“I don’t think we’re a dive bar, just a neighborhood joint,” says Fitch. Then again, dive bars don’t bill themselves that way. “Anyone who runs a ‘dive’ doesn’t set out to achieve such a low standard,” says Molly Fitch, the owner of International Bar, an East Village staple since the 1970s that’s often listed as one of the city’s best dives. While Ray’s gets some of the details right - the black-and-white checkered floor, pool table, jukebox, tattooed bartenders, wood paneling and lack of a menu - the authenticity is missing. They’re dirty, dingy and edgy from wear and tear, a carousel of questionable characters and, most importantly, time. In case he’s forgotten, dive bars gain their stripes through long boozy nights splattered with blood, sweat, tears and other bodily fluids. ‘This is where you come to drink PBR with your pinky up.’īut the brazen declarations do not a dive bar make, despite the 47-year-old, motorcycle-jacketed Theroux’s insistence that Ray’s is, as he puts it in the press release, “a place you can carve your initials into the table.” That’s a really bizarre move for a “dive.” Ray’s has the cringe-inducing air of a brand desperate for cool points - think Target’s re-creation of CBGB - and even sent out a press release hailing it as “the Lower East Side’s diviest new dive bar.”Īnd Theroux, who opened the bar July 19 with restaurateur partners Jon Neidich, Taavo Somer and Carlos Quirarte, has no qualms using his Instagram - including one post featuring his dog, Kuma, on the pool table - to publicize his pub. “This is where you come to drink PBR with your pinky up,” he says. “It feels like it’s trying way too hard.”Ī 28-year-old whiskey drinker from Brooklyn echoed the sentiment.
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“I feel like I’m on a movie set,” says one customer, slurping a $12 gin and tonic.
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To put it bluntly, Ray’s - “The Leftovers” star’s Chrystie Street joint - is a far cry from the beer-soaked, tobacco-stained pubs New Yorkers know and love. Instead, the place teems with buttoned-up bros and Soho scenesters, with eye-popping prices (a shot of Evan Williams and a PBR is $12), fake-looking decor (even the Townes Van Zandt posters look brand-new) and clean, red leather bar stools (OK, they’re pretty comfortable). Keys to the city: Piano bars, upscale lounges hit a high note in New York nightlifeĢ00-year-old bar was home to 'Goodfellas' and Anthony BourdainĪlbany eyes facial recognition to 'card' for booze, tobaccoįrom the outside, Justin Theroux’s new “dive” bar just might pass for a real no-frills joint, with its black-painted brick exterior, an awning marked “liquor-beer” and wooden blinds obstructing the glow of the street lights.īut step inside, and any hope for a beer-and-shot combo under $5 is promptly torpedoed.
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Shooting leaves 2 dead, 2 injured outside bar in Tennessee