Carson E.
Yelp
Smith's is a New York institution. It's iconic neon has been a defining characteristic of midtown west for decades. I'd walked by it thousands of times, but never gone in for whatever reason. Last night, a friend and I did. It'll be the last time.
My friend and I arrived around 11:45 p.m. We ordered two, INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE whiskeys. Like "Yikes" expensive. But it's midtown. So, we take our whiskeys and sit near the window. Then, a little after midnight, the lights where we're sitting start to get brighter. I turn to the door guy and say, "Is that on purpose or did someone bump a light switch? Is it last call?" He says, "They already called last call. We're closing up." Well, shit, ok. Sucks that a New York City bar is closing at 12:30, but, oh well. So my friend and I get up and go into the back room to get away from the bright overhead light and we sit down at a dark booth. Immediately a waiter says, "This area is closed. You have to move." We get up and go back into the main room and sit down at a bar table for a moment and almost immediately, the doorman comes over and says, "I need to get into a cabinet behind you. Get up and out of there." We're like, "OK." and we walk over to the bar and as we're about to sit down, a bartender says, "It's past last call. You can't sit at the bar." I say, "OK, well, we're just trying to finish these drinks and get out of here but every time we try to sit someplace, you guys are telling us to get up or that we can't sit there. Where ARE we supposed to finish these drinks?" He then just shrugs like, "Not my problem."
My buddy, who bought the drinks, at this point is not happy and wants to discuss this a bit with the bartender who served us. After a few minutes of being ignored, the bartender comes over and my buddy explains why we're disappointed in the experience. I shit you not, the bartender YELLS at my buddy, and this is hilarious, "WHY ARE YOU COMPLAINING ABOUT THIS BAR? THERE'S A THOUSAND GREAT BARS IN THE CITY! GO TO ONE OF THEM!" and he marches back into the kitchen. At this point, we just downed the rest of our drinks and left.
So...I guess this review is just to amplify the message of our bartender. There are a thousand great bars in the city. Smith's is not one of them. Definitely go somewhere else.