Chris H.
Yelp
After a Library happy hour sesh (http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-library-new-york#hrid:GrMje0NVULMeRVVugbWitw/query:library), my friends and I sought, unsuccessfully, to extend it beyond that early hour of 8. We headed first to Boxcar Lounge for their 10pm happy hour deadline, but were severely disappointed to find that theirs also ended at 8 (only Friday and Saturdays, 10pm the rest of the week). This almost raised my ire to the point of lowering my appraisal of that bar to two stars, had not what reason I had leftover after a few heavy happy hour drinks intervened.
So we all backtracked to 7B aka Horseshoe, which piqued our curiosity the first time we passed it on the way up to Boxcar, with its blue and red neon glow emanating from fogged up windows and the friendly voices within floating out onto the sidewalk. No happy hour specials here (well, that we were aware of at least), but we decided to quickly enter a bar before our drunken high ended and the night of drinking became a night of wandering and indecision.
Inside is just what we expected - a half-dive half-sportsbar hybrid. A few flatscreen TV's hang from the ceiling, but other than that, no other sign of modern technology in the old wood-paneled bar. The beefy bouncer at the front door caught us a bit off-guard at first (what is this? Some fancy Midtown lounge?), but after that, we quickly settled comfortably in a corner booth.
7B has an unusual but interesting setup with the bar located in the middle, in the shape of an oval (or "horseshoe"), with bartenders serving drinks in the middle to the surrounding patrons. There's a rusty, industrial feel to the place, with parts of the bar looking like it was put together by patchwork, and a seemingly casual disorganization of tables, chairs, stools, posters, neon beer signs, and beer glasses littered throughout.
The beer selection is plentiful, but nothing out of the ordinary brews found in most bars. They do have pitchers, however, which is not common in this area, and while they are not cheap, there are often specials listed on a chalkboard ($10 dollar pitcher of MGD, for example).
We didn't really have a great time, but we didn't regret walking in either. Later on that night a few girls working for Bacardi or some other rum company came by and dropped off a couple free promo drinks for us (one with Diet Coke, unfortunately), which was nice, but ultimately unsatisfying (what is the point of a free drink if it's not the one you want?).
