Phase I: Drinking in the Central Village

The village in New York's Manhattan has a lot of bars. I walk by them all the time and would love to know which are the good ones, so that I have a variety of cool bars to go to without having to waste lots of time in crappy bars. The only solution I could think of is to go to every single bar once and find out for myself. So I set out on this ambitious project with the help of friends.

In order to make the project more manageable, I decided to cut the Village into pieces and do them one at a time. First up is what I refer to as the "Central Village", which runs from the south side of 14th street to the north side of Houston, and from the east side of 6th ave to the west side of Broadway (see map). This region comprises about 50 square blocks, or about 110 street blocks.

Next I had to decide what counts as a "bar". A restaurant that also has a bar doesn't count, but a bar that also serves some food does. Orbital said it's like pornography: you know it when you see it. That about sums it up except to add that comedy/jazz clubs that primarily serve a show rather than just a drink, are excluded.

Some final rules: try to avoid bars on nights when they charge a cover and always get a vodka tonic when possible in order to facilitate cross-bar comparisons. Enjoy.