JC Pompey

Charming neighborhood bar with great vibes and strong drinks, with excellent well bottles! Cori and Sam took care of us out of towners and made us feel like long time friends. Locals were friendly, music selection was great, and cocktail menu is impressive. Do yourself a favor and don't skip the food. If you're feeling blue get yourself a Tiny Crusher courtesy of Cori ;)

Jonathan Fiedler

Half dive bar, half craft cocktails. It's the local haunt you didn't know you needed and might not have even knew existed. Blue Hawaiian, beer and a shot, smash burger, house special cocktail. It's all there. Definitely try the smash burger. I'm much more of a plump bistro burger, still pink inside, but this one almost changes my mind.

Caleb Wininger

i used to got to this place 25 years ago for $1 jack and cokes any time my friends and I were in the city. it was a lovable dump of a bar. it was part of our crawl that included dallas BBQ (closed), McSorley's, Burp Castle and Peculiar Pub. life gets away from you, right? the years rolled by and the next thing i knew decades had passed since i had been here. but the location still holds a lot of nostalgic value for me. found myself in the neighborhood recently and just had to see if it was still there. indeed it was. i took the friend who was with me, told him all the stories, and said "let's check it out" It's a lot different than it was. but in a good way. it's comfortable, relaxed, the perfect neighborhood haunt. the thing I loved- the legacy of the old crap hole seems to be alive and well. super stiff drinks for cheap. my buddy and I both raised our eyebrows when we tasted our $12 old fashioned's. we definitely got our money's worth.

Jessica Bachansingh

Good dive bar vibe inside with plenty of seating and Christmas lights. Beers $5-10 Cocktails $18-20

Riley Potte

This place never disappoints! The bean and cheese burrito is a highlight, offering great flavor for the price. Although the cocktails are on the pricier side, their top-notch quality justifies the cost. To top it off, the bartenders are consistently warm and inviting.

Octavio Gil

Cool cocktails the bar is very clean and has awesome customized menus. Wide selection of drinks and there are beer and shot deals that are very affordable. The bar staff were super friendly too I know I'll be going back!

Serena Teague

What an amazing spot!!! This was my first dive bar in manhattan and it will remain my favorite! Every drink was amazing, and my water never went empty. Sam was attentive, caring, comedic and gave great recommendations on places to visit! Honestly could spend a whole day here just hanging out. Definitely recommend this place to everyone trying to laugh and get a great drink!

reliable nyc source

strong drinks that aren’t absurdly priced, with a great selection. crowds always moving so seating will come eventually. the food was pretty bomb the chips are made to order it seems which is insane, love that, though the dip didn’t taste like anything. burritos were great. love the style of the drinks though the most it’s def a must visit. making st marks bumping again.

+2

Gretza Talić

Nice place, with good mix of classic cocktails and a few excellent house cocktails. Have a nice selection of beers and liquor, and I also noticed they have at least two brands of non alcoholic beers (not that i will ever need that) Warmer atmosphere after 10p, when servers stop working, and u got to go to the bar, and you get to talk to everyone at and in the bar. Didn’t have food, but the menu looked good. Good prices for the City (~$18 for cocktails)

Emily Zabaleta

Holiday has been all my friends favorite for years now. Best drinks, best music, sooo chill, and I swear every time I go its a guaranteed good time. We've always loved it for a night out but over the last few months I've thrown some of the MOST fun parties there. The team lets you reserve a section of the bar and create custom cocktail menus. I've thrown both a viewing party and an engagement party here and they accommodated both so incredibly. They even have a huge projector if needed! This place has a such a fun but grounded energy, my group of twenty somethings to our parents had an awesome time. Barbara and the team couldn't have been more awesome to work with. All the bartenders are talented and super kind. Thanks again guys!

Francisco Santibañez

One of the best cocktails I had in NYC. Went with my wife on a Saturday night by recommendation from a bartender we met at Swift (London). We had 5 cocktails in total and the originals from the bar are amazing! Great combination of flavours (and balanced) with a funny presentation. Loved the "wake up call". Atmosphere is way more relaxed and informal than other top bars in NYC. Worth a try!

+2

It’s ironically called big bar even though spaces are very limited in here - it’s definitely a vibe though with its cash only and overall divey atmosphere. Lots of disclaimers all around but if you know what you want and can be expedient about it, you’ll be well served here.

Well... I don't know how I never came here before but what a vibe. Soaked in red light, cash only, a very chill, eclectic crew, all of that made it for me a perfect later night after dinner spot, even if the back bar is unsurprisingly thin and I low-key hate carrying cash on me these days unless I'm a regular somewhere. As an old head with a kid, I'm not sure when I'll be back but when the opportunity presents itself, I'm down.

Super cozy and cute. No wait despite NYE weekend but still busy/lively. Love the red lights. Bartender was alright / weird vibes. Maybe they were tired / had cruddy customers before me. Just had a glass of a house red

James La Manna

I love St. Marks Place as you can always find a great little place no matter what you are in the mood for and the Holiday Cocktail lounge fit my mood perfectly the other night. Yet another place I found in "Drink Like a Local" it is wonderfully decorated for the holidays, cozy, and full of people who were full of good cheer. Surprisingly good bar menu so I went with the grilled cheese and paired it with a Singapore Sling which went surprisingly well together. The service from my waitress was excellent too.

L LO

Been meaning to check this place out for quite sometime, came in around 5pm on a Thursday and able to get seats very quickly. Not immediately greeted by bartender or any other staff as they were chit chatting but eventually they took our order and made us some very tasty cocktails (I had 2 Blue Hawaiian's $18 each). Also ordered the fried oreos ($9) which were just ok- I have had better. I would give this place another go and try some other menu items.

Zimmi Coker

I went with a girlfriend for an early evening drinky, and the place was uncrowded so we chose a seat in a corner booth and then ordered two delicious drinks at the bar. They were innovative, refreshing and strong! The presentation was also very creative! We only ordered one cocktail each, but they got us to a different level, haha. I would want to go back in the evenings when the place seemingly gets more packed with people! We had a great experience overall!

David Lee

This place is fine for a local neighborhood bar. My only gripe was that I had a tab open and was charged for two extra drinks that I did not order. When I brought it to their attention, I was told they couldn’t do anything about it. Offered me a shot only not to give it to me, felt insulting almost. I understand that some people try to get free drinks, but that wasn’t the case here. I’m not going out of my way to dispute charges unless there’s a real issue. It’s frustrating that someone can be charged nearly $40 for drinks they didn’t order and be expected to just accept it. Only a bar could get away with something like this. There are plenty of other bar options in the neighborhood, and for this reason, I won’t be returning.

Katherine Chin

A slight edit after my initial review: I definitely felt a little ill after my drink. The egg white on my whiskey sour smelled a little like dog farts despite the ango on top, and I feel like that did me in. Maybe it's all in my head. I wanted to love the place. The drink set me back $11, and the vibe is pretty sweet. It's like stepping in a time machine. But I think I got a dud egg white and I'm not sure how to feel. There are a ton of amazing cocktail bars in the East Village, and unfortunately I don't think this is one of them.

I stopped by Big Bar while visiting New York, and it was one of the most disappointing experiences I’ve ever had. The bartender was incredibly rude from the very beginning — no greeting, no smile, just an attitude like I was bothering her by even being there. She clearly had no idea what she was doing and couldn’t answer the simplest questions about the place. I didn’t even end up ordering a drink because the atmosphere was so unpleasant and unprofessional. I left after a few minutes, completely unimpressed. For a city like New York, where good service is everywhere, this was a huge letdown. I definitely wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone.

I had a very disappointing experience at Bog Bar in New York. We asked about the recipe for a Whiskey Sour, and were told it’s just whiskey and lemon juice. When we mentioned that a classic Whiskey Sour usually includes egg white, the staff became rude, told us not to “teach the bartender how to do their job,” and we were basically kicked out shortly after. Instead of a friendly conversation or a simple explanation, we were met with disrespect and attitude. Customer service matters, and no one deserves to be treated like that. Would not recommend this place.

I would leave zero stars if I could— I work service too and never leave reviews, this case was extremely bad and deserves to be shared. Absolutely horrible experience with the femme presenting bartender on a pretty empty Saturday. Extremely rude, condescending, unbearable and had to leave pretty immediately, it was ageist and very unpleasant to be around. The two lonely men sitting there were also questionable and she seemed way kinder to them, than to us fellow non-men with a kind demeanor. Will not come back, thank you for making us feel horrible. Thank you!

Looks like some bartenders take tips for granted, expecting tips while being so rude to customers with the excuse of “being busy”. Wow, what a good reason for being disrespectful of customers. Reminder of the principle of a tip (which unfortunately has been forgotten): tips are here to reward good services for bartenders who deserve them, they should not be taken for granted. So just one thing busy bartender: if you want some tips, just do your job properly by being just slightly nicer, and not just demand “give me tips “. For your pride at least!

Big Bar is hard to miss with its bright red interior lights shining onto the sidewalk, but when you walk inside you’ll have wished you did miss it. I recently had the displeasure of stopping by this ‘dive bar’ and it was an experience I won’t soon forget; unfortunately. This bar harbors a particularly rancid vibe. Everything from the bar tender’s hall monitor attitude, to the Gen X clientele sitting at the bar top, to the bald man in a bright blue sweater standing outside holding the door looking to start arguments. It all meshed into a miserable, spoilt, and rank experience. This self touted ‘dive bar’ is a total disaster from start to finish. The atmosphere is dreadful. The space is cramped and awkward. The decor is tacky and lacking grace. It is all too evident that they tried too hard to come off as this trendy, relaxed, dingy dive bar but you can feel how incredibly gauche and trite the ambience really is. The supposed "dive bar" charm was nowhere to be found. Instead, it felt more like a sterile and sanitized version, where an older crowd can live out their dreams cosplaying being a patron at a dive bar. Without actually having to step foot in one. The raw authenticity of a dive bar is nowhere to be found here. Instead what you will encounter is a travesty of such magnitude that it defies the very essence of what it seeks to embody. Stripped of any genuine character, it is a desolate void. Big Bar’s ambiance is a facade. A cheap costume masking a soul devoid of grit or character. Stepping inside, the sterility of the place struck me immediately. But it was the customer service that truly revealed the rot at the core. At the helm of this charade was a bartender whose demeanor is a chilling specter of authoritarianism. Her presence fills the room and adds to the festering of a putrid environment. We did not get her name, but she is a heavy set brunette woman with glasses and nose piercings. She made comments that were teetering on discriminatory and seemed to convey a covert racism. She was abrasive with a patron over a seemingly arbitrary qualm. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear other patrons share a similar experience. The libations, one might hope, would salvage some semblance of a good experience, but they were as soulless as the decor. The drinks are underwhelming and bereft of any skill or care in their making. They didn’t seem to have any thing of substance worth drinking. All the bartender had was well liquor and flat beer. And in a location filled with other options that have better drinks and a more refined atmosphere, we did not stay long. In sum, this Gen X haven is truly a pit of despair and disappointment. This establishment is a blight upon the landscape of nightlife. A soulless simulacrum devoid of the grit, grime, and charm that define a dive bar. It feels more of a sterile tomb and I would implore seekers of a genuine experience to look elsewhere.

Bouncer dressed like where’s Waldo for Halloween tonight is a problem for a small business like this. I walked in with a few girls and he was hitting on the customers inside I did not see anyone in the front of the door so I walked inside. I thought he was just some big goofy Halloween dressed older over weight guy talking to younger girls. As I got though the door he started getting aggressive super weird because he’s a lot shorter than me and I’m not an aggressive person. He asked for ids I thought he was being funny but still reached in my back pocket to accommodate him. That’s when things got really weird he started acting aggressive so I turned around to leave because I don’t want to hurt this bully so I said I’m gonna just leave.. That’s when I asked the girls I was with to come he decided to follow me out screaming have a good day just so we are clear it’s night time! This place should really watch who they hire because clearly they don’t! You have been warned stay away from this place!

I really regret to change my review here. I really liked the place and used to go there. There is a specific bartender working there that is absolutely rude. She made a whole scene because some people tipped only $5 for 5 cans of beer. She was ringing some bells and her friends were shouting 'you should tip your bartender and blah blah..' and pointing to those people (that had actually tipped). Let alone that she earlier did lift me from my seat for her those friends of her to sit... When we told her that we understand that you are busy but this doesnt justify you being rude she took our drinks from us (had just bought them and i had personally tipped $3 for a jin) and asked us to leave the place. She just ruins that great bar and the nice vibe.

At the end of the day it's a bar.... The bartender and bouncer are the singular most offensive and pretensous people I have ever met in my life. Full of self importance and a vibe like they are keepers of all. They essence of the place has great bones and a good vibe overall... Just hope you catch the bartender on a night she isn't feeling like being rude and stuck up.Its far away from a premium bar and has an attitude problem equal to the snobbiest bars in all of Manhattan.... It's a hard Miss.

Kyle Colonna

Yeah this place was rude as hell. Walked in and was about to order a drink only to be yelled at for not standing in the right place. I’ve never been to this bar, I wasn’t aware of where I had to be around the bar to order. Bartender could’ve been nicer about it but chose to go on a power trip. Sorry not giving you my money if you’re going to be like that to a customer. Edit: Yeah your response perfectly encapsulates my point about your service. Thanks for that. I also never said “smile more,” I in fact, didn’t say anything and walked away. Maybe you got me mixed up with someone else.

Lorena Jimenez

Bartender disrespectful and extremely rude!!!! Not an isolated experience, more than one person in my group felt same way. Staff should learn to be polite, not asking for some to go out of their way, just respectful.

Stephanie

Honestly used to be good / decent. But as of this year service has gone down tremendously and I would not recommend this place. Bartenders are rude as hell, doing their job (yes) aka serving drinks but don’t expect a warm welcome and expect to be yelled at. It’s an impending disaster, and bartenders are soulless and need a major personality upgrade. For a dive bar, this place needs a reality check. My review aside, this spot is known for nasty bartenders. But if you come - just make peace with it.