Beyond Manhattan Blog
Barcade
Two types of bars traditionally adorned New York’s streets – cocktail bars and dives – and New Yorkers’ practice of steadfastly favoring tradition over both innovation and quality ensured that it was that way for a long time.
Chih-Yu and I, as you may have read, are quite unimpressed with dives. I’m supposed to venerate your nicotine-stained, 75-year-old plywood room with a @#$%y tap because Joey Ramone once puked in the jukebox?
Still, I like people who like dives, and if I could get that divey energy – the low key unpretentiousness of nobody judging you for two-fisting a Rolling Rock and Jim Beam at 3 o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon – in a more…connoisseur-friendly package, then we might be talking.
Enter Barcade, an early adopter of the “upgraded dive” ilk. Yes, divey. Like a chop shop with a countertop. But add in a great tap, and scores of 8-bit arcade games clustered against the walls, and the picture changes a bit.
Now, I could give three @#$%s about the old school arcade games. (Alright – Frogger is kinda fun.) But I like what the fact that they’re there says about the owners, and I like what the fact that other people like them says about the clientelle. More importantly, they’re plugged into the best of America’s microbreweries – the major ones at least – offering varietals from mainstays Lagunitas and Dogfish Head to local breweries like Brooklyn Brewery and Six Point.
What does all this mean to you, Mr/Ms tourist-looking-for-the-authentic experience? God Bless America, that’s what. And what makes America great? Beer.
How to Get There
Barcade is situated just down the block from the Lorimer Ave L train stop, on Union Street between Ainslie and Powers Streets. It’s walkable from the Bedford Ave L train, but if you’re coming from Manhattan direction, get off at Lorimer, and get off from the back of the train.
