If Mom Only Knew

I’ve passed by this place numerous times when I’m sick of being shoulder to shoulder with people in BoB bar on the way to White Rabbit. The exterior makes it look like some exclusive ass place to get into cuz all you really see is a wall with no windows and small stickers a-​top their entrance that read «IMOK», which is why I never really went in. lol
Going in, I thought I was in the wrong place.
Needless to say I guess the night I went, a whole bunch of Jersey housewives and Guido husbands decided they wanted to spend a night on the town dressed like the just came from a wedding or got confused and thought this was a Vegas club.
The vibe isn’t exactly what my friends were explaining (hood music, hip hop, etc). I mean the music was good, but the people there just killed the vibe.
I gave an extra star for having delicious pickleback shots. Maybe I’ll try coming back another time?

This place was better when it first opened. The drinks are ok, not sure why it’s so expensive for LES. Place also gets super crowded and hot. Good for dancing. The music is good too, but for some reason the DJ will only play a few lines of the song and then switch it, which is kind of annoying. Please note they automatically add a super high gratuity if you order more than 3 drinks. So order one at a time!

Came here a couple of months back but, I’ve been slacking on all my reviewing. Great place to come and listen to some hip hop and bust a move. Crowd was definitely feeling the DJ. I was there on a Friday and it was super packed… I mean the kind of packed where it’s a mission just to reach the bathroom.
My advice, stay somewhere midway between the bathroom and the bar and you’ll be set.

IMOK thes letters that reveal this little hip-​hop gem.
The place is intimate, if you find it two small. The good thing is there is a boatload of places to go in the area. You don’t have to stay here indefinitely. But the hip hop being mixed is probably one of the best I have heard in NYC.
The bartender was very attentive and drinks were strong.
IMOK is a cross of bOb’s bar and Sapphire lounge. Funny enough it sits in-​between, coincidence, I think not it’s a mutant hybrid.

I was here with Courtney M. + 25 of her amazing friends for her birthday.
The door was easy to get into, no cover! Total plus, and the bouncers were pretty nice.
Inside of IMOK was pretty chill. Graffiti on the walls, a couple of seats at the bar and some couches in the back. Our group was in the back couch, by the bathrooms and the DJ.
The DJ was alright, alot of hip hop jams but nothing you can really dance to. The drinks were pretty pricey too, above average for LES. And they got super packed reallllllly quick. I had to knock some boys outta the way to get back to my friends.
Good time overall, but bOb will always be número uno for me.

Just had a birthday party here this past Saturday and it was a total blast! Marcus, the owner, was super helpful from beginning to end. He reserved a table for me without pressuring me about bottle service. My party of 25 had no trouble getting in throughout the evening. And it was great to Marcus was behind the bar all night just in case we had any issues.
All my friends enjoyed the music and the drinks were great — fyi, the Spicy Señorita and Burning Bush drinks were equal parts delicious and dangerous… I’d certainly come back here to dance on the weekends!

Only come here if you like dancing to hip hop. If that doesn’t sound fun, you have problems.
IMOK is a great spot for a dance party. The only issue is that it’s small, but once you carve out some space for yourself it’s excellent. I’ve been here 4 – 5 times and enjoyed it every time.
Also — the bartender/​owner Marcus (w/​the tats) is incredibly nice. I came here for my birthday and he helped me get 20ish people in without a problem at all — and I was never pressured to buy a bottle. And he threw me a couple free drinks.
It’s fun, good looking diverse crowd, and covered with awesome graffiti. Wish there were more bars like it.

I like this place!
If you like hip hop, old school, and reggae, this is a cozy little place with a Mixed crowd.
If you’re in the neighborhood, and after dinner you walk by and feel like dancing to some booty shakin music this is a decent place to do it. No cover.
The music isn’t that loud so you can actually talk to a friend, but it can get a little crowded.

The place itself isn’t bad, just the people working there.
1) No cover? Bullshit. My mate and I got charged $ 20/​pp at 2am on Saturday.
2) Credit card billed multiple times for one transaction with automatic gratuity… $over $ 50 for 2 Heineken.
Big mistake.

Amount of times spent waiting in line (greater than) amount of time spent inside the bar
My friend had a birthday party here. The bouncer made all of us wait outside for 45 min in the cold. He kept telling us that if 2 people left, he would let 2 people in. More like. if 20 people left… he would still not let anybody in!
The birthday boy came out to ask the bouncer to let his friends in but the bouncer refused.
The toilet was gross, someone puked all over it. Music was really soft, impossible to dance. I left.

Look for a sign that says «IMOK» above a rather shady looking door and you are here! I came at around 11:30 on a Friday night and there was no wait and no cover. I guess we arrived right before the rest of the crowds came because about half an hour later, it filled up very quickly.
I tried their special of the night called the «Spicy Moscow Mule» which was a glass of ginger amaziness. If you like ginger and cocktails, this is definitely the drink for you. I believe it had vodka, ginger beer and one other ingredient that slips my mind at the moment. Since this drink was so tasty, it became my friends and my drink of choice for the night.
The DJ was pretty good. He played oldies in the beginning of the night and later on, he played top 40. Great music to dance to.
One thing to note is that the bathroom is downstairs and there is only one bathroom for the entire place for both men and women, resulting in mega long lines. Ironically, the only sign denoting the bathroom was a sign on the door that said that it was handicap accessible. Yet, the toilet was raised on a pedestal and a wooden plank. One had to climb a step or two to get to it and so I didn’t think it was very handicap accessible.
By 1 am, it was very very crowded and it was hard to move around. We learned the hard way that we shouldn’t put our drinks on the low tables because they got knocked right over by the oblivious dancing crowds.
Despite the crowding and spilled drinks, it was a great night out and I would definitely come back here.

LA in the house! Stopped by IMOK for a drink last friday, here’s the breakdown:
(+)
–No cover fee
–Music is good for all you hip hop and old school heads
–Good crowd, young, good-​looking types
–HDtvs showing the bball games (good in my book!)
(-)
–Bartenders were rude, not attentive. Only paid attention to their friends who were hanging on the sidelines
–Very crowded, people were just standing and I guess waiting to get into bOb (that’s what we were doing)
–Super dark, couldn’t see the drink menu on the wall
Will probably come back here if I visit NYC again, wish they had a place like this in LA!

No cover-​fee! That’s already an advantage over BoB Bar a few steps away. Let me warn you, you may see a petite asian girl (me) jamming hard to the music. I cannot go here without some booty-​poppin’!
If Mom Only Knew has become my new favorite spot. I am in love with their playlist. Endless new hip-​hop and jams: Future, Rick Ross, Drake. Music like this really makes my night 100x better.
Yesterday was incredibly crowded and it was almost impossible to get to the bar. The crowd was pretty young and fun. Good atmosphere! Definitely a good scene for dancing and getting crunkkkk! If you prefer quieter bars, opt out of this one. The spot is slightly concealed as it is not clearly labeled but you can look for the numbers 247 outside (the address of the establishment.) Pricing is pretty average for the city.
If anyone wants to teach me how to dougie or dutty wine, drinks will be on me.

The DJ is amazing.
Crowd can get a little ghetto but for hip hop/​rap that I haven’t heard since high school, I’ll come back any day. I wish the venue was a bit larger but it’s a good spot to chill.

I was going through a relatively difficult time and my friends brought me here to a special Puerto Rican DJ and his flava flave. It was SO much fun.
I was dancing, my friends (who don’t dance) were dancing, everyone was up and having a great time and all in all it was just awesome. It does get crowded like most establishments but just being there and having fun and dancing
The vibe here is awesome and the drinks are awesome. I have only been here once so I dont know much except that if you wanna get your groove on this place is your place
OH! and everyone assumes there’s only one bathroom but there’s honestly 2. There’s one hidden in the wall upstairs. Shhhh it’s a secret (not really…)
ENjJOY!

Only in the LES can you pull off a bar that doesn’t know if it’s a dive or a lounge, and automatically add 20% gratuity to their overpriced drinks. Despicable.
On the plus side the DJ was mixing a bunch of fun, old school hip hop & rap. And I’m pretty sure there was no cover for the guys.

Somehow it took me a while to notice this place, i guess they are not always open. It lies between Bob’s bar and saphhire lounge. When we walked in on a friday night there was no cover to get in. My review is solely based on the music and ambience which we enjoyed here, we didn’t had any drinks here.
There is a bar as one walks in and there is some seating avialable opposite to the bar. They also have some couches as one walks towards the DJ booth. We actually liked the DJ out here he was playing some really nice music. The crowd was diverse.
Will definitely stop by here again!

Midnight-​ish. Saturday night. Bachelorette weekend.
We came here on accident, thinking it was the Sapphire Lounge but there was no cover and the bouncer was nice so we continued our way in.
It was pretty small and fairly crowded but we were able to get a booth at the back.
The DJ played some hip hop and top 40 –good enough to make us sing along and butt shimmy in our seats but not good enough to urge us to dance with the annoying girls in the middle of the floor.
The drinks were adequate. I had a whisky something for like 12 bucks, pricey I guess but thats what we’re used to in LA. But what made the experience better was the hunk of a bartender serving us. He wasn’t entirely friendly & warm but boy was he easy on the eyes! Maybe I took an extra 6 minutes to stare .OH I mean. to ‘sign the receipt’.
Its Swanky, Dive-​y, Lounge-​y, Bar? I’m not sure what its trying to be but we had a pretty good time, unlike the dumb Sapphire Lounge next door. Definitely a nice place to stop in on your adventure plan of bar hopping.

If Mom Only Knew I spent freakin $ 56 for 4 vodka tonics.
Poor mixing by the DJ. Like, GOD AWFUL. It was a Friday night too. Amateur night?
Stick to bOb Bar next door.

This stretch of Eldridge has opened a lot of new places, while back in the day it used to be ghetto and desolate.
Ah the irony… this new place is situated right next to the old Sapphire Lounge. Oh the fond memories of that place.
Seriously this place could easily get three stars from me if it just stuck to what it was good at, namely being a swanky lounge on the new Lower East Side. What I mean is upscale bar, those depression looking bulbs that are $ 100 each, and $ 12 cocktails. It’s a nice place to see pretty faces, yes — nothing wrong with that.
BUt what somehow bugged me (besides the music, I’ll get to that), was this odd juxtaposition of graphiti on the back walls. It looked almost like they were framing some archaeological find that scientists had unearthed. Seriously folks, really? Graphiti is not gone, though maybe it’s gone from this neighborhood. If you want it, you don’t have to go far to find it, just pop over the river, and there are countless samples. Here in the back of this bar, I was rubbing up against that which the postmodernists had warned us against. The simulacrum is alive and well here.
While chatting with a few people in the birthday group I had joined, I made some small talk with the girl next to me. Having learned long ago to start conversations in a noncommital way, instead of saying «isn’t this song great» I simply said, what do you think of this music? Her reply, I don’t know this stuff, never heard it before. Yeah, I think it’s old, huh? Old rock or something.
The music playing was The Doors, People Are Strange.
Ah the irony.