Julep

Countless times I've walked past bars with pool tables where nobody ever seems to be playing. I always chalk it up to the fact that it's too early in the evening. Julep on Avenue A comes to mind, as does Double Down Saloon (formerly Julep) and Kelly's Sport's [sic] Bar (formerly J.P. Warde's). Whenever I've been knocked off the table at Sophie's after a decent run and I see the list has grown to ten or fifteen names, I'll head down Avenue A on my way home in search of a game at one of said bars with the hope that there are people playing. Recently I played at Julep, which moved across Avenue A. In its new space, Julep's pool table used to be in the very back (right, in photo by Shanna Ravindra), but now it's at the very front of the bar. It is kind of cool playing pool underneath a chandelier, albeit a very dim one. And it's very cramped so the short stick is a necessity. Some online reviewer of Julep referred it as "your regular 'alright' bar." In other words, the kind of bar where nobody freaks out when a beer is placed on the actual table (below). I'd definitely rather have too many "alright" bars with pool tables than not enough.