Bar 169

What an obscure place 169 Bar is. I guess I must have walked by it a couple years ago as I was exploring what was then my new neighborhood on the Lower East Side. It's named after its address, 169 E. Broadway, and faces Straus Square, which is formed by the intersection of E. Broadway, Canal and Essex/Rutgers Streets at Seward Park. The bar was closed, but I looked through the window and could see a pool table way in the back. A month or so later I went back and went in to play a couple practice racks. Other than the table being a bit too tight of a fit near the restrooms, I remember there was a hideous customized design/logo on the felt surface, something pertaining to a poker tournament or some event in Vegas perhaps, I can't remember exactly. The only time I ever heard anybody mention the bar was at nearby Whiskey Ward when I asked some folks where else they play pool. Bar 169 is about as far off the beaten path as you can get. But in my opinion that's never a bad thing.

A few weeks ago, bored from all my regular pool places, I was walking home when I decided to go to 169 for a nightcap. It was pretty late on a Thursday, had possibly even spilled over to Friday by then. I was hungry for anonymity and in search of a fresh environment. I was pleased to see some people playing pool, but when I asked if I could play the winner they said they only wanted to finish their game and be done. So as I was putting in my quarters afterwards a kid came up to me and seemed eager to play. I egregiously suggested a game of bank the eight. I made quick work of him in that game, then was approached by a very young-looking girl who wanted to play her friend. Since I had done what I set out to do and it was late, I said I'd give her the table as long as I could take a photo. She was a little hesitant since she was under 21, but I said something like "Oh don't worry, I just want to show the overall scene."

The resulting photo (above), and the strength of her break shot, pretty much sums up how I feel about the place: sort of ho-hum. But I would never say I won't return. I'm not one to post comments on bar review sites such as citysearch, baropinions, dodgeball, etc. But the comments I came across regarding Bar 169 were overwhelmingly negative, some approaching hateful: "If it was possible to contain all of the human excrement that is produced yearly in the United States and fashion a bar and it's [sic] staff out of the sh*t, 169 Bar would be the place." Ouch. The reviewer, nbettie, vowed never return to 169 and "matter, of fact, I would prefer to drink my own urine." Since 169 is a live music bar, many of the comments dealt with the soundman/sound sytem, everything from being denied soundchecks to the sound system being "too tinny and too laden with bass all at once." One reviewer said the bar is a "trap for the working artists of NY" that "pretends to be a friendly lower east side bar presenting live music but the truth is that they are spamming musicians through myspace and then taking the money they make at the door, and spend at their bar on show nights" (whatever that means).

As for the clientele, one reviewer said "each patron looks depressingly alone" and another said there are "a lot of old people, and not hot cougars and dilfs either...a bit grim." Even the bar's pets don't go unscathed. Folks described the "ugliest aquatic creatures ever displayed" in the "bottom-feeder-friendly fish tank."

Personally, I agreed most with whoever wrote that Bar 169 is a "homemade lounge/dive eluding classification" that "looks a little thrown-together." Without a doubt, the most glowing and positive review (and, interestingly, the one that gave the best props to the pool table) was written over four years ago by the folks at Lockhart Steele, who said it's "a divey joint, with a good pool table (naturally)" that "transcends the utter diviness of, say, Blue and Gold." But by late 2004, somebody was asking if Bar 169 had "jumped the shark," calling into question the venue's hosting of an amateur female Jello wrestling night.