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KGB Bar
Categories: Nightlife Bars Dive Bars Arts & Entertainment Performing Arts Dive Bars, Performing Arts [Edit]
85 E 4th St(between Cooper Sq & Bowery)
New York, NY 10003
Neighborhood: East Village
(212) 505-3360
- Nearest Transit:
-
2 Av (F)
Bleecker St (4, 6, 6X)
Astor Pl (4, 6, 6X)
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Music:
- DJ
- Best Nights:
- Fri, Thu, Sun
- Happy Hour:
- No
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Smoking:
- No
- Coat Check:
- No
- Noise Level:
- Loud
- Good For Dancing:
- No
- Ambience:
- Hipster
- Has TV:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- No
117 reviews for KGB Bar
Review Highlights
117 reviews in English
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Review from Jonathan E.
Brooklyn, NY
2/24/2012 1 Check-in Here
This is a cool bar, but not a normal bar you'd walk in from the street.
Part of an art/theater complex for the most part.
If you back up a hundred years, this location was a top casino of the mafia in their prime. Look past the Soviet stuff, you'll see well-worn wood, antique furnishings, scuffed tile and Victorian toilets that have their own stories.
This is where the Godfathers played. And that's what makes it cool to me. The past, not the present. We should enjoy them both. -
Review from Nicole P.
2/16/2012
My night at KGB is a direct result of all the reasons a girl should talk to strangers.
I had had an absolutely terrible week, and was literally dragged out on the town. This certainly wasn't where or how the night was supposed to end up, but somehow, the men's room of KGB was where I found myself come 6am.
I'd provide more details, but pretty much everything related to how I got to that point is not fit for the public internet.
Thanks for the legends, KGB. Your communist ambiance and absurdly expensive Heinekens only add to the awesome story I get to tell my friends about the end of my week from hell. -
Review from Michael S.
Sunnyside, NY
2/10/2012 1 Check-in Here
The most notable aspect of KGB is a small (very small) art gallery (read: hallway). It is obviously very crowded during shows/openings but admittedly it is a neat idea.
Large Russian bottles of beer for $7. Lots of artist chatting in the corner. Nothing really earth-shattering about the place, but nothing is really wrong with it either. This bar is the epitome of what a 3-star bar is and should be. -
Review from Stephen T.
Brooklyn, NY
4/11/2012 1 Check-in Here
I really liked the vibe of this place. I'd definitely come here again but just expect it to be incredibly warm in there.
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Review from Andria O.
Manhattan, NY
2/8/2012
KGB Bar made me feel like I'd entered a secret literary society. My only wish is that I'd been dressed in some 1920s garb with rockstar red lipstick. And a sexy mole.
And I was only there for a book swap! I can only imagine what it's like to be at KGB for one of their many readings.
The space is insanely small. How did we even get twenty people in there? But there was something charming about the coziness, and a bunch of people mulling over books while sipping glasses of wine in the low light. *dreamy sigh*
Now, I'll get back to you when I'm here with 100 other people. Then the size might not feel so cute. But for now, yay!
Note: The bar is up a flight of stairs. -
Review from Gillian K.
New York, NY
3/12/2012
This is my new neighborhood go to spot. 5-6 dollar bottles of beer, laid-back clientele and quality bar service. After narrowly escaping suffocation at an overcrowded, overserved bar ( *cough* brooklyneer) my friend and I headed back east to KGB. It was the perfect spot for a nightcap or chill Saturday night. I only ordered beer (bass $6) but the cocktails looked good. I'll be back.
Listed in: Good Bars
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Review from Ishmael V.
Brooklyn, NY
1/17/2012
KGB is an awesome bar that makes you feel that you are part of something secretive. Maybe something that has to do with being a hitman for the former USSR.
The beers are huge and cheap. I forget what is the name of the one that I like, but it is the blue labeled one.
They have great reading here weekly, and I have been to a couple. I didn't know that the Soviets liked New York literature.
The space can get cramped very quickly and will most likely need to be handled by a communist KGB officer! -
Review from Jose G.
Brooklyn, NY
1/13/2012
Cozy little spot with nice intellectual and literary events and okay prices.
Plus, it's a great place to get your Bolshevik memorabilia fix if you're a current or former Leninist. Unfortunately (or fortunately), Lenin didn't create the KGB. That rat Stalin did. So maybe the next opening in the franchise can be the Cheka Pub. -
Review from Vishal M.
Manhattan, NY
3/27/2012
A very different place. Make sure you're alright with such a vibe before making the effort to go up. The bouncer was odd and rude, telling people where to go, kicking people out of his chair, and staring down ladies as they wait in line for the lousy bathroom.
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Review from Jason G.
9/25/2011
I came here as the KGB Bar brand is impossible to resist. I am Russian, and I love Russian stuff. This bar had lots of interesting items on the walls. Among them, I saw a yearbook-style picture of the New York Ukrainian Communist Party taken in 1915. There was also a Hitachi TV that is as old as I am that my parents had.
But, I felt the bar was more of a gimmick than anything. The bartender had been a nuisance. He hung over us, non-verbally demanding a tip, after serving us tap water. -
Review from Kristel S.
Manhattan, NY
9/25/2011 1 Check-in Here
Propaganda posters? YES, PLEASE.
Dropped in the kgb bar after I told a friend about my recent trip to Chicago and the art institute's current exhibit on Soviet WWII propaganda. We were only a block away, so naturally, we went to see the babushka in red.
KGB, in short, is tiny. It's the size of a large living room or a king sized room. Nothing is on tap, and the bathrooms are really, really shady (stalls have no doors, and so whoever is by the common sink area can see you (you might even be facing them if you're lucky)... and also whoever opens the door to use the bathroom will see you.
I'd be willing to come back to KGB when it isn't crowded--I'm sure it's more pleasant during readings. -
Review from Kunal M.
Washington, DC
7/5/2011 1 Check-in Here
For a bar that is founded on socialist principles, their pricing is very capitalist and steep at $8 bucks a mixed drink. the bar is not too crowded .
when we went and it was one of the bars you go to to avoid d-bags and losers. it seems to be popular with writers and the absence of NYU kids is refreshing.
While I am against all forms of the evils of communism, i felt that this bar is a reminder of the security organization called the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti so it has some historical significance to have a bar like this on the NYC dive bar crawl :)
I wish there were some real russians in here with Vodka and Russian music. -
Review from Ali O.
Hackensack, NJ
1/11/2012 1 Check-in Here
The decor of the bar is clever and unique. And Drunken! Careening! Writers! takes place here, which is why I have been to this bar at all. Catch one of those if you can. I had the pleasure of both hearing a reading here and also being in one, and the quality of the pieces were so good! So yes, the bar is awesome, but it's the community I've been with on the occasions I've visited and the amazing writing I was listening to that really made it.
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Review from Leah G.
New York, NY
12/17/2011
KGB was once notorious for being "the" writers hangout in the East Village. I didn't see any notepads or macbooks so I can only conclude the legend is true. Get there early if you want a seat, or if none are available, order a Grey Goose martini and have yourself a seat on the floor, face down, because at KGB they are for some reason a WHOLE LOT stronger than anywhere I've ever been. I don't know how this is possible, but trust me - it's true.
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Review from Sei S.
Brooklyn, NY
3/24/2011
Look however you want, be as smashed as you can, and claim whatever you will--it's all good here where the bald, oddly bearded, and straight fucking crazy/foul-smelling have a writer/literary-type charm when pounding tumblers at KGB.
It's in the part of the East Village that's thankfully away from the din of NYU fucks--I mean, kids--and up the block from a homeless shelter. Very fitting as most writers are either on their way to KGB or a homeless shelter.
Come with a pad and pen, prepared to write the next great American novel. Leave with nothing written but whiskey rings and some 50-year-old poet's number and regret nothing. Except maybe that he ended up not being able to get you published.
And one can't review KGB without raising two thumbs--one wrapped around vodka, the other around whiskey--to Sideshow Goshko.
Have you ever eavesdropped on a conversation about awkward moments in deteriorating romances; something involving scandal, lewdness, and walking in on two dudes high-fiving? I, too, love other people's drama--especially when it's noncommittal. Actually, only!
The last time I was there, there was (among others) a demure Asian man talking about throttling his nether regions and marveling at the gushing results, a man in a suit narrating a tale about him and Keanu Reeves finding the perfect sandwich, and, like, two self-effacing Jews--always funny.
At Sideshow Goshko, your buzz will transcend with Emerson-like eloquence, as professional (yes, professional) storytellers/comedians-moonlighting-as-storyteller s recount the hysterical, bizarre, arousing--the truth. Like, it's all true.
I would know. The host, Leslie, said that she puts every performer under a polygraph. And if that's not true, the evening you have at KGB's Sideshow Goshko is--truly awesome, that is. -
Review from Tracy C.
New York, NY
1/11/2012
Fun place to grab a quiet drink with a friend....unless you buy a drink and settle in and then realize to your horror that you had not been warned that it was amateur comedy night ..you look to your friend in panic then survival mode kicks in as you slowly creep out the door with your drinks and proceed to enjoy them high up in a dark stairwell. At least its always an adventure.
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Review from Leigh K.
6/17/2011 1 Check-in Here
Definitely a dive bar, and just a meh one at that. So-so selection of beer, and somewhat overpriced on the well drinks.
I do appreciate their commitment to theme--the decor is kitschy and effective, with lots of propaganda on the walls, heavy furniture and thick red velvet curtains. The bar itself is exceptionally tiny, which could be cozy, but on a Saturday night it was definitely cramped and extremely loud.
The ladies restroom is down a creepy, crumbling hall, and its bizarre layout of two toilets with just one main locking door led to an unfortunate incident of me walking in on a woman of a certain age in the process of wiping.
The dude at the door, however, was both jovial and no-nonsense, so all in all it was a decent pre-game bar, but not somewhere I could while away the wee hours. -
Review from Marcus D.
6/5/2011
I was completely wrecked when I came in here, so this review may be unfair (and if so, in true Soviet spirit, so what!).
I came stumbling in here with a few foreign service pals, one of whom may or may not have been a member of the presedium - a softer version of Rosa Klebb of FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE fame, if you can picture that. I knocked back a few beers, swayed and stumbled a few times into wannabe Trotskys, and walked out drinking a beer and was inevitably stopped by the NYPD - that is another story, but a happy one. -
Review from Lindsay H.
New York, NY
9/20/2011
This place is a nice break from your typical crowded bar on a Friday night. It's just the right amount of full without being packed, and you can actually get to the bar and get a drink in a timely manner! I really like the space, the old-school feel of the place, and the eclectic group of people who hang here. Definitely a great place to become a "regular".
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Review from Johny H.
New Brunswick, NJ
11/7/2011 1 Check-in Here
Soviet Union memorabilia, great place for a shot of Vodka.
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Review from Alex G.
New York, NY
1/7/2011
The beer may be relatively cheap (~$5 for most), but are you really going to drink anything but vodka in this Creme de la Kremlin throwback to the Soviet era?
I came here for the first time and stumbled into a reading by some grad students. The dim lighting, Marxist-Leninist décor, and bearded twentysomethings in skinny pants gave the place a very Beat feel without overdoing it. People rotated in and out, everyone kept to themselves, and it was never a problem getting to the bar for another round--what a welcome feel from so many other East Village/LES establishments where you have to trudge through throngs of NYU kids just to get the bartenders to pay attention to you.
The space is not big, but maybe when the next collectivization happens, they'll luck out and expand. We'll see in about five years, I guess. -
Review from Miriam W.
12/2/2008
Bathed in red light, KGB's the kind of place you want to hide out in. Potentially with the aim of some sort of illicit behavior.
Seiji, the bartender on the night I came in, looked his part to the fullest - don't take my word for it, go order a drink from him yourself and you'll see - and poured powerful drinks.Listed in: New York City's East Village
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Review from R. H.
Hoboken, NJ
11/20/2011
This place is good but not for everyone. It definitely has a literary feel to it. You have to check the schedule because if there is a reading, it's impossible to get in. Other than that the decor is awesome. The russian beers are really not that great, but passable.
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Review from K M.
Brooklyn, NY
12/19/2007
As far as "dive" bars go, this is definitely my favorite. If you're looking to go out, gyrate your hips to the bass and get laid, please don't come to KGB. If you're looking for somewhere that the music is good (Brian Eno, Flaming Lips, T. Rex, etc) but at a volume level where you can actually hear your friends, you'll like KGB.
I'm gonna come right out and say I don't like the readings. It's really not my bag, so I make sure I arrive after 9 PM. The crowd there is always an eclectic mix of characters who definitely aren't shy, so you're bound to make some friends and have at least one interesting experience. The bartenders are awesome too (especially Friday night).
The decor is kitschy, with Russian paraphernalia, portraits and busts and a random tiny painting of a teddy bear. Who knows. Anyway, going to KGB in no way constitutes a crazy night out but it is a near perfect place to go with your friends and have a conversation over some no-frills libations.
Oh, and there's Russian beer! -
Review from Elise A.
New York, NY
8/14/2010
Chill. Was able to snag a table for five around 9pm on a Friday night. The place filled up by around 10pm. Overall, it just had a cool vibe going on. Candles, interesting things on the walls, fairly intimate but with an upbeat atmosphere.
Most beers were $5, including some huge beer called Baltika that everyone loved and decided tasted a lot like pretzels.
Something about it overall made me feel like it would probably be one of those places you'd opt to bring out of towners when you're trying to go for the cool, but not trying too hard look.Listed in: East Village Heaven
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Review from Megan H.
Philadelphia, PA
8/24/2006
If you have a communist/socialist soul this is where you need to be.
What more could you ask for than propaganda, red paint, and a good ole hammer and sickle gracing the walls of this place. Open late and full of people who look as though they would drop what they were doing if Lenin beckoned them from the grave.
Get your equality in the air and drink to it!
Fight the bourgeoise! -
Review from Jeff O.
2/13/2008
I don't care if this is a theme bar; I like the stairs to the 2nd floor, the red walls, the pictures of Russians I don't know, and the urge to get red stripe (red has nothing to do with communism in this beer, does it?).
The crowd is tepid, but the girls are nice and the dudes are bland or foreign.
Friends are easy to make, the music is played conducive to conversation. You can only tell what is playing if you listen hard, and if you do you will probably go 'Oh!'. Here's a good measure of decibels: I can easily talk to someone 10 feet away inside the bar.
I like KGB Bar. You will find me there again. -
Review from Chris H.
2/6/2010 1 photo
KGB Bar should win a medal for . . . something.
The most interesting bar gimmick award? The most disgusting bathroom award? The best place to shock your out-of-town friends award? The only bar in NYC (that I know of) to publicly embrace Communism award? ("Nihilists. Fuck me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.").
I could stretch and make some parallels to the aforementioned political philosophy. KGB bar is primarily geared towards hipsters (the petite bourgeoisie, arguably), and like a lushed out Lenin, i've sent death orders to thousands of my liver cells on multiple visits here.
Thankfully, the gimmicks stop at the drinks. The bar menu is mercifully devoid of Soviet themed gimmicks (anyone care for a Salty Cosmonaut? Or perhaps a Hot Trotsky?). Just straight forward liquor, harder than the hammer that crosses the sickle, or beer, colder than Siberia.
Overall, it's a suitably cozy venue to chill out with your comrades and chatter about work, life, sports, or inciting the next political revolution.
Na zdorovie!Listed in: This is why you have cirrhosis, No grieve for the EV
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Review from Tempest B.
New York, NY
6/17/2007
Don't go to KGB Bar if you're looking for a bar to get smashed in, or a place to dance, or even to pick up women. KGB exists for one reason and that is to provide a place for awesome literary readings. That's it. If there isn't a reading going on the place is kind of empty and quiet and best suited to lonely drinkers or quiet conversations.
Not that this is bad. Some people need a bar just like this - an escape from the usual NYC bar madness. But most folks are looking for a bar with MUSIC! and LIGHTS! and DANCING! and POSSIBLE SEX! and KGB really isn't the place to go for all of that.
If you're a literary type, check out their calendar. there are readings every week and, during some seasons, nearly every night. -
Review from Adrienne M.
New York, NY
2/9/2010 1 Check-in Here
KGB is not a dive bar, nor is it a hipster hangout (do the hipsters leave Williamsburg for drinks over $5? C'mon). It's organized, clean, seductive, cozy, and literary. These things do not a dive bar make. Plus, it has a unifying theme.
Come here for a chilled-out drink in a community atmosphere. Wear black. Mingle with some writers. Debate current politics. Swap manuscripts. Discuss the latest film festival or your favorite existentialist poet. Find a friendly stranger who wishes more bars attracted intellectuals. Bring a business card and sip your cocktail sheepishly, like you know more than the other people in the room, but you're not pretentious.
You'll fit right in.Listed in: Drink up!
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Review from Andrew M.
2/27/2009
I just love this place. Not too loud, not too rowdy, and (relatively) unpretentious. And chilled shots of russian standard, on the cheap. Plus, cool matchbooks.
best bouncer in nyc---
Bouncer: (to me and my friend) man, where are you guys from?
Us: Arkansas, but we live here.
Bouncer: well, I wanna make a video of you guys, you guys act how people should conduct themselves in public...
Us: uh, thanks!
bouncers know everything. -
Review from camilla c.
New York, NY
10/8/2007
It's nice to see that bars like this are still around. Cheap, stiff drinks... no pretense and no attitude. Just a simple bar with character and probably some history behind it.... Went in post dinner and was almost surprised to find a bar that had no audible music, no TV, no interesting people watching, and not much decor beyond alot of red. The place was about half empty and there wasn't much energy to the place at all. In fact, I felt as though the place was sucking the energy out of me (but that could've easily been food coma from the mexican food before KGB).
Not my cup of tea, but I appreciate the KGB Bar for what it is. Would I come back here... probably not since there are better bars for conversation, drinks, music, dancing, scoping, or any other late night shenanigans that you look for in a bar. But I'm glad I checked it out. -
Review from Vineet G.
New York, NY
3/29/2010
You can go there if you are into literary readings on Sunday evenings...Usually there are 2 readings scheduled there. Apart from this, there is some play going on one flight up, though is think there is a ticket to that...
The place reeks for Soviet memories, its RED all over, you would feel you are somewhere in Mother Russia....
It is a nice cozy place to have serious discussions with unknown people. All in all the atmosphere is great and is worth at least a visit. The drinks are priced the same as the neighbourhood...
Beware, you have to go up a flight of stairs to reach this place... -
Review from Autumn S.
Queens, NY
8/30/2010
Rotten olives in my dirty martini need I say more. 2 stars because bartender remade it w/o olives (w/o a fuss) ate ate 4 himself.
Needless to say I will not be returning. -
Review from Nish N.
2/28/2006
The last time I was here, it was around happy hour on a Thursday. I was waiting for some friends to arrive. It was just me, another couple, and some early birds at the bar. And the bartender.
While I've been to KGB on many nights, love the history that seems to seep from the walls, my last memory is of this one bartender wiping and polishing all of the bottles on the shelves. He was very caring and meticulous, and I liked that.
What does that say about the bar? Dunno, but under my microscope, it meant that he and the other bartenders took their jobs seriously, and from that day onward I've always taken my drinking rather seriously as well, out of respect. -
Review from fernando v.
Los Angeles, CA
6/2/2007
The name is the coolest thing about it. Kind of small, music barely audible, and one too many tables. The bartender explained that it used to be a Ukrainian social club in the 40's and 50's - I'm sure dudes were more hardcore back then.
And I'm kind of miffed that when I walked back upstairs the really cute blonde girl whom I was going to approach was taken by a bland Maroon 5 reject.
The lesson: Don't pussyfoot. Go after what you want as soon as you know you want it. It's like diving into a really cold swimming pool - just jump and get it over with.
That effing sucked. -
Review from Ziyan C.
6/29/2010
Main reason I've gone here is because I'm waiting for Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (awesome show in the Kraine Theater downstairs - by the New York Neo-Futurists).
I like the low key, very casual vibe. The place gets way too crowded and small though. Other than that, nothing special really about this place.. -
Review from Jess L.
10/29/2009 1 Check-in Here
I came here tonight for a book opening party. It's a small space with a common theme: red! There are not many tables. The place feels grungy - but in a neat way.
However, one bad thing about my experience was my friend's pants were ruined by white tape, which was, for some reason, stuck to one of the booths. It's really unclear if the adhesive is going to come off. -
Review from Billy L.
6/25/2008
KGB Bar reminds me of the ending of Rocky V: If I can change, and you can change, we can ALL change. Obviously, the Soviet decor, not to mention clientele, is a huge factor and what some might see as tacky, I see as a welcome addition to the neighborhood. I love the fact that the building houses readings, drinkings, US-Russian relations and who knows what else. I recommend going at least once to observe what it's like to sit in a Russian bar as it was pretty surreal for me, which means the owners did a great job.
Try sitting in one of the corners in order to avoid the rush, as the service was good but we were lucky in that we found a nice little niche by the fireplace to park ourselves and our drinks, which was huge, Ivan Drago huge. -
Review from Natalia J.
New York, NY
3/16/2009
We had to get some drinks and wait here before TMLMTBGB but ended up liking this dark, red bar very much.
Thanks Alexis K., think I will check out a Sunday night reading.
