In this Part 2 of our New York City’s Lower East Side bar crawl, we visit a magical alley.
At Paradise Lost, Jason, one of the bar-backs mentioned that he also worked at a small speakeasy, hidden in an upstairs maze, within a restaurant, at the end of an alley, near the Bowery. With an introduction like that, how could we resist a visit?
Banzarbar is a small speakeasy — it only seats 20 people — within the large Freeman’s restaurant. The restaurant lies at the end of Freemans Alley — a hidden alley filled with graffiti and street art. (Tip: visit after dark for the full effect.) Freemans Alley brought back memories of our favorite graffiti-art filled street — Flinders Land in Melbourne Australia.
And speaking of Australia, the nautical themed Banzarbar’s name is derived from the (fictitious?) “British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition.” To me, the feeling was of a pub frequented by colonial era New England sea captains. (An interesting complement to Brooklyn’s Sunken Harbor Club, where I feel I’ve walked out of the pub into the ship itself.)
