Well, last night wasn't all self-inflicted abuse at the hands of the Donut Burger. I finally got to check out a place I've been meaning to go to for a while located on Park Avenue called Beatniks. A little bit of history behind the place. Before Beatniks there was another bar in that building called Blenders. And it was awful.
It was trying to pawn itself off as hip and trendy on the outside with it's funky sign. But inside it was just a dive. The floors were dirty concrete, the bar was dirty. The whole place was dirty. When we went to order food we were told that even though they had a kitchen they didn't have a serving staff. Judging by the place, I'm sure this was a blessing in disguise.
I think they thought they were going to get the college crowd because they offered $1 Pabst Blue Ribbon on tap. But it didn't work because I don't think Pabst is as big of a draw out here with the art kids and college crowd as I've heard it is on the West Coast.
Needless to say, this place had FAILURE written all over it and I was less than surprised when it shut it's doors.
Flash forward and now new ownership has moved in and the place has transformed from the dirty and dismal Blenders to the hip and jazzy Beatniks.
Of course I wasn't sure of this at first. My memories of the previous establishment were still pretty prominent in my mind. But the sign font outside looked promising although the exterior still looked pretty much the same.
Again, I have never been one to judge a book by it's cover so I was willing to give this new place a chance.
Luck would have it last night that Sydney and I had some time to kill before we headed over to Muncheez to meet up with Jared and Alicia (read the previous blog for that story if you dare) so after finding Peppercorns was packed to the gills, we decided to give Beatniks a try.
The moment we stepped in I knew the place was a vast improvement over the previous place that inhabited the same building. They had given the place a very 1950's Rat Pack feel to it with the art hanging on the wall as well as the way the bar had been decorated with the seating. I happened to really love the way the booths looked which I think you can see from the picture above. The once dirty floors were now covered by a much nicer and cleaner tile. There were large circular signs to the restrooms with the words Guys and Girls done in that jazzy sort of lettering.
The place was not packed when we got there and just littered with a few people sitting up at the bar. But I imagine they get their biggest crowds later in the night when the bands play. I can see it being very popular after 9pm. But since I'm less than a night owl, I prefer going to the establishments around 6pm.
All in all a very nice little place.
The food on the menu as well as the specials looked really appealing. And yes!! There WAS food there. Sydney and I had a basket of cheese fries which were amazing!! I got myself a Narragansett on tap which was really good!!
See!! This place is in tune with the local scene. They realize that as far as the inexpensive beers are concerned, Narragansett is popular with the kids around here. That's in part due to the local guy who worked hard to buy Narragansett back from Pabst and have it produced relatively locally again.
I think it's actually brewed in High Falls New York. But a lot of their specialty beers are brewed at their brewery in Rode Island.
The guy behind the bar was really great and I was certain to tell him what a vast improvement Beatniks was over the previous place. Which he thanked me.
And I was sure to tell him that this was our first and not our last visit to Beatniks. And I think the place is good for both people who don't like really dealing with big crowds as well as people who like going out late at night and mingling with the hip and trendy kids.
I'm definitely looking forward to the next visit. Check out their website by clicking the link below:
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