Juliana T.
Yelp
TL;DR: Come for strong drinks, good/cheap manicures, great comedy.
Beauty Bar had been on my radar for a long time and I wanted to check it out for its historic value, but much of what I'd read about this place indicated that other than the vintage dryer chairs, there's not much worth checking out. On top of that, the consensus seemed to be that service was awful.
My friend and I showed up on a Friday around 7:45pm. It wasn't too crowded at the time, and we were able to quickly get to the front of the bar and purchase our tickets for a manicure and a drink for $10--what a steal! There were two manicurists on duty at the time, and patrons are called up by order of ticket purchase. There were a couple of people ahead of us, but we didn't mind waiting since we got to spend the time sipping on our drinks and taking obligatory photos with the dryers.
The place is very divey and ironically, there is very little that is beautiful about Beauty Bar. But the vibe is fun, the crowd is varied and chill, and there is a little bit of something for everyone. In addition to manicures, they also had comedy in the backroom, and later in the evening, a DJ. We were here for several hours and were entertained the whole time!
I didn't find the service to be as bad as I expected, based on past reviews. The bartender was an older woman, and she was great; funny and quick with the drinks. One of the manicurists (short blonde hair) was really friendly. The other one (I was told she's the manager) was less friendly and engaging, but still not outright rude. The quality of the manicure was not the best I've had, but for $5, who can complain? They use professional grade products that are free of a lot of the chemicals you would find in other polish brands. And it lasts forever! 1.5 weeks later, my nails still look great!