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Categories: Restaurants, Pubs [Edit]
Neighborhood: Chelsea18th St-7th Ave (1)
23rd Street (PATH)
14th St-7th Aves (1, 2, 3, F, V, L)
Mon-Fri. 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 a.m.
Sat. 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 a.m.
Sun. 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 a.m.
exactly what a pub should be - no frills, just chill
and a few hotties to push past on the way out
Every friday at my old job, we would cut out for a two hour lunch ummm... meeting... at McManus, enjoying their fine ummm... conference amenities.
One of the few places left in the city that believes in buy backs, this divey gem has guaranteed itself a special spot in my heart, and not just because it helped me get through the second half of my days a lot easier.
I still pop in to this place from time to tome to meet up with my old coworkers and reminisce about how crap the job was, and how great this place still is.
if i lived in new york, i'd be here always. it's not the six dollar bottled blue moon that does it, though. it's the friggin awesome atmosphere. everyone was so chill. i'm a huge "eff these snots" type of person, as i'm someone that doesn't really have a stereotype and don't appreciate people that TRY to be a stereotype, and i didn't get that feeling here. does this make any sense? i guess what i'm trying to say is that this place isn't a place only for hipsters or only for ya doods or something like that. it's for everybody, YAY!
the chicken fingers are good, especially when it's been a long ass day and you're food deprived and drunk. the tater tots are excellent. i don't know if my friend (who is a semi-regular) had to say anything special to get them this way, but they definitely brought her crispy crowns as opposed to the traditional tot. crispy crowns are the shit.
i didn't feel under- or over-dressed. there were a ton of people but i didn't feel cramped. the bathroom was a bit small and therefore seemed slightly dirty, but it's hard to keep a small bathroom clean, especially on a friday night with a bunch o' drunks.
the drinks are strong, though a bit small, but i don't know how much my rum and diet cost because i didn't pay for it (yessssss). i'd say it was pretty comparable to any drink in any major city, although i've had larger. that is, in fact, what she said.
this is rather disjointed and i don't think i was in the mood to write today. regardless, this place was pretty awesome.
My friend and I discovered this place one night a few years ago while walking around, just trying to find a laid-back place to gab and have a few drinks. Niether of us are into "scenes" or places where people get dressed up and act like annoying twits, so we passed by a handful of places while walking south on 7th Ave. Then we saw McManus and said, "yay! a pub!" As we walked in, there was some Willie Nelson playing on the jukebox and we just looked at each other, smiled and realized we had found our place for the night.
We sat at the bar and chatted with the bartender a bit and just had a good time. It wasn't too crowded or too loud. Yes, it's a dive, but it's a comfortable dive. You can tell that a lot of the patrons are people who have been going there for years (decades, probably). We've been back numerous times (and we've seen Horation Sans there almost every time) over the past few years and have really enjoyed ourselves each time.
The food isn't anything particularly awesome, so we usually just go for drinks. The jukebox has all of our old favorites and we always enjoy the assortment of tunes people play. The bathrooms are smack dab in the center of the place (which is weird, I think) and way too small, but it's not a big deal. The mixed crowd is almost always really laid back (unless the college kids come in, then it gets a bit obnoxious) and the bartenders are always willing to chat for a few if they're not too busy.
This place is far and away my favorite dive in the city. It's old, comfortable and enjoyable.
I love this place. It's a dive bar with a mixed crowd in the heart of Chelsea. Sometimes you'll see comedians ( like Horatio Sanz) from nearby Upright Citizen's Brigade just sitting in the back having beers. Five dollar brews aren't the cheapest I've found but for a draft Yuengling on a Wednesday night, you can't beat the chill atmosphere and diverse patronage.
I'm not even a fancy girl, but the characters at this bar creeped me out. Calling this place a dive bar would insult other dive bars.
Yuck.
On a unusually lazy afternoon after watching a UCB show, i came in here for a few drinks. Its an old bar with a slight veneer of charm, not easily seen, but after a few beers, one can feel it. The 'ale' on tap was tasty, hence the 3 stars.
They have these fake 'antique' lamps that hang from the ceiling that I swear use parts, hot and cold knobs, from a sink set, the exact one I had as a kid.
The area is full of trendy restaurants and bars so this place seems to be a holdout. It does seem to be an official collection area for the neighborhood's losers and knuckleheads, super fat sweaty Italian guys talking nonsense...they are here. I overheard one guy that claimed to be a 'big collector of gold and gold coins' to a girl on a nearby bar stool. He however had never heard of 'Engelhard' , the largest precious metal producer on the planet Earth and he wasn't sure what a 'troy ounce' was either. I laughed almost enough to pee myself.
So, If you wanna' meet the gang for a few beers this place will do just fine. Oh, and if you want to wash your hands after using the bathroom, you might be out of luck..(pic supplied)
If you've ever said to yourself "I would like to hang out with ex-cops, aspiring comedians and alcoholics" this is the place for you.
There's no pretension here because that would be absurd. The bar is lit with fluorescent lights, so if your date is not attractive this will be well highlighted. But don't bring a date here - this bar is as romantic and sexy as Carrot Top in a tuxedo. It's not a date bar. This is the bar you go to when your buddies come visiting and you want to go somewhere and drink a lot and talk about what makes your wife mad.
One thing I like about this place - every third beer or so seems to be on the house.
The crowd consists of folks like Old Drunk Regular, former SNL cast member Horatio Sanz, Huge Alcoholic Lady, and lots of kids who think taking $300 classes at Upright Citizens Brigade makes them hilarious.
I like the place, though 65% of my friends will not come with me. When you're in the mood for a quintessential drinking bar, this place works just fine. Why they call it a cafe is beyond me.
Do not eat here.
Peter McManus is a local. It's one of those dark Irish bars where it's a lot of cops and firemen. But there's a curious element to it too because it's a local for improvisors from the various improv theatres near by(UCB, the Magnet, the PIT) too. So it's not uncommon to spot various comedians from time to time. Sitting in the booths in the back. You'll want to commandeer one of the three prized circle booths in the back. And not just because they're cooler, but also because the center two regular booths have wonky seat backs. You'll be battling the person behind you for leverage.
It's not a fancy nor girlie place, so I wouldn't suggest ordering your "White Zin" or apple martini. Think more like Martini's in It's A Wonderful Life!("Mister, we serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast.") Get a beer(try the McManus ale). Or a highball. If you hang out, you're going to get a buy back.
Some things to note: McManus is a Yankee's bar. And most important, never ever bring your drinks from the bar to the booths in the back. You'll get a scolding from your waitress and they'll no doubt point to the big sign on the wall. You are forewarned!
This place is hilariously bad, and I love it for that. The service is terrible, the food is fried garbage, the tables are falling apart, and the bathroom stalls have no latches.
My friends and I go there all the time for cheap pitchers ($15) and casual conversation.
McManus brings out the locals, the blue-collar and the frat guys, and I wouldn't recommend arriving later than 11, when it will be impossible to find standing room, let alone a free table.
This bar is the quintessential dive bar, and the staff does not give an eff. Which is sort of great, in its own way.
The mark of a good bar on a good night out is that I can hardly remember it to write about the next day.
This was my experience with Peter McManus Cafe -- referred to as "McM's" by all my friends in NYC.
What I do recall is that it was the only bar in NYC that I went to where the drinks weren't outrageously priced. And, that it is dark and loud and smells like wood and beer and has that great neighborhood bar, locals only vibe.
This is the favorite hangout of students of and performers at the UCB (which is just a few blocks away) - making it not uncommon to see bunches of SNL people hanging out doing shots and oggling girls.
I liked that it was a "shot-n'-a-beer" bar, as opposed to another club trying to emulate the SITC bullshit w/'tini this and 'tini that.
Lovely to be a girl and go into a bar where ordering a Rolling Rock and a shot of Jamison's is looked at as respectable as opposed to strange.
Also, sitting at a table in the back (covered w/a red-checked table cloth) made me feel like an important, important comedy person or a gangster.
Sweet. I always relish moments where I can pretend that I'm the Godfather.
The problem with this place is not the bar itself. It's a good pub-ish institution, where locals who aren't fixed on the more chic scene in the area go to when they just want big beer, big outside voices, and very little inhibition.
However, this place has some of the shadiest people ever. People who really got left behind. There was this "actor" Adam, who was there by himself but tried to talk to everyone (I guess he lives in the neighborhood, I saw him at the Spotted Pig being sleazy). He's got this intense unblinking stare, neck length hair, greasy disposition, and probably has an unmarked van somewhere. I couldn't forget it, because he had the nerve to ask me if I could buy a beer for him. What was he a hobo? The bartender cussed me out for even considering to buy "the asshole at the bar" a drink. It was a deserved lashing but I didn't buy anyone anything; he should have just kicked the guy out and not brought me into it.
We closed this bar out, which was fun; it was about 4:30am and we ran into these German folks who lived in the city. The wife in the group, Jennifer, gave me her number because she felt like I would be good for her Asian friend who was 33 (I was 21 at the time). She's like, "you're a little young, but I think you guys could hit it off". Our friend Eric S., fluent in German himself, ended up actually hanging out with them after we all left, and got lost trying to find his way home, and it was well into the morning before he found his residence.
The bar itself is a sign of strength; it's old and cracked and splintered, but somehow has a sheen to it, a sign that those are just nicks and bruises. It stretches all the way to the back, with tables and booths along the left as you walk in.
It's well lit overhead lamps cruise toward a warehouse like look at night.
This is a great place to go to watch a game, have a burger after going out drinking with friends, or even to come by yourself for a drink to watch some real NY characters. This is the place all dive bars should be modelled after.
I honestly don't know how the prices stay so low here, given the neighborhood this place is in.
It's so close to my house I'm willing to venture there even on the coldest nights, a dive with an ever changing cast of characters and the always present regulars, I've heard the cheese fries are good, they always look good and I always want to try them, but oh I try to be healthy, and sucking down smithwicks is probably not the best way to do it! I will try the cheese fries one day and update, always a good time.
A long old dingy oak bar that wraps around a mile and a half (or so it seems when the bartender is chatting up the regulars up front). The handful of flat screen TVs is like lipstick on a boar in terms of style, but functionally, I'll take it. What a great place to watch the Mets.
A sore thumb in Chelsea's eastward crawl into the Flatiron, and not a lick of haughtiness. This remains a great place to drink good beers, peppered with obligatory shots of Jamesons' and conversations with people who were drinking here before you were born.
I won't go over territory covered in other reviews other than to say this is a great dive bar, in fact it's the very model of what a New York dive bar should be. And when I say dive I mean it with the highest of compliments. Feel free to substitute the term "neighborhood bar" if that helps. This is the kind of bar you visit to celebrate the end of another working day with people from all walks of life and revel in the fact that you live in a city that encourages just that. Cheers.
When I attended SVA this was one of our main hangouts whenever we needed to stop being hermits in our tiny studio cubes. Never trusted ordering actual food, usually just stuck with the appetizers... like their oh-so-tasty mozzarella sticks. Drinks are a good price. We came with rather large groups and usually managed to get a table. It was always a pretty fun night! I'm a fan of dingy pubs, so yay!
My local pub. Not good for groups, often filled with hordes of NYU or club kids from next door, a SNL cast member sighting here and there, not great food but great french fries...you get the point. It's not the greatest place in the world, but it's home.
My favorite bar in the city. Random celebrity sightings, old crazy people (who were probably regulars when they were YOUR age), and cops and firemen! I'd stick to the shot-and-a-beer type ordering, and don't order at the bar and bring your drink into the dining room (or risk being humiliated). Some of the bartenders are pretty good-looking too. If you're relaxed and friendly, you may just have a good time.
Not a cafe, first off. Seedy little Irish bar in what seems like a really strange place for it to be. I got some dirty looks for ordering a cranberry-vodka..c'mon, I didn't ask for a freakin cosmo!! Just not a beer or a shot. Odd crowd, lots of much much older and much much drunker people...and it was 9 PM. Type of place I expect to find in Woodside, not Chelsea, but I needed a drink and they had one for me, so I can't really complain. I doubt I need to come back here though...if I want a true Irish pub experience, I'll head to Queens (yes Sam, Queens...tremble!! and then come with me!)
This place has it all. And by "all" I mean an outrageous, androgynous local drunk who played maudlin tunes on the jukebox and danced in her seat while mumbling, and occasionally yelling, unintelligibly. The staff were unperturbed. the Sox were winning, so it was all good.
fits like an old glove, peter mcmanus i will use you before NCAA basketball games. your cheesefries and burger are great and your beer is fairly priced.
McManus is only slightly less seedy than I expected based on the reviews on Yelp... And boy do I love seedy. We had a bunch of people meet up here for the Giants NFC Champ game. We got there a little early and grabbed some tables in the back with no problem. There were plenty of flat screens to watch the game. We had table service, which was very nice, and the food was typical bar food - greasy, but it hit the spot. After the game, the juke box got crankin' and there was a great mix of everything from Bowie to Green Day to the Police. We had a blast here and will make it a more regular stop for sure!
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