169 Bar

AKA The Bloody Bucket, the bar adjacent Seward Park has gotten much more hopping since 2004 when first did I patronize the drinking hole with the holdover LAWYER sign atop. Serving depressingly high-priced ales and spirits to creepy old men on weekdays and gaggles of youngu’uns listening to singers and pool-playing on weekdays, 169 is claimed by both LES and Chinatown, lies right off the East Broadway F train and is apparently still called a “dive” though the likes of Alison C. of Hoboken, NJ has this to say on its Yelp page: “’East Broadway and Rutgers St...Where is that?’ asked our cab driver, and, honestly, I could not really tell him. 169 Bar lies in a majorly deserted corner of eastern Chinatown, providing a grungy live music haven in the midst of dim sum palaces and Asain markets….my friend braved the graffitied bathroom and advised me only to use it if it was an extreme emergency. I hesitated for several minutes, but decided to squeeze myself into the phone booth-sized space that surprisingly smelled of bleach and appeared clean beneath the grime. Just when I was starting to feel impressed at how they pulled off the funk factor without the actual funk, my friend received a drink glass with lipstick on the rim...” Ugh. People.