Tuesday
A plea for malice
Dear fellow New Yorkers:
Please do not go to any bar affiliated with the Maritime hotel. This means La Bottega, and other bar they might have, and especially Hiro.
On Friday night, I went with two male friends to meet a large group of girls, of whom we knew only one, at Hiro. When we got to the front of the line without any female companions, the bouncer glared at us and asked us to step aside. We called the girls inside and the one we knew came out, but since we weren't adding any new girls, we were denied entrance. The bouncer did offer to waive this illusory rule if we gave him $60. Fairly pissed off, we went to drink at another bar.
The next night, a group of four really good girl friends who had mostly moved out of New York called to say that they were all back and celebrating one of their birthdays at La Bottega. Knowing that La Bottega was affiliated with the same hotel as Hiro, I was apprehensive about going, but really wanted to hang out with these girls. I showed up with an overlapping but not matching set of two male friends and one of their girl friends. When we reached the front of the line, I was standing next to my friend's girlfriend. The bouncer asked, "Two?" I said, "Four." We were then moved off to the side, where the bouncer said he'd deal with us in a minute. After repeatedly explaining our story, asking if the bouncer was planning to let us in or not, once again being solicited for bribes, watching groups of two males with no females be allowed in more than once, and finally having two of the girls from the group upstairs come down, wave to us, and tell the bouncer they would have their whole group leave if we weren't allowed in, we were allowed to enter as two groups of two separated by five minutes. When my friends girlfriend asked, "Why did you treat us so poorly?" the bouncer refused to comment and just said something like, "I told you I'll let you in, why are you causing trouble."
Also their drinks are overpriced, even for New York.
In closing, don't go there, tell you friends not to go there, start whispering campaigns telling people bad things about them, and if for some reason you are forced to go there, be aware that the bouncers think that you should be extraordinarily grateful to pay them for alcohol. Oh, and despite all of their efforts, the crowd wasn't any hotter than many other New York bars. For god sake, they let me in.
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Please do not go to any bar affiliated with the Maritime hotel. This means La Bottega, and other bar they might have, and especially Hiro.
On Friday night, I went with two male friends to meet a large group of girls, of whom we knew only one, at Hiro. When we got to the front of the line without any female companions, the bouncer glared at us and asked us to step aside. We called the girls inside and the one we knew came out, but since we weren't adding any new girls, we were denied entrance. The bouncer did offer to waive this illusory rule if we gave him $60. Fairly pissed off, we went to drink at another bar.
The next night, a group of four really good girl friends who had mostly moved out of New York called to say that they were all back and celebrating one of their birthdays at La Bottega. Knowing that La Bottega was affiliated with the same hotel as Hiro, I was apprehensive about going, but really wanted to hang out with these girls. I showed up with an overlapping but not matching set of two male friends and one of their girl friends. When we reached the front of the line, I was standing next to my friend's girlfriend. The bouncer asked, "Two?" I said, "Four." We were then moved off to the side, where the bouncer said he'd deal with us in a minute. After repeatedly explaining our story, asking if the bouncer was planning to let us in or not, once again being solicited for bribes, watching groups of two males with no females be allowed in more than once, and finally having two of the girls from the group upstairs come down, wave to us, and tell the bouncer they would have their whole group leave if we weren't allowed in, we were allowed to enter as two groups of two separated by five minutes. When my friends girlfriend asked, "Why did you treat us so poorly?" the bouncer refused to comment and just said something like, "I told you I'll let you in, why are you causing trouble."
Also their drinks are overpriced, even for New York.
In closing, don't go there, tell you friends not to go there, start whispering campaigns telling people bad things about them, and if for some reason you are forced to go there, be aware that the bouncers think that you should be extraordinarily grateful to pay them for alcohol. Oh, and despite all of their efforts, the crowd wasn't any hotter than many other New York bars. For god sake, they let me in.
