Friday night debauchery

Its funny how you end up discovering the greatest spots in New York City at the unlikeliest of places. Last night, I hung out with my buddies at one such place.

The area between 31st and 36th streets between Fifth and Sixth Ave. is referred to as Koreatown. To the average tourist, it looks a lot like the Chinatown area downtown. There are plenty of Korean restaurants in the area, some rather fancy hotels and of course for all of them Desi’s out there, there’s Kati Roll a few blocks north. And bang in the middle of Fifth and Sixth on 32nd street, is a little hotel called La Quinta. And on the top floor of the hotel, ladies and gentlemen, I give you Me´Bar.

The moment I stepped in, I knew this was a place where a small group of people can sit comfortably, talk for hours at a stretch. This isn’t the place where you can go dancing. Me´is more of a place where you laze around, stretch your legs and enjoy the spectacular view of the Empire State Building. Yes, the ESB is so close that you feel like you can nearly touch it. The place looks a lot like the average roof deck in a high rise apartment building. No fancy furniture here. Just your plain old vanilla round tables with foldable chairs, and lots of pillows strewn along the white benches along the edges. The water tanks surrounding the place, give it a certain homely charm. Get here early and you can manage to secure a table or a corner spot along the perimeter, or else the wait might be long. The place was (quite obviously) packed on a Friday night.

The drinks are priced reasonably enough even for college students to frequent the place. The bartenders, despite being super busy, manage to have conversations with the patrons. And as with any good bar in the city, they are liberal with the amount of alcohol served in the drinks. Enough for you to walk out of the place with a nice buzz!

Me´Bar is one of those secrets of New York City, that many people, despite having lived here all their lives, don’t know about. With great power comes great responsibility, so my friend- spread the word with care.