Any help with friendly Bars near E44th (staying at the Millenium Plaza)Street, more 'jeans and t-shirt' than suit and tie. We are looking for good atmosphere, beer,food and value for money.Some live music might good. Thanks for any info.

While there are plenty of bars you can go into wearing jeans and tee, Midtown is more of a 'business casual' kind of locale. Some will not allow you in with jeans on after 5PM. No suit, but you may be more comfortable in khakis.

Head down Third Ave b/w 23-29th Street for more "Irish Pub" type of places (many of which have great happy hour specials). The Rodeo Bar (~29th St or so on the corner) has live music many nites of the week.

I concur about heading down 3rd Avenue. You may still run into people coming directly from work but there are lots of options so you will likely find a place that fits what you are looking for. Most bars have standard pub grub so don't expect too much from your meal. One popular place is Joshua Tree (3rd btwn 34th & 35th).

3rd Avenue in the mid-30s, definitely. There's one bar after the other. I used to go to Black Sheep and Stock & Tankard often. Very laid back places...jeans are welcome!

Jimmy's on 43rd St. just east of Broadway is a friendly, laid back bar. They don't serve food. McHale's on 8th Ave, at about 47th St., is larger and louder and serves decent pub food.

Head on over to 2nd Avenue, E.45th St. through E.54th Street. Thady Con, Sutton Place, Local, Nessa, Marlowe, Turtle Bay, Remedy, and lot's of others who's names escape me at the moment. Just stroll up one side of the Avenue and down the other, the choices are many.

You can also check out www.Sheckys.com, it is an online guide to all the bars in N.Y.C.

You can also hit 9th Ave. in the 40s if you don't want to stray too far. Otis, Bar 9, Citron, Zanzibar, are all casual. Food is so-so, but there are good eats around (Niko's for Greek, Julian for Italian/mediterranean).

Otherwise, all of the suggestions previously posted are solid.

41st and 9th Ave - Tobacco Road - laid back party scene with live musiv most nights and jam band oriented acts are frequent. Some of the better known veterans of that circuit and the funk world including Buddy Cage and Bernie Worrel appear regularly along with some funk jazz - worth checking out.