Grassroots Tavern

04/08/10

quite, dark, damp

by MGremel at Citysearch

very inexpensive beer and darts in the back... but you need to bring your own darts. tables are old and run down

• Pros: cheap beer
• Cons: older crowd, divy

11/18/08

Locals Only? No way!

by BrienJ at Citysearch

In town as tourists who always do the "touristy" sites during the day, and hunting out dive bars by nite, we were sent to the East Village by a couple transit authority cops. After a short walk from the subway, we found ourselves outside what looked to be just what we were hoping to find: the Grassroots Tavern. While overdressed from our previous dinner engagement, we walked in and were practically treated like family by owner (Doug) and bartender (Maria). We stayed for hours, conversing about the bar, the neighborhood, the Village, and the city in general. Two yokels from Denver could not have found more accomodating and knowledgeable New Yorkers to talk & drink with for hours. Planning for an upcoming trip to NYC, I pulled up some reviews about Grassroots and HAD to interject against some of the negatives. Even if we have to stay all the way out in Jamaica for Thanksgiving weekend, (due to lack of room availability), we are making Grassroots a stop on at least 3 of our 5 nights in NYC. Highly recommend this place, if a no frills/little embience/no BS dive bar is what you're looking for. And, from what appears to be happening to the neighborhood, better enjoy it soon; places like Grassroots may be on their way out due to the "Disneyfication" of the East Village. In our experience, the best way to find out about a new city is to visit its dive bars, and Grassroots offered an excellent cross-section of its particular area of Manhattan. We will be there again soon!!

• Pros: Exactly the kind of dive bar we were looking for.
• Cons: None worth mentioning.

02/04/08

If you try to be nice they kick you out...

by jmbrandt01 at Citysearch

I've been here lots of times, and have always enjoyed my time there. Granted, the bar tenders aren't the nicest, but the atmosphere is usually pretty cool and it's cheap. What truly ruined my taste for the place happened this past Saturday. I was there with a bunch of friends of mine, and we were having a great time. We notice that under the table there's an empty bottle of beer, so to be nice, we put it on top of the table for someone to take away. This bald guy (who's usually the bouncer) comes over and takes the empty glasses and that bottle. Five minutes later he comes back, YELLING at us to get out that they don't deal with people who bring in outside beer. We try to tell him it was already there, and he said he doesn't care - the bottle is on our table. Then he said he wants us to tell all of our friends about our experience, so I said that we will. We'd just ordered a new pitcher (I'm a big tipper and had just gotten a free drink from the bartender and a discount on the pitcher) and so I chugged my beer - which isn't something I like to do with tasty wheat beer. He yells more and says we'd better get out NOW, that he's not kidding. So we say, we're just finishing our pitcher, and then he says "No you're not, you're getting out". Then he slammed his hands on the table, got right in my friends face, and yelled at her - which included saliva splatter - and he said he never wanted to see us there again.

• Pros: cheap beer
• Cons: they kick you out for doing nothing, and yell/spit at you

11/17/07

My favorite go-to

by phishyeel at Citysearch

Grassroots is one of my favorites. Whether I'm there on a Saturday afternoon or for after-work beers, I have a great time. It's great for going with friends (bring darts!) to share pitchers, or to go just to meet new people. The old-school bartenders are awesome. And how does that popcorn always taste so freaking good?! And great jukebox. Love that I don't feel like people are sizing me up when I go - seriously a great atmosphere as opposed to the rest of Manhattan, which seems to be getting out of control. What makes this place ever better is Mamoun's right next door now! I love Grassroots!

• Pros: Cheap pitchers, fun atmosphere, tasty popcorn
• Cons: Gets really cold sometimes

07/15/06

real ny: a rough in the faux diamond.

by lunaparker at Citysearch

to be honest, I was so aggravated with two of the reviews of this standby classic dive below that i created the account simply to respond.

firstly, a bar is not a park, a playground, or a dorm. you may enter if over 18, and drink if over 21. if there is no restaurant (and grassroots hasn't served food since the late 70's) it is ABSOLUTELY at the discretion of the staff whether to allow anyone under that age in the bar. few dive bars are an appropriate place for a 4 year old, and the bartender was doing his job to keep to that well established rule. broken glass? dirty bathroom? really, there's a nice fake mall across the street that you can try.

and to the birthday cakers? again -- it is at any establishment's discretion to allow you to bring in food from the outside. if they let you, it is a further kindness for them to not charge a fee for the privelege, as many restaurants do. bars and their employees are there to serve you, yes... but serve you ALCHOHOL. the very gracious, traditional bartenders at grassroots are a relic of a former city, where people expected patrons to have manners, as well as staff. don't order a water and bring a cake without ordering drinks first. it's totally tacky, presumptious and rude.

the reviews are accurate: god save grassroots and the holiday cocktail lounge. god rest sweetwater tavern and the stinger, pre-cafe (weird...) and god save these holdouts of a new york we loved pre-disneyfication. darts, popcorn, cheap drinks, classic bartenders, unpretentious, great classic juke, take it or leave it. i don't expect ramones and free pitchers (just be nice!) at suede, don't try to fit a square (ahem) peg in a round hole. long live the tavern!

• Pros: Cheap! Great popcorn. Usually unpretentious crowd (read: more cooper union, more vintage east village writers and artists, less nyu...thank god...)
• Cons: dive bars should have been exempt from the smoking ban. the drinks are too strong. (oh wait...that's a pro...) st. marks place continues to die a painful death around