everywhere you go). The setup and decorations in itself are enough to make you giddy with it's prohibition era feel. And their old school playlist sets the scene perfectly. I'm not talking 90s, you guys...we're talking Righteous Brothers stuff. Only the good stuff.
With a wide range of beers and cocktails, anyone is bound to find their niche. I was feeling a Dirty Shirley and our bartender, George, was more than willing to accommodate (besides, I ended up setting a Dirty Shirley trend for the day so I'm sure he was pleased with the business). As the day progressed, we had more and more of our friends show up to engage in the festivities. Even as the bar started getting a bit more crowded, George was just as friendly and willing to please. Aside from giving suggestions for new drinks to try (a cheesburger shot? sure, why not...), he also let us sample some of their excellent pickled products. They have several pickled jars of extremely delicious varieties ranging from your classic pickles to pepperoncini, okra, string beans, and jalapeno stuffed olives.
Belfry is a wonderful place to spend if you're looking to relax after a boozy brunch and throwback a few tasty drinks. And if you get hungry, you've got jars of spicy pickles calling your name.
The next spot, Pil Pil, is one that I've been walking past for weeks now on my way to and from the subway. Pil Pil can be found on the Upper East Side (265 E 78th St.). I was struck first by it's location as it's sort of hidden on a side street. Looking more carefully, I could see some comfy pillows in the windows along with multi-colored lights behind the bar. It had a cozy feel to it, so I knew I wanted to check it out.
After snooping around their website, I found that Pil Pil is a Spanish tapas bar. I LOVE tapas so I was automatically in. To pursuade me even further, on Sunday's they have half off on ALL their bottles of wine. DONE. Are you kidding me? I think I found my Heaven. And it only got better....
I took one step into Pil Pil and knew that I'd be coming back on a regular basis. It's a small, dimly light restaurant/bar with impeccably unique decorations. First off, the bar....
From the picture you can see that behind the bar is decorated by wine bottles illuminated by some funky lighting. It totally works. And those branches up above? They are strung along the entire ceiling of the restaurant. They are accented by wooden tables and several trunks scattered throughout.
The walls are made entirely of brick, but they do something unusual. Several spots in the wall are carved out and replaced with what looks like mini frozen waterfalls. Some of these spots are further decorated with wine bottles laying inside. I'm not entirely sure how that fits into their scheme, but I liked it.
As for the food...awesome. They have an expansive menu of seafood, meats, vegetarian dishes, flatbreads, cheeses, and more. Additionally, they have a specials board that couldn't have had less than 15 plates listed. The tapas range anywhere from $7-15, making them very affordable. We started off with their Ceviche Shrimp, Tilapia, and Salmon special. The mixture was served in hollowed out lemons with chips used for scooping. For our personal dishes we got the Tortila De Patata (traditional Spanish egg and potato omelet with mixed green salad) and Coca De Chistorra (flatbread with chistorra sausage, roasted peppers and manchego cheese). Both were absolutely phenomenal.
I can't wait to come back and try more plates. Which I plan to for their Sunday Brunch. Get this: Unlimited sangria. Choose a region from Spain and enjoy three different tapas for......you ready?....... ONLY $14.95. You know where to find me on any given Sunday.
PS. We got a half off bottle of Cab. Yum. Cheers!
As a fellow social alcoholic, I can appreciate the amazingness of these bars. Pil Pil looks sweet! Gotta hit that up soon.
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