Musical Box

The Musical Box is my favorite bar – good value & grand service. Sy is my favorite bartender – good value & grand service. I have had three of my last five birthdays here, and I am here now, soaking it all in.
I say that that is Ron Wood, in pajamas, not Rod Stewart, decopage’d into the bar, a few stools in. Opinions differ…

An alright place to chill with a group. The crowd in general is meh if you’re not there with a fairly large group. I’ve had a decent time here with old college peeps meeting up. The music is decent, the drinks are strong, there are couches to sit or throw you stuff on and there are a million places to go out afterwards around.

Great Place To Start The Night Off… Terrible Place To Be When Packed.
Musical box is cute. Exposed brick, pretty spacious considering it’s casual bar vibe. Comfy Couches in the back. But that’s where it ends.
Patrons are rude! Standing at the bar, casually sipping my fresh cocktail, some beefy guy elbows himself a spot on the bar to order his Bud Light. (Enuff said). Go on to notice nearly evert guy in the place just barrels through the crowd.
The nicest and cutest Tom Brady look-​alike was the only guy nice enough to say excuse me as he squeezed in at the bar.
Might give it another shot when I have my football padding on.

Came here to at the suggestion of, and to meet the lovely Liz C. I trusted her and she came through… the perfect place to start a night of fun!
The Musical Box is a dark, quiet bar with heavily curtained windows, and nothing but small letter stickers to show for its name. The interior is VERY cozy, with couches littering the back room, and a decently roomy bar area. The couches, while comfortable, would be enough to make me want to call it a night within half an hour had I not been graced with good company.
There are some delicious beers on tap (all $ 5), but I can’t say anything about the prices of drinks. I’m sure they won’t hurt your pocket too badly.
The verdict? The perfect spot to chill with friends on a night when you’re not looking for anything loud and crazy. It’s wonderful to find a place where you can hear your friends speak!
+++ tiny patio outside for you butt smokers.
— - — the butt smokers on said night were of a drunken obnoxious persuasion. perhaps i need to quit…

I was here last week for a birthday party and had a great time. The place is pretty big and didn’t seem to ever get too crowded. The bartenders were friendly and efficient (ie, no waiting at the bar for ten minutes, waving a ten-​spot around, trying to get served). The aforementioned porch is nice and sociable (I randomly met some guys that went to my teeny-​tiny midwestern liberal arts alma mater), but it would be cool if there was some seating. The back room with the couches is nice and cozy.
All in all, a solid place.

When I patronize a venerable venue, I save the review by jotting some inspirational stem into the text field, and expound upon these profundities (i.e., ’ porch ’) at my leisure.
Saturday was a mixed bag; I accidentally ‘posted’ said unparsed brainbatteryacid, very shortly before achieving my first ROTD, which left the unbloomed bon mot at the top of my review queue. Bad form.
So a fleshier second chance for the hip-​squisite parcheasy with the fobby appellation (Music? Box?): spacious and gracious, porch (see below) and pool table included.

This place has potential to be a five-​star bar.
The name is a little misleading, I don’t really remember any music playing except for «London Calling». But I did see a spot for a DJ to be playing I think. I was disappointed with their beer selection, but the prices for the drinks were right.
The bar is big and I didn’t have to wait too long for drinks. The area in the back is huge with comfy couches and a pool table. There was also an outdoor patio but I didn’t go out there.
My gripes with this place are minor, so 4 stars it is!

Dim and discrete are the best ways to be when one is black out drunk. While Musical Box (why the extra «al», why not just music box??) boasts both those traits, unfortunately I cannot say the same about myself when I’m two sheets to the wind as I was here on a recent Friday evening.
Now, I’m guessing this is my kind of place since in a city of 8.3 million I managed to run into two different old acquaintances from the Bay. Er, perhaps that means this is the bar SF expats go to relive the glory days of The Page. Either way, familiar or not, nobody should have to speak with me after I’ve had three tequila shots and an incalculable number of beers (probably two knowing my tolerance).
Things I enjoyed: the long bar and totally non-​douchey bartendars; the tiny outdoor smoking patio (though my lungs and hangover may disagree on this point); the mohawked dude who talked to me despite my slurs and constantly grabbing of his spikes; the candlelit nooks that turned a potential dive bar into an upscale divey-​like bar.
Thing I did not enjoy: the bathroom situation – there was an insane line for the bathroom that snaked along the wall since as others have noted, there’s only two closed door potties.
It’s comfortable, affordable and essential free of the lameness a Friday night in New york can bring to some destinations.

They only let you into the bathroom one at a time.
You know … No sex. No cocaine.
Minus two stars.

Don’t let the front entrance turn you off. I thought I was doing something illegal when I first saw the front sign, or lack thereof.
I really like the couch seating area by the front door. The back area with the pool tables is nice, too.
I suggest mirrors for the bathrooms! The neighborhood gets kinda sketchy, but cabs seem to be plentiful.

I like the mini-​outdoor patio. That’s about all I like about this place. Oh, and also the cheap drinks.
Granted, Musical Box is not my type of scene. But even if it were, I don’t think I’d like this place. Not a very impressive crowd, nothing special about the bar, not even good music.

Picture it: 1997. Wide-​eyed and 21, I’m lead to a door on a dark and deserted block in Alphabet City (yes, Ave B was Alphabet City back then). The gate’s drawn.
«Looks closed» I say.
«It’s not» my suitor says conspiratorially, and in we go.
Newly-​legally-​drinking me is blown away. Candles! Antiques! Unmarked entrance! Pool table! This has got to be the coolest place on the planet. But why are there pictures of the Rolling Stones on the wall?
Yes – before PDT, before the Back Room, before Milk & Honey and the rest of the Petraske empire there was Musical Box (but to be fair, before Musical Box there was Chumley’s) – a REAL speakeasy whose «secret» location couldn’t be known to everyone a month before it opened because words like «blog» and « Unilocal» hadn’t been invented yet. In fact, I’m pretty sure all I used the internet for at that point was downloading pictures of the Melrose Place cast to hang on my dorm wall.
These days Musical Box is still a great laid-​back hangout. Drinks aren’t too expensive (though this is no specialty cocktail haven), and people are always friendly. I’d still probably avoid it on the weekends (as I would with most E Vill bars), but it seems to have calmed down a bit from when it was THE «it» bar. Thank god.

As far as bars in the East Village go, I love this one!
I come here when my competitive pool team plays here, usually once a month or two, but it’s always been fun. Bartenders are super nice, drinks are GOOD and moderately priced. While there’s no food, they don’t mind if you bring stuff in.
Smoking area outside in back, BIG comfy couches to lounge on, pool table, nice front bar.
This is definitely a place to go for happy hour and I’ve always had a great time here.

There really isn’t anything special about this place — why come here at all, if you have a choice, with hundreds of other more interesting places?
The bar layout consists of a bland, narrow room that leads to a back room with couches. The design is very plain and simple, but it’s the type of plain and simple that can also be called boring.
Drinks are typical New York prices (expensive), but much weaker than other East Village joints.
I’ve only been to this bar twice, both times on a weekend night. Watch out around midnight because that’s when all the guidos wearing muscle shirts and an overdose of cologne pour in, along with their busty bimbo blondes (BBB).
I don’t know why they call this place Musical Box. No DJ, no live music, no jukebox, just the bar soundsystem. During my two visits at this bar, the music coming through that soundsystem was, at best, unmemorable.
I guess the appeal of Musical Box comes from the fact that the bar itself is hard-​to-​find — there’s no sign, no window, and it’s squeezed in between apartment entrances and a wine shop, which probably lends it a certain «cool» factor. If that’s your thing, check it out once. But if not, don’t even bother trying to find it.

So, Steven V and I went to the Musical Box for a quick one after the Julie K. fundraiser. Generally speaking, I really like Musical Box (note the four stars). In fact, I’ve had a few successful dates here, and my brother had his birthday party here just a few short weeks ago. The front room where the bar is is roomy, the drinks are cheap, the music is good, and there are cool old couches in the back room where you can stretch out and make out with your best girl… or even your second best girl… or even your soon to be one night stand… or whatever.
Still, the quality of a bar, to a certain extent, is determined by its patrons, is it not? This was a Friday night and the clientele was, well, let’s just say «different» than the other times I’ve been there. Following is the salient portion of my conversation with Steven V. at the venue itself:
Me: There really are an awful lot of douchebags here at Musical Box.
Steven: Yeah, the hats were a dead giveaway (referring to a couple of dudes with really dumb looking fedoras on).
Me: Normally this place isn’t like this.
Steven: It’s … ‘Douche Box’.
Me: Word.
So there you have it, on Fridays, Musical Box is transmogrified into «Douche Box». It really is magic. Not nearly as good as that Maritess magic we experienced at the Julie K fundraiser earlier that evening, but magic nonetheless.
On any other night, it’s a really cool place. Try it, you’ll like it.
Oh, and dude, leave the fedora at home. You look like a douchebag.

I don’t drink alcomahol… BUT they dont have red bull. I don’t like that. It pissed me off. Not even an imposter energy drink. Sup with that?
Non-​drinking ANYTHING aside… the couches were comfy, they have a cute back patio… the front of the bar gets wicked crowded but the back isn’t so bad. It’s a cute space… but dark. I guess thats aaaaambiance. F it.

This is the best bathroom bar ever. There’s only one but no one cuts the line. If you do, one of the guys working will pop by to say, no maam, it was that guy who was next, not you. They actually keep an eye of this sort of thing.
The music here is sublime. Too many places play the worst schlock that no matter how much your drink, you want to bang your head against the wall. The bartenders melodic choices are routinely superlative. The drinks aren’t bad either, although I generally opt for a Tiger.
At one point a friend of a friend worked behind the bar and you’d often find me on the corner stool hanging out knitting at all hours, since he’d kindly slip us a few bonus rounds during our residence. If not at the bar, we’d be playing pool or relaxing on one of the largish cozy armchairs.
Perfect during the week night spot to unwind without all the drama.

Hands down, Musical Box is my favorite bar in NYC. I used to live across the street and became a regular here. It’s cozy and has reasonable drink prices, lots of comfy couches, and a small patio out back for smokers. The dim lighting makes for a good date locale. There is quite a nice pool table in the back room that is often occupied by pool league teams, but if you can snag it you can enjoy a few games on it before some sharks challenge you and win the table.
Weekends, this bar can be overly packed and often attracts a very mixed crowd but if you get there early enough to get a seat it’s not so bad. It’s a good place for parties because it’s larger than some of the other bars in the area, and it’s a bit out of the way. No sign out front, either, so make sure you look up the exact address before you go.

I have a theory on bars… (you can ignore my theory if you’d like)
There are the overly trendy places, with the velvet rope, that no one knows about until after Lindsey Lohan is tired of going there. Then they start letting «others» in… eventually they let people like me in. And at that point, the place is so un-​cool, that it fizzles out and shuts its doors. Expected life-​span 2 years.
The second type of bar is a cool, local neighborhood spot. The bulk of its business is regulars, and the crowd is locals… oh and added bonus, Lindsey Lohan & Co. would never even set foot in such a proletariat establishment.
Musical Box is a member of Bar Type #2. Dark and low key with reasonable music. The crowd is local. The drinks are standard. And big props to the waitress who negotiated a crowded room, never spilled a drink, always smiled, and was never gone for too long. A nice local chill spot.

On the first day, God said let there be light. Apparently, Musical Box never heard the good word. It’s absurdly dark in this bar. I mean, like, I looked at the direction I thought my friends were in and all I saw were cartoon eyes in the dark, blinking at me.
Now, if Musical Box was supposed to be some kind of sultry lounge or something, then this would make sense. But everything else about it suggests «rock bar.» Musical Box just needs to embrace its true identity and turn up the lights.
Not to mention the staff leaves a little something lacking. My friend got thrown out of the bar for hitting on the waitress, who was apparently the bartender’s girlfriend. Seems like somebody has a tiny penis…