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snackfile asked Anthony Bourdain (Gothamist's favorite globetrotting chef!) what five favorite dive bars are, and he concentrated most of the love on NYC dive bars in Hell's Kitchen. Of the five bars, three are from New York City, and all are within a few blocks of each other:
Siberia Bar, New York: "Still reigns supreme among dives, though some weekend nights lately are reserved for an all-male leather crowd. Better phone ahead."We haven't been to the Distinguished Wakamba Cocktail Lounge, but Holland Bar is definitely an old-man (old-man-alcoholic) bar, though it's not terribly divey - it just feels that way when you're there in the morning with men in suits on their way to work. He also mentions Mac's Club Deuce in Miami and the Clermont Lounge in Atlanta.Holland Bar, New York: "A classic old-man bar a couple doors down from Siberia. You know, the kind of place it's okay to drink during the day."
The Distinguished Wakamba Cocktail Lounge, New York: "Tiki decor and ultra-cheese kitsch with an element of danger. I believe people have died there."
And we put together a Wayfaring map of his NYC dive bar picks - perfect distraction for you when you're contemplating your escape from NYC via Greyhound.
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Went to Wakamba a few months ago. 2 weak drinks = $20. Way too much for a "dive" bar.
Eek, that's what a "dive" bar is charging? Maybe it's the location that makes it divey - you know, steps away from a tunnel to Jersey.
Bourdin is a douche-bag.
I was getting a facial at Mario Badescu, and he was next to me, and he wouldn't get off of his cellphone. He kept saying, "Don't they know who I am?? Tell them Tony Bourdin will be very unhappy! Tell them!" When someone working there asked him to turn it off, he said, "Do you know who I am?"
So, for anyone at Badescu who didn't know, we then knew T.B. was indeed in the house and was indeed a shithead.
By the way, his restaurants suck ass too.
Re: Bourdain's comment that he believed people had died at Wakamba, someone should remind him that's where Patrick Dorismond was gunned down in cold blood by the NYPD. You could've looked it up, Anthony...
I agree with Matt. The Wakamba is hardly a dive bar these days -- on weekends, lots of middle-aged couples go there, and on weeknights it's mainly an after-work joint for laborers.
As for the prices, I have a suspicion that gavachos pay more for the drinks than regulars.
I've been accused of a lot of terrible things... (some of them even true) and all kinds of bestial behavior and am perfectly content to be called a "douche bag"--and opinions on Les Halles..well...you can love em or hate em as you like. But a "facial at Mario Badescu"? I'd sooner be caught sodomizing a rooster in the window at Planet Hollywood--or huffing glue in a cocktail dress at a Phish reunion--as anyone who has ever gazed upon my unlovely and poorly tended mug can clearly see. Never happened.
And regrets on the Dorismond omission. Didn't remember. Inappropriately glib. Guilty as charged.