Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Affaire
Affaire
New York, NY 10009
(212) 375-0665
Bathroom situation - so the street level floor of Affaire is set up as a small restaurant. Theres 1 bathroom in the back, to the side of the bar. Then downstairs there are two separate lounge rooms which each have 1 small bathroom. Each one is single-person and the tricky part with the downstairs ones is that the doors blend in seamlessly with the wall. If youre having trouble finding them, just wait for a line to form.
Takes credit cards? - yes and when you close out at the bar, they go through the whole rigamarole of putting your check in one of those black pleather folders, which is such a cyse.
Crowded on weekends? - the following is a true story that happened in real life earlier this year: The Visceralist rolled up to the door of Affaire on a Saturday night. The Bouncer (who looked like he had probably used the phrase "Nuff said" about 5 or 6 times that week), was all, "Gotta lose the hat. Cant let you in with that hat." Fair enough, so we turned to our friend and asked her if she could please put the offending hat in her purse for the night. She was all, "Of course." Problem solved, right? Of course. But then Bouncer was all, "Nah, no hats at all inside. Gotta get rid of it." To which we responded, "Itll just stay in her bag, man, its all good." Bouncer: "No hats." V: "Really? So even though I couldve put the hat in her bag in the cab before we got here, you wont let us in?" Bouncer (after cinching up his jean cargo shorts): "Yeah. I mean if you wanna come in now, you could throw it out in the trash can on the corner." Tell you what, how bout you throw out your unreasonable attitude, guy?!
Seating - 7 or 8 dinner tables upstairs and a few lounge-style sofas in both downstairs rooms. Most seats on the sofas were occupied by coats - including Visceralists beloved Spiewak, which typically causes us a healthy dose of undue anxiety. Fortunately though, the crowd kept their grubbies off, so no complaints there.
Neighborhood -whats that saying about Alphabet City in NYCs bad old days? Ah yes: If youre on Avenue A youre alright, Avenue B youre brave, Avenue C youre Crazy, Avenue D youre Dead. That hasnt really been applicable for a while, so Visceralist proposes a revision: If youre on Avenue A youre an NYU student, Avenue B youre boring cuz all the bars on this avenue are mediocre, Avenue C youll get flooded once a year but itll get blogged about, Avenue D youll get flooded once a year but youre on your own for a couple weeks after.
Pretentious/assholes - lets just say that you will see a guy or few that does that move where he puts his arm up against the wall behind the girl hes talking to and then leans in with a grin.
Cost of Stella - $7 and bottles only. Pay cash.
What time people start showing up - Visceralist got here at 11:30ish on a recent Saturday night and both downstairs rooms were jammed up like the EQ on a Waka Flocka track.
Bartender efficiency - surprisingly adept, considering the crowds. Wed like to take this time to send an unreserved, non-sarcastic kudos their way.
Official Website - here. Their "Delicious Playful Moments" section informs us that they present frequent burlesque shows here. So if seeing bra-covered tits vs. seeing naked tits is like eating porridge thats too cold vs. eating porridge thats too hot, then this is your spot. With your freaky ass ;)
Food? How late -full brunch and dinner menus. Buffalo style frog legs!
TVs? Whats on - no, Affaire aspires to a level of pretension that would see it more at home on a Mad TV parody of Girls. So youre gonna have to catch that Nets game down the block at Croxleys, bruh.
Guy:girl ratio - 50:50ish.
Toys - not really, so try to make some new friends in the bathroom or coatcheck lines.
Age of clientele - folks in their mid-20s who think they know what folks in their mid-30s act like and attempt to imitate that.
Space for dancing? - so this is where they actually get shit completely right. Perhaps the bouncer actually knows his business because, though the dance floors in both lounge rooms could be crowded enough to be a hassle to walk through, it was fuckin party time out that bitch and it was official.
Music medium, style & volume - stretched-out dance remixes of Khias "My Neck, My Back" & "Gangnam Style" were heard and remembered.
Photo
