Ice Bar & Lounge 31 2nd Ave. (1st & 2nd Sts.)
East Village
212.777.0774
Ice Bar & Lounge:
In Hell’s Kitchen, a modern (but dated) pseudo-hip spot like this would make sense. Sitting next to The Cock and half a block from Mars Bar, this place is wearing a white tuxedo to a rock concert. Is that wrong? The empty nights say “yes.” The busy nights say “sometimes.” A hard-to-figure, where-are-they-from crowd lines up at this long bar, occasionally occupying the VIP area past the flashing DJ booth, where the walls have a Saturday Night Fever dance floor thing going on. The rest of this elongated house and danceable rock spot is a lot like Utah—very white yet not very bright. Consistent with the theme, everything from the frosty curtain to the back wall is bleached in a fashion that will have some comparing Ice to Chelsea’s recently defunct Suede, but without the A-list “cool.”
