Booze, Views Make High Line Great on Bar-Hopping Date
Benches and trees on the High Line. Open container laws are enforced in the newly opened park. Photographer: Paul Goguen/Bloomberg
Cars parked and stacked across the street from the Cookshop Restaurant and Bar. The establishment, near the entrance to the High Line, offers oysters and champagne. Photographer: Paul Goguen/Bloomberg
"Viewing Station," by Richard Galpin, on the High Line. The High Line includes several site-specific art works. Photographer: Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
The rooftop bar of the Standard Hotel. The hotel, which has sweeping views of Manhattan, is located at 848 Washington Street and 13th. Photographer: Paul Goguen/Bloomberg
The restaurant Park. Located at 118 10th Ave, Park has a thirty-foot-tall cluster of bamboo in the main dining room and a 900-year-old redwood bench in the separate bar and lounge area. Photographer: Paul Goguen/Bloomberg
A bartender shakes a drink on the rooftop bar of the Standard Hotel. The establishment offers sweeping views of Manhattan and serves a rum-based specialty cocktail called the Bang Bang. Photographer: Paul Goguen/Bloomberg
Bottles of liquor and thousands of bras at the Hogs & Heifers Saloon. The dive bar opened in 1992 and was made famous by Julia Roberts's bra, which hangs over the bar with about 11,000 others. Photographer: Paul Goguen/Bloomberg
"The River That Flows Both Ways," by Spencer Finch, on the High Line. The High Line is a great date destination because of the many nearby bars and restaurants. Photographer: Lili Rosboch/Bloomberg
Walking on the High Line, an elevated park on Manhattan’s far west side, a friend and I recently came across a couple sitting near an open bottle of wine. Sad-faced, the two were being issued a summons by a pair of New York Parks Department officers for public consumption of alcohol.
Ticket aside, the couple had the right idea: The High Line is an extraordinary date destination.
The first section, open for a little more than a year, consists of flowers and grasses growing over the tracks of the former elevated train line, as well as public art and seating areas. It’s a great spot to take a stroll or see the sunset over the Hudson River, but save the fine and go somewhere nearby for a drink.
There are lots of choices; the character of your date can decide the atmosphere of your bar. I’d want my date to drink Champagne and eat oysters, so we’d start at the Cookshop on 20th Street and 10th Avenue.
The small, bright bar has 12 seats and you can see the entrance to the High Line from the stools on the side. A half bottle of Laherte Freres goes for $45; Beau Soleil oysters cost $3 each.
The restaurant is at 156 10th Ave.; information: +1-212- 924-4440.
‘Autumn on the Hudson’
Fortified, cross 10th Avenue and ascend the 20th-Street stairs to the High Line.
There on the fence that divides the open and closed sections of the park hangs an artwork by Valerie Hegarty called “Autumn on the Hudson Valley With Branches” that suggests a collision of natural and industrial materials -- much like the High Line. Sometime in 2011, the second section will open and run from 20th to 30th streets.
Around 18th Street, photographic artist Richard Galpin has set up “Viewing Station,” a work that alters the panorama of Manhattan through cutouts on a metal screen.
It also points toward a garden bar and restaurant across the street on 10th Avenue called The Park. Visually stimulated dates will enjoy the aesthetic of the 30-foot-tall cluster of bamboo in the main dining room and the 900-year-old redwood bench in the separate bar and lounge area.
The Park is at 118 10th Ave.; information: +1-212-352-3313.
Chelsea Market
Tired dates may want to take the elevator down at 16th Street and enter Chelsea Market for more refreshments. The shopping mall, once a biscuit-factory complex where Premium Saltines and Oreo cookies originated, has picnic foods and wine shops in case you want to chance it with the Parks Department. There’s even a bar in a clothing shop called 202.
Chelsea Market takes up the block between 9th and 10th avenues and 15th and 16th streets.</a>
Come back up to the tunnel at 16th through which the High Line passes to see Spencer Finch’s work called ‘‘The River That Flows Both Ways.” He photographed the Hudson River’s surface every minute for 700 minutes and transferred the color of one pixel from each image to panes of glass. The resulting grid has a stained-glass effect that changes with the available light.
At the 14th Street Passage, bike bells, church bells, the New York Stock Exchange Bell and a host of others fill the space with city sounds. This is Stephen Vitiello’s “A Bell for Every Minute,” which rings out through speakers placed around the area.
Hogs & Heifers
Rowdy dates that don’t mind heckling will fit in well at Hogs & Heifers Saloon, on Washington Street just down from the 14th Street entrance of the park. The dive bar opened in 1992 and was made famous by Julia Roberts’s bra. It hangs over the bar with some 11,000 others.
One guy came in and looked around. A bartender shouted, “Hey buddy! What’re you looking for? The bar? It’s right here!” A sign says, “NO SNIVELING,” so no one complains. After a couple of cheap drinks without fruit, and not too much prompting, we joined the megaphone-toting bartender for a gals- only dance on the bar to Cher’s cover of “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss).”
We were asked to contribute our bras, which would hang for all eternity over the bar, but I wasn’t about to part with my pink Wacoal on a Monday night at 10 p.m.; Saturday at 2 a.m.? Perhaps.
The saloon is at 859 Washington St., by 13th Street; information: +1-212-929-0655.
Bang Bang
The room formally known as Boom Boom is now known as Top of the Standard or Gold Room. Next door is Le Bain, or Black Room, complete with a small pool. Both are on the 18th floor of The Standard Hotel, which straddles the High Line at 13th and Washington streets. If your date wants a drop-dead view of the city with no thought to cost, that’s the place to go.
I’ve seen views like that before and thus concentrated on my $20 Bang Bang, a rum-based specialty cocktail. A drink with Tito’s Handmade Vodka, from my hometown of Austin, was $18.
The ever-changing-name bars at the Standard Hotel are usually open till 10 p.m. Le Bain reopens as a club at 11 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. The hotel is at 848 Washington St., by 13th Street; information: +1-212-645-4646. You’d be crazy not to call first.
At the southern end of the High Line, there’s plenty more for the sturdy. The Collective on Little West 12th at Ninth is perfect if you and your date need something to talk about. The room is filled with repurposed materials like buttons, frames, medicine bottles and slot machines; information: +1-212-255- 9717.
Some dates smoke cigarettes. The nearby Gansevoort Hotel has a 14th-floor bar called Plunge with a pool, a wrap-around terrace and a huge outdoor smoking section. Plunging isn’t allowed; the pool is for hotel guests only.
The hotel is at 18 Ninth Ave., by 13th Street; information: +1-212-206-6700.
(Catherine Smith writes for Muse, the arts and culture section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)
To contact the writer on the story: Catherine Smith in New York at c.smith@bloomberg.net.
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