Stout: A Bar in NYC Worth Knowing

Stout is one of those bars that you may like, but everyone else thinks sucks. It is a block away from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, so its clientele is high in douchbagery. Never the less, the bar is HUGE, with 3 floors and a grand total of five separate bar areas. It has the main bar, a dining room upstairs, a backroom for private parties, a downstairs dining room, and a ‘dart alley’ bar downstairs. Even with its high commuter crowd, there is always room here. The food is pretty tasty and the tap list is impressive at the main bar. They often have cool bands play on a small stage above the bar, and host tons of special events. I busy bar of nothing else.

My history with this bar is not lengthy but mildly complex. I found out about it when an actress I used to work with worked there. She recommended that we rent the back room out for a huge 4-way birthday party we were planning. That party, known as the ‘Quad Birthday’ featured 20 year old Irish whiskey and karaoke; it was a huge success. We threw two more parties there (another birthday and a Theatre fundraiser) both blowouts even without a group sing along to “The Weight”.

The only other times we would go there was for a beer after going to the Garden. Rockstar can sometimes access his corporate seats, which are amazing. We went to a Ranger’s game and were 2 rows from the ice. In club seats, they have waiters who get you beer and food, and use wacky computers to have your food brought to you by the time you finished paying the guy who took your order (what an age we live in). After such a decadent sporting event, we would head to Stout for a post game beer, the only time such a trip was made.

Then around February, something dangerous happened. Teach got a job there as a bartender.

The last time Teach tended bar, it was at an upscale Midtown restaurant called Mix. He bartended there for around a month, then the place went out of business (the two events are unrelated, trust me). The closing was a mixed blessing, as it was fun to get apple martinis comped in a fancy restaurant bar, but if he had kept working there, I would be dead broke. I went there so often, the staff would get angry at me if I went more than three days without stopping by. This job did culminate in a Saturday night where we took over the whole restaurant after the bar closed, the entire staff heralded my extravagant tab, and Bourbon Samurai stole a bottle of Jack Daniels. Mix was also the spot where the nickname ‘Uber260’ was forged.

Needless to say, Teach working at a bar equals a good time.

So I have found myself spending many evenings after work chatting up Teach in Dart Alley, drinking a beer and munching on some bar food. Having a bar near the office where I know the bartender means the option of a happy hour pint is always on the table, even if all my friends are lame. This does not lead to a ton of drunkenness, just more time away from home.

So Stout holds a special place in the annals of NY drinking spots. Not the best, but much too good to ignore.