You might grab a quick glass of wine at the copper bar. You could, for example, come in with a friend and grab one of the tiny, crowded-together tables in the front and share a steak frites - there isn’t really room for two plates on the table anyway. We also like Lucky Strike because it works perfectly in a number of situations. In other words: one martini is actually approximately 1.5 martinis. And speaking of drinks, when you order a martini or old fashioned or other appropriately strong drink (this place has been around since 1989 but that doesn’t make it OK to order a Cosmopolitan), you get an extra tall glass with crushed ice, a strainer, and the remaining part of the cocktail that didn’t fit into the first glass. On our last visit, the soundtrack was an alternating rotation of Depeche Mode and Michael Jackson and every table had drinks on it despite it being early on a Monday night. Whatever the reason, we happen to like it a lot. Maybe that’s because people think it’s a bowling alley. Keith McNally opened Lucky Strike in 1989, and for some reason, it’s lesser known than its similarly long-lived McNally counterparts Balthazar, Schiller’s, and The Odeon. But if you’re looking for a French bistro in Soho that’s been open for 25 years where you can feel like you’re in one of the tame parts of a Bret Easton Ellis novel, read on. Office managers stressing over the plans for corporate happy hour, look elsewhere.
While there are dozens of hotels on Eighth Avenue and throughout the Theater District on Eighth Avenue and Broadway, Hell's Kitchen enjoys a somewhat more relaxed pace than the frenetic hubbub you'll find just two avenues further east.Ĭheck out the neighborhood's weekly Chelsea-Clinton News, a great local publication that’s been around longer than the former U.S.Before you continue, let’s be clear about one thing - this is not a review for a bowling alley in Times Square. Hotels in Hell's Kitchen include a number of budget places the further west you go such as The 414 Hotel and the Skyline. Some of our favorites include the terrific Daisy May's BBQ on Eleventh Avenue the German cuisine of Hallo Berlin and nearby Queen of Sheba featuring great Ethiopian cuisine on Tenth Avenue French patisserie La Bergamote on West 42nd Street Bali Nusa Indah on Ninth Avenue has intriguing Indonesian dishes the Film Center Café for high-powered American diner-style dishes and the many Thai places dotting Ninth Avenue too numerous to mention. While you'll find thousands of new apartments in Hell's Kitchen west of Ninth Avenue, you'll also find dozens of eclectic and interesting restaurants to boot. While the wholesome new Theater District has resulted in lower crime rates and decreased the area’s quality-of-life problems such as prostitution, urban transformation for some means a loss of the gritty qualities of this neighborhood for others. Given the strange, even Byzantine zoning regulations in New York, it’s not unusual to see a tiny brownstone, a remnant of another era, adjacent to or near a brand-new high-rise rental or condominium building. Long-time residents, many of whom enjoyed reasonable rents and decent-sized apartments, are finding that conversion of rent-controlled and -stabilized apartments, coupled with the general building boom and strong economy, brought quick change to this formerly sleepy area. Once a bastion of poor and working-class Irish Americans, over the last decade the neighborhood has undergone tremendous gentrification as a result of its proximity to Midtown's many office buildings. Spanning roughly from West 34th to 59th Streets and from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River, it still has a rough-and-tumble character when compared with other more defined neighborhoods in Manhattan. Known as "Clinton" by the municipal government and devotees of former mayor DeWitt Clinton and as "Hell's Kitchen" by Daredevil and everyone else, this area of Midtown West is currently experiencing rapid (re)development. Lucky Strike is located in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. Use the arrow buttons to navigate down the street and around the neighborhood! Drag the street view to look around 360°.