My girlfriends and I are heading to NY this weekend. We will be staying in midtown and looking for a fun after work bar to hit tomorrow night. Also any suggestions for a restaurant Sat night? Thanks!

Oh my gosh you have a zillion options.

Check out www.sheckys.com and Citysearch for ideas. One quick suggestion: For happy hour tomorrow, you might consider LUNA PARK in Union Square. There are many many great restaurants near there for dinner afterwards, including Havana Central (great Cuban cuisine), Blue Smoke (Danny Meyer's upscale BBQ), Dos Caminos, Gramercy Tavern (very expensive), etc.

Once again, I suggest you visit Citysearch for restaurant ideas and then float 'em by us for further advice.

Enjoy!


(As a general rule with many exceptions, midtown bars are lame.)

A very good restaurant with a fun bar is Tao, at 42 East 58th Street (Phone: 2128882288). Fusion food and good music, great ambience with the giant Buddha overseeing all. Try all their different martinis.

A great place for lunch or dinner in July would be Bryant Park Grill behind Bryant Park (5th Ave and 40th Street). You can eat outdoors (covered in the rain)
Bryant Park Grill
West 40s
25 W. 40th St. (bet. 5th & 6th Aves.)
Tel: (212) 840-6500

A drink at the bar on top of the Peninsula (700 Fifth Avenue at 55th Street) is a nice way to start or end an evening. They have a small outdoor terrace with good views.

The bar at the Royalton hotel is very cool and fun. (44 West 44th Street)

What about bars in other areas? Fun, hip? Thanks!!

What areas? The spots I suggested above are in the Union Square area (south of midtown).

"Fun & hip"? What age group are you looking for? Luna Park, for example, attracts primarily young professionals (25-35) and some older students. Once again, I suggest you check out a few websites, such as Shecky's, where you can search & review options based on many criteria.

A couple of the W hotels have Whiskey Bars (Randy Gerber), I think the W Lexington Ave & W Union Square.

Most of the W bars are stale, with the exception of Blue Fin et al in Times Square. It's on the border of hip/stale; the crowd is generally annoying. Underbar, at the W Union Square, is a great underground venue worthy of a quick visit. Whisky Blue, W Lexington Ave around 50th, had its moment in 1998-99.

I stopped going to the bars in Midtown a couple years ago - WAY too crowded, and usualy pretty conservative. Head downtown, girl!

One place I really enjoy is Pravda in Soho...a Russian martini bar. Very hip yet cozy, with the most beautiful (& friendly) waitresses and bartenders. A great place to hang with the girls. It has the BEST martinis in the city...many different flavors. There's also a great shoe store right upstairs!

Thank you all for the fun suggestions, keep them coming!!

If you want a nice romantic dinner with a beautiful view of the NYC skyline - go to "River Cafe" under the Brooklyn Bridge. It's a little expensive, but worth it.

http://rivercafe.com/

I don't think HartmannA and her girlfriends are looking for romantic . . . but if they are, hey, that's *hot*. Okay, back to reality.

I second Pravda, although it's certainly not the of-the-moment spot it was a few years ago (it even appeared on the short-lived Fox show Wall Street in 2000). The martinis are the best, as is Pravda's bloody mary. (Personally, because of its subterranean warmth, I think of Pravda as a winter destination.)

If you like German beer gardens, Zum Schneider on Avenue C (at 7th St) is tons o' fun. Real German beer served by real Germans. It's two short blocks south of Esperanto, which you might enjoy for dinner (Ave C @ 9th St.).

lol - sorry read that wrong. Thought it said my girlfriend and I.

Ooo...I love Zum Schneider too. Great beer and bratwurst. Very authentic German food, according to a friend of mine from Germany.

I have a suggestion for Saturday night dinner, if you want something fairly casual and inexpensive: Walker's (on Varick and No. Moore St. , Tribeca). It's right at the Franklin Street 1/9 subway exit. It's one of those old, historical NYC bars. With really good food!