Day 282—Monday, October 18th, 2010
Cibar
Tonight’s bar is all about the following three things: Location, location, location. I have to come in to work extra early tomorrow, so I have to get up even earlier to post this before I go to work, so I need to go to a bar near by where I live, do my 365 thing and then try and get some sleep. I found a place called Cibar nearby where I live. It’s a martini bar and it appears to be a little fancy-schmancy, so hopefully they’ll get into the spirit (and spirits) of the bar crawl. We’ll see soon. It’s on my way home, so we’ll hoof it over there, feets don’t fail me now.
Here we are, there's no sign outside but...
The menu outside gives them away. Let's go inside.
Nice and dark inside, let's grab a seat.
I got a seat and James the friendly bartender quickly shakes up a chocolate martini for me. (That's right, Jaws, it's an Oompa Loompa night.)
James pours...
And I drink. It was delicious. James is a master martini maker. And he's also a DJ and goes by the name, Agent Trevor, check out his site here: Agent Trevor.
Bill and Nina were seated next to me and enjoying martinis. Cheers!
A shot from one end of the bar...
And a shot from the other end.
Jon and Debbi were seated on the other side of me. They were on their third date and I told them a couple of my dating horror stories from the past.
There's two fireplaces in the lounge area. Here's the one in the back...
And here's the one in the front.
Back at the bar James mixes me up a Rosemary Pear Margarita Martini.
It was so delicious I had two of them.
There's tables up in the front of the lounge area to relax and drink at.
And here's one of the manager's of the bar, the lovely Jennifer with Ahmed.
Lookin' good, Elvis. "Thank ya, thank ya very much!"
There's an outside patio where you can drink and if you smoke, you can light up out here.
Uh, oh, looks like someone had one too many martinis. I need to stick to beer! Here come the Oompa Loompa men! Goodnight, everybody!
Review
Okay, it’s fucking early in the morning and I feel like shit scraped off a shingle. I’m running late for work, so once again I’m cutting and pasting a review of Cibar from New York magazine. I do have to say that this place is a great martini bar. A lot of martini bars are snooty and this place was really friendly. It's a martini bar with a dive bar attitude and you gotta love that. Okay, I'm off to work.
-----------------------
Located in the basement of the exclusive, twelve-room Inn at Irving Place, Cibar is the Miss America of bars: beautiful in a polished yet thoroughly generic way. Amber lights and a working fireplace shed a warm glow on the elegantly curved bar, Victorian banquettes and marble tables. In warm weather, a bamboo-adorned backyard opens up, a good place for intimate tete-a-tetes. The drink list features more than 20 martinis and glasses of Scotch. The clientele (which is rarely a crowd) consists mostly of wealthy business people schmoozing after work and couples smiling awkwardly over appetizers. — Shana Liebman
-----------------------
Happy Tuesday, everyone, cheers! The weekend is just four days away!
Cibar
56 Irving Pl. (Near 17th St.)
212-460-5656
-----------------------
And speaking of feets, here’s my favorite Little Feet song: Willin.’