Читать книгу New York City's Best Dive Bars - Ben Westhoff - Страница 26

Botanica

47 E. Houston Street (Greene Street & Mott Street) Transit: 6, B, D, F, M to Broadway-Lafayette

(212) 343-7251

When the young folks at Milano’s Bar are scared off by the middle-aged drunks, they head over to Botanica, just a few yards away. As opposed to the old New York flavor of Milano’s, Botanica is decorated like the owners went on a shopping spree at a Midwestern garage sale. You’ve never seen such an assortment of rickety Formica tables, lamps made from booze bottles, mirrors that look like they belong on a pirate ship and Chinese lanterns. The atmosphere is reminiscent of 169 Bar, minus the noir element.

In the back there’s an isolated room that theoretically offers a bit of privacy when it’s slow, although when I go it’s usually full of twenty-something girls cackling hysterically. Up front the bartender is prematurely balding and usually wearing an orange cardigan sweater. He serves up drinks like an $8 wasabi martini and something that requires minced ginger, which he carefully spoons out of a jar.

If you like fancy drinks coupled with grungy décor, this is your place. The bathrooms are not only unmarked, but they lack door handles as well. A piece of graffiti inside one reads, “Faux-tanica!” but that’s a bit unfair. Botanica might not be the diviest dive around, but its hipsters are spirited, its floors are sloped, and its furniture seems to come directly from Muncie, Indiana. If you’re a baby boomer you belong at Milano’s, but if you’re young and you’re not having a good time at Botanica, then you should probably have another drink.

Dive Bar Rating