Fat Baby

Bouncers are super homophobic. So unfortunate. I used to really like this place. I used to come here all the time in skinny jeans and fashionable shirts, but I have had a two consecutive experiences recently where the bouncer told me my dress wasn’t up to standard for men and I needed to come back in slacks and a button down. This was way more a judgement of me than of my wardrobe considering this venue is full of men and women in anything from shorts and sandals to khakis and t-​shirts. This is New York. I think we deserve better.

I’ve been to Fat Baby on two occasions, both of them for the sole purpose of dancing. Both times were great, the second being even better than the first. Disclaimer: The only reason this has four stars instead of five is because of how crowded it gets relative to the size of the space (which is pretty intimate). This review though is specifically to praise one of its staff members: Brendon. He was incredibly accommodating and was fundamental in providing me and my friend with quite possibly the best clubbing experience we’ve ever had. The DJ was absolutely phenomenal and I highly recommend this place, especially if you’re a great dancer!

Yep it’s a dive bar, or maybe it’s a club? But bands play there? It tries to do it all but it is a bit rough on each. The sound is not bad but it is overtly stuffy and uncomfortable. The outhouse is barely passable as an outhouse. The drink menu is incomplete and the staff is iffy.

Okay so my friends and I were talking.
There’s needs to be list of places that are happening on a Wednesday night in NYC.
Maybe even a list for each day of the week!
Door’s a little heavy and needs a good pull. It goes downstairs.
On Wednesday night, they have a comedy show.
The comedian drew a piece of paper from the bucket that said «Sweaty nose hairs» and had to sing a song about it.
The crowd was fun and knew how to get down. I would say there were about 20 people on a Wednesday night! I can imagine this place gets packed during the weekend.
Closest station is Delancy Station! People need to get home.

Went bar hopping and came across this place which had tight security but the bouncers were sweet. Anyway, the crowd was very diverse and the music was cool; DJ played a mix of reggae, Latin, rock, top 40 hits, and hip hop. Yet, something still seemed a bit off… I just can’t put my finger on it. I got bored after the first 45 minutes to an hour. Besides that though, it’s a very nice space with great bartenders. The dance floor is spacious and the couches are cozy.

I would like to think that I’m over my college days, but occasionally grown ups regress to being big babies right?
Security and bouncers are always such great sports. But that would only partially explain the overcrowded floor with people packed like trains downstairs. We came group of 3 and had to turn back because we couldn’t even make it off the stairs.
I’m conflicted to whether the words got out or whether the LES just keep piling with bourgeois yappies. Always grab a drink before or the next block down, or you’ll never make it to the bar

Please dont go to this terrible place! The bouncer outside tried to push me out of the way because I was standing on the sidewalk. When I told him that I was just standing and talking to my friend, he said that it was ‘his street’ and kept pushing me. I wasn’t hostile or anything, it came out of nowhere and I am mad because Im treated this way. This is unacceptable…

When we went a few weeks ago to celebrate a friends bday I assume we got there too early. The place was pretty quiet with maybe one other person in the place. That was fine for us because we were a bunch of 7 so we thought perfect opportunity to get some prime bar real estate and enjoy some libations to start off the night.
We were disappointed that we were pretty much ignored by the bartender and when he did come to us he was curt and snide. We didn’t stay long because we did not feel welcomed.
Even with that said, the bar itself looked really nice with the glass and mirrors. The galley style bar area opened to a wider space with seats and open floor. I really like the bar look they had going on. Oh and I liked the wood doors leading into the bar.
I wouldn’t necessarily return due to our treatment but I liked the look of the place.

Manny and Mike are the best bartenders ever. Ask for the Big Gay shot (secret house shot) …and I love Frankie and Dan too! Shout out to Ricky and Lomax! See you Thursday

Mike and Manny are the best bartenders — they’re so friendly, and did I tell you they’re the best? Yep, four drinks in.
All the guys outside and in are so helpful especially Frankie and Dan. Fat Baby wouldn’t be the same without them.
Shoutout to Pretty Ricky and Lomax who knows every lyrics to every song — great guys!
Chill on Thursdays, and party hard on Saturdays.

I went with a large group for a birthday party. It was jammed packed inside, barely any standing room let alone dancing space.
Pop music, so you can’t really hate it. It was so packed that you couldn’t reach the bar, so anyone who did ordered a million drinks. The bar was incredibly gross, my friend and I tried to find more space towards the back of the bar and it was packed as well. If you’re sensitive skip over this next part: I noticed fresh vomit on the walls. Disgusting!
The guys here are pretty aggressive. Two guys tried to cut me off from my friends and I literally had to shove my way back to my friends.
My group decided to leave because the crowd was too rude. People kept pushing us and it was just not fun. We made sure everyone knew that a simple «excuse me» would have sufficed. Even as we were leaving out the door, people were pushing pass us to get in. It’s like everyone forgot that if we don’t leave they wont have room to go in.
WILL NOT BE BACK. I would have given 0 stars if it was possible.

Ompf. I would never want to step foot into Fat Baby sober. Even quite drunk I could get the sense that everything was pretty gross and grimy. No cover on a Saturday night though, which is a plus here. Crowd was pretty heavy on the guy side and overall aggressive. Very sweaty air every surface seemed sticky.
I would say the security and staff were very nice! I dropped my ring and the guy immediately came with a flashlight to help me find it.
Music was terrible. I don’t know what the DJ was doing — maybe he only had the 30 second iTunes preview of the song? Regardless no song was played for more than ~20 seconds before it immediately faded into the next song. Really annoying when something you like comes on because it just goes away ASAP.
Take Fat Baby for what it is — if you’re already through a long night of drinking and just want to be sloppily drunk somewhere with music and other sloppily drunk people, Fat Baby is probably the way to go.

These people are extremely rude. Went here with several friends this weekend.
1) forced me to check my coat when I didn’t have a purse so I had to hold my wallet, keys and phone in my jeans pockets
2) when I went back to get my coat maybe a half an hour later because I wasn’t feeling good my ticket had fallen out of my pocket. The lady said there was no way she could give me my coat back (this is the same lady as before). I told her I had a green coat and I stuffed my plaid sweater in the left pocket. She said I would have to come back at 7am to get the coat (it was 10 degrees outside)
3) my best friend and I looked through the whole
bar and he somehow found it on the bottom of a guys shoe! Retrieved the coat and then the security guard who was rude to me earlier about not having a ticket asked me if I had «stolen» my coat I was wearing. So rude.
Never going here again — I understand if you’re trying to protect people’s belongings but my coat was so specific and I gave it to her 30 min before and for this security guard to be so unhelpful and then tell me I’m a thief is beyond horrible service.

Fat Baby
NY Manhattan LES
10:45pm Saturday 12^th February 2016
Three Stars
On first approach, this bar looked basic, ratchet, or whatever the kids are saying these days. However when I entered, it felt way classier. I sat at the bar, and watched a bit of college basketball on a flat screen TV while drinking a $ 11 Makers Mark. The bartenders were good looking and they played Chet Faker’s version of No Diggity. I came here for a friend’s birthday and we got bottle service in the lower level lounge area. He decided on $ 300 liter bottle of Jameson. By 11:30, the place transformed… I will leave what happened next as a mystery but the ending was the bouncers kicking out 26 Frat Boys.

I have to agree with some other people’s reviews, this place can kind of be a mess. I have been here at least three times but a month and half ago had the most fun.
As soon as you enter the bar and area that you see can be considered frat boy central, A crowd that you just want to get away from fast. Take my advice, come here having already pre gamed or like in my case 5 vodka sodas and a beer earlier before I arrive.
Once the party was about to really get started my group of 4 went downstairs, heard top 40 music some reggae (loved it) and the line to bar was manageable. 1 rum and coke was on point. I think Bacardi, then 1 more drink was needed, someone suggested long island ice tea and I agreed. That was when more dancing occurred to a terrible DJ and my drink was sipped slow and all types of fun had by my group Team Awesome. Dancing to a terrible DJ in an environment you normally wouldn’t be in but you had best fun in a while shows that you can really hang with good people sometimes. Stay downstairs, next time you go, come in with some beer at least in your system and continue to get wasted here, stay in the LES for a good time.

Let’s just take a sec and appreciate Fat Baby for what it is: the post-​game, not the game.
I usually hate places that have lines on principle, but Fat Baby usually has a line after midnight because it’s one of the only fun places without a cover… at least… from what I can remember ;)
It’s the place to grind with a rando, maybe break a sweat, and enjoy your drunken blur.
If you’re part of the 10 foot heels, college student, look how good I look crowd, please try elsewhere.
Divey-dance-club…there should be more!

Don’t make the mistake of coming here sober.
MAKE SURE TO NEVER COME HERE STONE SOBER.
The point of coming to Fat Baby is to come here already borderline obliterated to make sure you have fun. Come here to end a night of bar hopping. I’ve had fun every time I visited for that exact reason. The judgement may be clouded but I always have a ridiculous amount of fun here. Coming to Fat Baby means embracing tomorrow morning’s hangover, but if I can do it so can you! lmao
The bouncers are nice. Shout out to Dan! He is the man!
Manny is the best bartender! He is down for shots!
The place does get crowded. The music is fine — top 40s so definitely nothing groundbreaking. I’d recommend chilling downstairs if you are with your friends and actually want some room for drunk dancing and laughing. Drunk me really loves coming to Fat Baby.

Love awkwardly dancing in a sticky, grimy space? Enjoy terrible music? If so, Fat Baby is the divey space made just for you!
Corralled into a visit, I made the best use of my time by finding an open area to sit between booths and sipping on a glass of water. I hear their cocktails aren’t the best and I was done drinking for the night. The water tasted like water, so that’s a plus.
My favorite part of the visit was almost being elbowed in the head repeatedly by a dude who cared more about his phone than fellow humans. He made my night. Go him.
Two stars for no cover, easy entry, absurd business name, and precarious place to sit.

Stay Away. This place is ridiculously divey and dirty, and not in the fun kind of way. The only good thing about this place was no line/​cover, but that’s pretty much all I can say. The bartenders seemed annoyed at serving us (I get it, it’s New York), and there didn’t seem to be any other options except for well drinks.
The actual venue was small and overcrowded. There seemed to be two main groups: frat boys/​girls and older men. They played bad hip-​hop, with maybe a few gems from the 90s. My friends and I tried dancing, but this guy kept on coming over and standing near us with his face towards the wall because he was using the phone charger (???). Maybe he was a bounce, but he sure didn’t look like it.
Main issue: this place is grosssss. It looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in years and the bathroom is a cesspool. Just avoid. You will have a better time elsewhere.

Wowwwww. The front guy was aweosme. The rest, pretty bad. I will not come back here again. A fair mix of top 40 (hip hop, pop, electronic), but no space, random layout that it difficult to navigate and rude crowd. Too bad.
Also, a fight just broke out. Like a 10 person one. Yes.