Great Bars in NYC continued: Blue Smoke, cause ya gotta eat sometime

Technically, Blue Smoke is not a bar, it is a BBQ restaurant with a bar, but since every time I have been there I drank a lot, it counts. Blue Smoke is locates in Gramercy, a neighborhood with many fine restaurants (some of the best in the city) and few great bars, a fact that wins it extra points as a drinking establishment. Unlike many NYC BBQ places, Blue Smoke does not attempt to overwhelm you with its ‘southern-ness’ in an attempt to feel more legitimate. It is just a great place to get great BBQ. The bar itself wins points for its acceptance of people who just want to drink. Its tap has both standard fare and several microbrews. Best of all, it possibly the most extensive bourbon list I have ever seen in this city. It also offers a flight of bourbon for tasting.

Blue Smoke’s moment of glory came at New Years a couple of years ago. Hubris and I had gone out last night in our yearly December 30th binge (our way of waiving the middle finger to New Years, an over-rated holiday in my opinion), and were feeling it the next day. We had plans to meet up with Bourbon Samurai and some old friends from college that were in town, so we soldiered up and headed down to Blue Smoke. Now a normal person who is both A) hung over and B) planning on going out hard core would have a sensible, restrained dinner. Normal people suck; we had bourbon flights with our meal. These multiple glasses of bourbon, however, did fuel us for a particularly wacky evening, one where we invaded The Banker’s apartment with a dozen people he had never met, got hammered off The Gymnast’s home made beer, and ended the evening with me walking around Williamsburg, screaming how much I hated Williamsburg. This is a testament to how much people who live in Williamsburg suck, as they would let some drunken asshole wander around their neighborhood badmouthing it. A guy tried to pull that in Astoria, a couple of large Greek men would introduce him to a baseball bat and the East River.

In closing, anyone who likes bourbon and BBQ owes themselves a trip to Blue Smoke. It is far more fun than a restaurant in Gramercy should be.