Drinking in the City? Or Drinking in Your Hood?

The Little Drunk Asian poses this question -- are we getting old when it becomes harder to drink outside our hood? I remember the nights that every night was in the City, every Happy Hour after hours was a City bar, every weekend night wasn't a night until we hopped unto a subway and drank into the late hours of an early morning. I had detailed maps of the best bars in the best City locales.

Now, when a friend asks me, what are the good bars in the City? I draw a bit of a blank. Then I realized why -- I don't really go out much in the City anymore. Sure, I still go to some standby East Village bars (that are very conveniently by my train ride home or a cheaper cab ride home), but other than that? I have no idea what the good bars anymore are in the City.

The bars I more frequent are a little closer to home -- All Brooklyn, all the time. The lovely Sycamore on Courtelyou, a wonderful bar to drink a Saturday or Sunday afternoon away. 773 on Coney Island Ave is a nice place for a cheap brew and only a ten to fifteen minute walk home (no trains and cars needed). There are the standby bars on 4th Ave -- Pac Standard, Cherry Tree and 4th Ave Pub (although I'm a little tired of this trio having frequented these bars a little too much over the last couple of years) . The great Bar Tano on Third Ave, a great place to have a pizza and a white wine right before the evening begins. If you're feeling a little fancy, Black Mountain Lodge in Carroll Gardens is a great wine and cheese place with a roaring fireplace. And as I type out these bars I am so found of frequenting, I realize, yeah, hell, I'm older. And I'm okay with it. I'm a Brooklynite. I don't even remember what it's like to live in Manhattan. Would I move back to Manhattan if I could? Eh. Probably not. If I had more money, I would just get a better Brooklyn apartment. And these bars? Well, they're not wild and crazy, they're mellow, relaxing, a good time for passing the day or night away with a good group of friends. Places where the music isn't overwhelming and you can actually hear what people are saying to you. Places, yes, where you can sit the hell down.

Do these places exist in Manhattan? Sure, they do. I don't particularly know where they are though. If I spent more time in Manhattan, I'm sure I'd find these places. I'm not a snob, I know that they're still great bars in the City. But the places I used to know and be fond of don't exist anymore or they've changed -- alot. Minetta Tavern on MacDougal was a wonderful place to get a ten dollar glass of red wine with a generous pour that was really two or three drinks in one. It's now gone. The Ginger Man used to be a fun hang out spot for a group of people, but now it gets so packed on weekends you barely have room to stand, let alone sit. Blind Tiger still has a great menu of beers, but hell, again, it's loud and I never get to sit down in the overly packed place that it is. The Magician was a fun place to have b-day parties for awhile, but really? The drinks are a bit pricey there and well, I never really feel much of a need to be on the LES on weekend nights. O'Hanlon's is still fun, a good standard old school bar on the week nights, but even my good friend Ace has told me that the weekends are now full with bartenders she doesn't know and a crowd she's not so fond of.

Where or where are these old bars in the city we used to love? I'm willing to go to them, but I'm not going to look for them. I'm happy with being old and in Brooklyn, at places that feel cozy and warm and are not too far from home.