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Canal-Church Sts (A, C, E)
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Canal Street (J, M, Z, N, Q, R, W, 6)
"This place is awesome.......its so NYC i almost dont want to promote it so it can stay the way it is.... i would go here if the place was 1…" read more »
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When you walk into a bar at 7pm and the bartender is already drunk and being surly to someone on the other end of the phone, you know you're in a good bar. Then when you find out the bar food is super cheap ($2.50 for a personal pizza; a burger & fries for $5.25; 12 wings for $5.25), you know you're in a great bar. While the beers here are $4 ($2.50 at happy hour), Nancy makes it up by having the aforementioned cheap food and having motherfucking shuffleboard! Hell yeah!
By the looks of the place, it's a little rustic and even a bit rusty, but that just adds to its appeal. I mean it's a dive bar for fuck's sake; one with a cozy upstairs that you and your drunk friends can easily commandeer.
Let me put it like this, it's the type of place where you might come one night, have a great conversation with someone not that attractive, drink too much Jameson, go home with that unattractive person, vow never to sleep with them again and end up becoming good friends with them because they're really cool. That's exactly the type of place this is. And yes, you end up sleeping with them once more.
I recommended this place to some friends and took a group of us here for food and drinks. The waitress upstairs told we us were next for a table and sat us at a table after a group left. After she went downstairs for a minute, a group of men came up to us and angrily said it was their table and that they were supposed to be next.
The waitress then came back after several minutes and asked us to get up after we were already seated so that this group of guys could sit there. She admitted it was her mistake but was a jerk to us and didn't have any idea about how to rectify the situation. She finally offered us to get us drinks if we went downstairs and waited further so we agreed. BUT she wanted to charge us for the Bud Light we were offered, even though it was all her mistake in seating us and then unseating us and forcing us to deal with this angry group of guys.
Thanks, but no thanks, Nancy Whiskey Pub! Yeah, you're a shitty dive bar, but I thought my friends and I would have fun here. Obviously not going to be recommending this place to anyone any longer, including you Yelp folks.
Would you like to have a food coma all afternoon? Then order a burger with fries here for lunch.
A local favorite of the cops of the 1st precinct, Nancy Whiskey is an old school dive bar that has been around forever and is fighting the gentrification of lower Manhattan one beer and tiny bar menu at a time.
If you'd like to step back in time to simpler bar days and pretend for just a minute you're not in pretentious TriBeCa... stop in at Nancy's... its good for what ails you. Classic rock, food served in a timely manner, and Irish flags. What's not to love?
$8.00 Bud pitchers Monday through Thursday, and $2.50 happy hour pints. Enough said?
I've never had the food, but it smells great, especially after a few of the above mentioned pitchers.
There is a shuffleboard table downstairs which seems to attract really drunk, loud, yuppie types. Fortunately, there is an upstairs area with booths that is a little bit quieter. The jukebox usually plays classic rock and country, although one night someone played the "Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night" song over and over. We'll hope that that was an isolated incident.
An all around solid, down to earth bar.
Yeah, pretty much a lot of drunk old dudes monopolizing a shuffleboard table, with an upstairs loft that is above the deep fryer (so if you're sitting up there prepare to be stankin' like grease when you leave).
This bar is a bit of a misnomer as they barely have a regular bar's selection of whiskey's, I think the best they had was Makers Mark, and its not quite as cheap as I would have expected either.
An hour or so into having some pitchers, like 20 investment banker trainees showed up and immediately began to suck.
In sum, I'm not sure I'd go back, unless it was a really off time. Before the bankers showed up we had a lot of room to spread out and relax in the canopy, and that was really enjoyable.
-DP
Interesting note, the bar seems unfathomably old, as though it has always just been, even though its only 30 or so years old.
Weirdo scary old man bar, but I love it. Crowd can skew younger sometimes and the shuffleboard table is a big draw. The burgers are good. The bar tenders and waiters are nice (especially since they got rid of that old cranky dude, though I kind of miss him).
Never know what you'll find at the Nancy, but it's almost always fun.
One of the divier of dive bars I've been to in a while. It sits right above the A,C,E subway on Canal Street.
Ray and I went on a Monday night, and played shuffleboard with a couple of the regulars there (Eric and Jeff), who would have played us for money and cleaned us out. It looks so easy, but man I was awful at it.
The burger is a value here - $5.75 and it includes fries.
One funny thing I realized was they were showing horse racing on one tv - like an Off Track Betting parlor - and Fox News on the other. Neither are exactly my interest - but I liked the place still.
I have read many of these poor reviews and I agree that you all should stay away.
Please do not go to this bar. It is not for you. This bar is for men who like to get so hammered that spit collects in the corners of their mouths. You will find these same men smoking a cigarette out front in 10 degree weather. Although these men are not attractive in any way, they are masters at the game Bumper Shuffleboard. Do not play this game. It is not for you.
My advice is take you and your dolled up crew to Meatpacking or Murray Hill bars. It would be great if you would just stay there. South of canal - again - is not for you.
If you want to get loose and you don't know why then go to Nancy's.
Duck! The ceiling is probably only 6'2, but with all the sagging, it feels like less than that. Other things you should know:
- Beer prices are cheap but not particularly stunning.
- Mid-level booze prices are awesome. $5 absolut or stoli ' tonics, makers, etc.
- They make a suprisingly good martini and manhattan. You might feel like a pansy drinking it next the jovial dust caked dude from local 451 sitting next to you and his surly companion. (Note to self: don't try to flash your stage directors and choreographers union card and try to bond over union dues. goes down poorly)
- Like I said, "Duck"
- Do NOT under any circumstances order any food other than the burger or the oddly great "fresh baked" (really?) pizza's.
And the jukebox is one of the internet hooked up ones, and for two hours last night they had a phenomenally stunning run of early 80s head banging arena rock - Kiss to AC/DC Van Halen (Roth not Hagar, sigh).
Duck!
aka, I'm gonna be eating this in like 10 minutes. and I'm so excited.
I love coming here for lunch. It's like, you step in the doors and suddenly the world of florescent lit cubicles is a millions miles away (fact - it's way less then 1 mile away). You forget it's a work day completely. You forget what your job is. Your only job now is to listen to classic rock radio and relax and let the kind hearted waitress present you with a perfect plate. Seriously, the burgers are perfect, unassuming, meaty, juicy, melty cheesy and you can get out of here having spent less then $10.
Another perk - if you're feeling up to it, no one will lift an eyebrow if you have a beer with lunch. Not that I do that of course.
This is the strangest bar (architecturally) I have been to in quite a long time. It is small, with a long bar and shuffleboard table just inside the door and some little tables in back. The weird part, however, is the 'how did this ever pass fire code' loft area.
Suspended over the back of the bar is a low ceilinged seating area that is not suitable for anyone over 6'2" tall. Compounding the strangeness is that the proprietors have chosen to staple clear shower-curtain vinyl over the balcony opening so that no one can throw anything onto the drinkers below. (This must have been a problem in the past - it's that kind of bar.)
The floor of this loft area is pitched and shaky, giving you the feeling that at any moment the shower curtains might give way and send you sliding downward into the pitchers of beer below. Hence the 3 stars.
Now that I've spent my entire review giving you an incomplete description of how strange this bar looks on the inside, I'll wrap things up by saying that Nancy Whiskey Pub is cheap, in a neighborhood where cheap doesn't seem to exist. I'm glad that someplace like this can survive and serve me a not-awful $3 pizza and a pitcher of Yuengling to share with friends after a show at The Flea theatre.
You know, I hate starting out my Yelp career on a bad note, but some things just need made public. First, off, let me start by saying I am not picky. No. We had friends in town, they like beer, we like beer, we stumbled upon this pub- Bingo! We love dives! This is great.
Not so much. We ordered 2 pitchers- 1 of Blue Moon and 1 of Yuengling. I will say one thing for sure- if there is a beer that I know well, it's Blue Moon. What they gave us for $18 was certainly not Blue Moon. It was some sort of dark-caramel colored Blue Moon and possibly Miller Lite hybrid flatness. We decided to give the Yuengling a go. It was skunky. It kicked in the back of all of our throats. The tap basically tasted old. "That's okay! We're flexible! We'll just tell them something tastes off and order bottles instead." That's where things got weird.
First, the waiter stood at our table and tasted the beer from each pitcher. After telling us that we were wrong and nothing was out of the ordinary from the Blue Moon, he POURED THE REST OF THE BEER THAT HE DIDN'T DRINK FROM HIS CUP BACK INTO THE PITCHER. Then he told us to pour what we had in our cups back into the pitcher. Remember this.
So, he goes down the little ladder and comes back with our (mediocre at best) bar food. He then scoots the Yuengling back onto our table, even though we told him something was weird about both pitchers. "Nothing is wrong with this. Tastes good to me." Then he proceeds to pour the rest of the beer, again, back into the pitcher. He was looking down and obviously more than annoyed- he looked mad. Really, we weren't jerks about it, but it just wasn't right. I mean, if we were trying to get out of paying for drinks, why would we order more expensive bottles? Come on, people.
So then a tall (needless to say, decently intoxicated) man comes up while we are trying to eat and says he is friends with the owner and he owned a bar for 9 years and he knows what beer tastes like. "So do we. Something is wrong with this." He is compelled to continue, while we blatantly try to ignore him: "Blah blah something is wrong with your tastebuds blah blah." Then he tells us that 4 or 5 people downstairs at the bar tasted both beers and said they were fine- fine, you win, it's totally us, we are very wrong! (yes, they tasted the beer full of the waiter's and our backwash. lovely, right?)
Fine, just go away and let us eat in peace!
Then another table sits down near us and orders a pitcher of Yuengling. The waiter is talking to them very loudly about how we said the beer was bad. Mind you, we're trying to get over this and just eat and go. They get their pitcher and say it's fine and the waiter feels the need to come over AGAIN and tell us that everyone says it's fine and something is wrong with us. Check, please, for the love of everything holy.
We were giving them good business with a 6 person table and would have sat and drank more had they shut up and dealt with it. Plus, the beer was not good. Trust this. I sincerely believe that everyone who tried the backwash-beer-pitchers had to have already been drunk. Not only were they rude and annoying, they violated health code. I know this is long, but I hope it gives you some kind of idea of this place. I think people like the old divey charm a hop away from soho because I can't figure out what else is the appeal. There are plenty more around the city. Maybe go here smashed, get some fake/rank beer and you'll enjoy it? I don't get all of the positive reviews, maybe it was an off day, maybe our backwashed beer made the pitchers taste better or maybe my taste buds are actually "wrong". Regardless, I will never go back or recommend this place to anyone.
This place used to get 5 Stars, but ever since Barry the Barman left, I just haven't felt the same atmosphere that I used to there.
I enjoy the cheap drinks for Manhattan, you can get pitchers which are fun times with lot's of friends. Th upstairs area is a good place to chill with a group of 4 or more, and sometimes you can go in with enough people to take the whole bar over. Also usually has a great Guinness, until the end of the Barrel, which happens a lot because people DRINK here.
A typical night there has been wild and fun, but sometimes depressing as some Stockbrokers make their way up and tell you depressing stories that you really just want to run away from. But nothing beats the loose and fun NYU crowd that gets down and dirty in such a small place on the weekends. (when i say loose, I don't mean LOOSE, I mean relaxed and open).
It still doesn't have that awesome vibe that Barry brought with him every day, I wish he would come back, but then again, it's been 3 months since I've been so maybe he did, it's time to go again.
this was one of my favorite days in NYC! We just rolled out that day with no agenda and no idea where we would end up..... I do this sometimes. I'll just walk out of my house and walk in a direction without having a destination to see where I end up. Like tempting fate or something.
Well, that was my idea that day... and sabra seemed excited to follow it. we just walked out of the hotel and went in a direction. I looked over at one point and saw the subway stairs. "Let's get on it and randomly get off somewhere". This could've turned out badly since neither of us had a map or knew our way around manhattan at all. I was aware of the risk, but also turned on by the not knowing.
We didn't end up anywhere crazy.... we ended up in Tribeca. Fate was kind to us that day. Keeping with the whole spontaneous theme, we weren't sure what we wanted to do there, so we just walked.... And then we both saw it, the Nancy Whiskey Pub.
We both looked at each other and said at the same time, "Yes!"
We liked! A very dark, tiny, dirty irish pub with a strong blue collar feel to it. you can tell a lot of the patrons were regulars as they were all on a first name basis..... I did see a few quizzical glances in our direction since we didn't exactly fit the crowd that night. We were dressed to go out. I remember thinking "fuck it, I'm going for a double right out of the gate tonight"
Perhaps our heavy-duty drink choices made us seem less out of place, because the minute our lips hit the glass to take a sip, one of the patrons standing next to me (and old crusty guy with a thick long island accent) struck up a conversation.... then so did the bartender and a few other surrounding people. Next thing we knew, we were faaaaaamily.
After a few hours we moved on though, time for the next phase of the night.
This is just my kind of place though. You walk in feeling like a silly tourist from California--but then walk out feeling like a local with a slew of new friends. Perfect.
I've been here a few times and each time, I've always enjoyed myself. It's kind of a small place, even though the upper level makes it look bigger. But I went up the stairs to check for additional seats and it was a tiny space with 2 tables. The bar area is more fun any way. You have shuffleboard, a jukebox to select music, and... the bar. The bartender is really nice and she knows exactly what you were drinking, so if you've got an almost empty cup, she'll come to you and ask if you want another. I was also here for New Years-- no cover charge like many places usually have for this event. And the bar gave everybody a glass of champagne to ring in 2009... that was pretty awesome.
This place is the best shithole in the city. If you're under 5'8", make sure to walk upstairs and enjoy the fact that your head will just skim under the ceiling. I love me some Nancy Whiskey.
Dive bar, cheap dive bar with the strangest mix of people I have seen in quite some time. On one side of me was a 21 year old college student sporting a striped polo tucked into his high waisted pants. On the other was an absolutely hysterical woman drinking Sambuca - she is a regular and I want to hang out with her again. College boy was not, he was lame, but I'd be willing to be in his company again for $5 drinks.
Two words - awe-some. If you're looking for a dive bar, look no further. Been here many times with my buddy who lives around the corner - always been a good time.
Cash-only as far as I can tell but so cheap you'll want to cry. Bartender has been there for decades and is awesome.
Pretty good jukebox but it's one of those internet-based ones. Still has pretty good songs.
Get on the shuffleboard table if you can, it's a riot!
Always a mixed crowd - from cops (precinct around the corner) to L2 big-firm interns. Definitely worth checking out.
i rarely review bars but i went here a few days ago and met my alleged baby daddy.
when i was outside smoking a bum came up to me and gave me a shiny quarter for a cigarette. his name was daddy milton.
as he was lighting it he told me i looked like heather.
i then asked him who heather was.
apparently heather was a girl he knocked up way back when. she had the baby. his son. but then he was sent to prison and was not there to raise the child. now his son works on canal street but he won't speak to him.
before he walked away he told me if i ever saw heather to tell her 'daddy milton says hello.'
some real characters hang out here.
Dark, divey, and a friendly crew of staff and patrons.
We were well taken care of here.
Bathrooms leave a bit to be desired but not bad. That said, we only did shots of tequila so I can't speak for the cleanliness of the beer lines or menu items.
Drinks: You can't beat the prices, at $3 - $4 a drink. Typical selection of everything, with 4 or 5 beers on tap. They have Guinness of course. Healthy pours.
Food: The bar food is awesome, and the other reviewers are dead on when they say that the pork chops and burgers are phenomenal. I've yet to be disappointed with anything I've eaten there, although I can't say that my taste buds have ever really been exactly sober there.
Staff: The staff is friendly and true, exactly what you would expect from an Irish dive. Same people have run the bar for decades. Total family-owned vibe.
Crowd: It has it's fair share of interesting regulars, your typical drunks and your daily after-work drinkers. Occasionally groups of college kids will come in and bring some youth. Definitely more attractive women (and men) than you would expect from a place like this.
Music: The jukebox is awesome, one of those with download capabilities so you can get any song you desire. Be careful though, as the staff will get peeved if you're in there requesting Usher's Yeah! or any Britney Spears. I've seen them find a reason to kick people out for poor music taste, which I don't mind at all.
Other: SHUFFLEBOARD! They have the only bumper shuffleboard table in Manhattan, and it is a ton of fun. The fact that it's a bumper shuffleboard table makes the game much more challenging and fun. Some people take the game very seriously, and there's definitely etiquette and rules that must be observed at all times or else. Great game though that adds some competitive spice to the night. Perfect for groups looking to do something other than just sit around and shoot the shit.
Conclusion: Definitely one of my favorite spots in Manhattan to just go chill, drink, play and have a good time.
Been here many times......and I can't believe I haven't yelped it yet. So last night, me and my friend went for a nightcap, since we hadn't been there in probably 2 years. Its the same old Nancy that we remembered, kind of cramped, shuffleboard slung in there for effect (I'd rather go to Plug Uglies, their board is better).
The great thing about this place is the live music (can't remember what nights), its always rowdy, Irish bent, and the jigs and reels and slides come furiously. The bartender is basically part of the bar. The burgers as Chinku already pointed out are gynormous and cheap, and there is a cramped upstairs to lounge around with a smaller group. They have a 3 Jager bottle tap here, so if you're in the mood to not remember the past 2 months, drink up.
Last night was funny, because you had the old regulars here, and they were sharing shuffleboard duties with these two suits and their women. Somehow, the one skinny white dude regular and built black dude suit got into an argument about space, the regular needed space. He kept yelling at the suit until an umbrella was brought in for defense, and the regular took the umbrella and hit the suit in the face.
wow. Racially it doesn't look good, and it didn't look good in general. Because the suit did nothing. Yes he was being a righteous asshole, but only verbally, and the regular decided to apologize with his friends. But, at the same time, he wasn't backing down. It was weird. It wasn't raining, why was there an umbrella, I thought. ]
My other problem with the bar was the "fuck communism" sign. Now while I don't agree with communism, if this place really is an Irish whiskey pub, putting up that sign just kind of ruffles feathers and the stance of what the Irish republic was founded on (not communism but socialism). Its cliched Irish-American. I don't care, it was just a thought.
An interesting nightcap nevertheless. Also years ago when i was on my way home from this raucous venue for vomiting, a pimp and a prostitute came up to solicit as some dude was getting dressed in their car. Just make your way over to Fulton, maybe they are still there after all these years.
Nancy's isn't really in my part of the town but when some other friends are meeting up there I cannot resist.
Its get's hella crowded sometimes and I've only been on the week days but its still a good friendly atmosphere full of happy drunkards.
You basically cannot come here without getting some alcohol and the yummy bar food. Chicken strips and fries are my favorite, along with a side of PBR or Guiness.
There is a second level towards the back of the place with a low ceiling and sometimes the house kitty is out and about. I think it fills up pretty fast but its an awesome place to throw a few back with a small group.
Nancy Whiskey Pub is completely awesome. It gets crowded but its not the typical Manhattan crowd and there's plenty of tables upstairs. I had one of the best burgers in the city at this place and I swear my sobriety (or lack thereof) was not an influencing factor, as I have never had a burger sober.
You should check this place out for the pitchers, the staff, and the top-notch bar cuisine. This is not just "bar food", this is the great meal you need after getting totally trashed on cheap drinks and buy backs. And you don't even have to walk anywhere to get it!
Nope, I still didn't love it. I went to Nancy's to watch the election results come in, and despite the obvious energy and excitement that evening, I felt the pitchers were on the small side, drink prices were higher than those advertised on their website (still reasonable, though), and the television screens were old. On the upside, the chicken fingers and fries combo basket was the perfect greasy accompaniment for the beer. Sorry. Can't jump on the Nancy bandwagon.
As I re-read everyone else's reviews, I think to myself... wtf, man? Did I miss something? Because… Read more »
Rarely have I felt so at home at a bar in New York as I have at Nancy Whiskey. Yes, it's divey with lots of exposed wood and a weird slanted upstairs area. Yes, it sells pretty standard domestic/major label beers. But it's got a jukebox, shuffleboard, decent/decently priced pub food, and pitchers. The service is friendly and fairly quick. For Manhattan, you can't do much better than this. The short shuffleboard table uses bumpers which is an art I didn't learn on the shuffleboard tables of my youth... (which have gutters).
Nice local spot, the exact opposite of Tribeca chic, if you're into that sort of thing. They serve up pub grub, including excellent cheese fries. The bartender is generous with his pour, particularly if you live by the establishment's name. Enough big screens to capture all the major sporting events, but not so many that you think "sports bar". And a newly refurbished shuffleboard table that gives you a chance against all the seasoned vets who frequent the joint.
Shuffle board, beer, greasy bar food...yup, a great divey pub! Don't bother going here if your looking for a quiet refined place...the Nancy Whiskey is so the opposite.
Nice and dark, but I'm opposed to the idea of requiring wait service when seated at the tables upstairs at what's basically a bar, not a restaurant.
Great neighborhood bar.
The only place you can get a top brand scotch for under $5. Very friendly. Terrific juke box. The hamburgers are huge and delicious. The pork chops, when they have them on the menu (there are great daily specials) are the best I ever tasted - juicey and freshly grilled.
it gets 4 stars for being very good at what it is: an irish pub, a dive bar, a cheap place to get cheap drinks & cheap food. i found myself in tribeca after attending a show at the nearby Flea Theater, and my friends and i wanted to go out for drinks but we didn't want to pay a lot of money for them. that neighborhood can be painfully expensive, but -- having been there once, nearly 2 years ago -- luckily i remembered where nancy whiskey was. we got a table upstairs, had a couple rounds ($4.50 for a basic mixed drink is damn good in manhattan) and some chicken wings (the sauce was like a combo of buffalo and bbq... it was tasty, i would have preferred pure buffalo, but at $5.50 for the dozen wings i was perfectly happy) and chicken tenders. we did not play any shuffleboard so the fact that they have it makes little difference to me, but like i said: cheap drinks and cheap food in an otherwise very expensive neighborhood. this earns major bonus points in my book.
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