Polar

Great little lounge to go to and hang out with friends or on a date. Good drinks and good music.

Came back here late at night to dance my butt off. There was a line to get in. It was funny how I met 4 college friends who were standing in line. Despite having a table, they still made the guys pay $ 10 to get in, it was free for girls. My group managed to get in but they wouldn’t let my college friends whom I had just met get in.
Music was good. It wasn’t that crowded. The «caves» at the back served 2 functions:
1) to make out
2) to talk on your cell phone

This review is based off of a private holiday party experience thrown by a company one of my friend’s works for.
The space is surprisingly large for what seems like a one room venue downstairs. The floor is open with some tables against the walls. The 4 – 5 alcoves are discretely located in a separate hallway, which is great when you have private gatherings and you want it to stay that way. The décor is appropriate for the theme and the staff is friendly. The bartender here made one of the best vodka gingers I’ve had so that’s a plus in my book!
Check this place out for your private party needs. I do believe they may be opening their doors publicly in the near future.

I actually really liked this subterranean «ice» lounge. The theme is nicely done, and the elegant chic frozen look really made an impression. You just felt like you walked into the Snow Queen’s boudoir. Plus cozy white leather couches and settees. The place is small, square and neat.
The thing that absolutely dropped my jaw was the secluded alcove set a bit away from the main room — it is PERFECT for a small private group to lounge amidst crystal and icy gorgeousness and all the comfort that you could want. I think it’s the most splendid thing I’ve seen in a long time. Loveitloveitloveit.
Tucked underneath Marcel hotel with no-​nonsense doormen.

I’ve been to Polar a couple times for friends’ birthdays, and while I previously didn’t even know this place existed, I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived. After finding the somewhat clandestine door to this underground spot and descending into the lounge area, I was greeted by the beautiful white, mint green and silver interior and good music. Though the space is small, it is well decorated and makes smart use of the room. My favorite features are the secluded caves/​tables in the back. Though I wouldn’t advise spending all night here, it’s a good starting point.

Went there for NYE with some friends. We got a table for 10 and that f*ckin thing could only fit 3!!! They told us at the door that gratuity was $ 20 per person. It was obvious that no one else knew this because there was a group of people trying to figure it out for like 30 mns. Paid for 5 hours (9 – 2) but didn’t let us in until it was close to 10! WTF? I thought I paid so I wouldn’t have to wait?
Long story short… this place blows and whoever owns it can blow me. It’s tiny, the ceilings are low. NOTHING like the pictures on their website.
Save your time and money for somewhere else. Polar is not worth it!
F*ck that place and whoever came up with it.
Total rip off!!!
Would give 0 star if I could!!!

«…cozy luxury of a high-​class yet relaxed champagne and cocktail lounge.»
Oy Vey. They have a lame website. I am glad I did not see this before my visit. I came here with some friends and was intrigued by the simple fact that I had never heard of the place and wanted to check it out.
Polar is one of those sorta exclusive underground lounge type places. The décor is slick and modern. It is on the small side, but there are some «caves», nooks and crannies with VIP tables where you can hang out with a group of buddies. The bartenders were were friendly and cranked the drinks out pretty fast. The DJ was playing decent music, which was loud, but not nutso.
Would I come here again as a main weekend night destination point? No, but I had a good time and would definitely come back as a stopping point on my way to somewhere else.

Line was already formed at 11:30 I was already blasted so didn’t mind waiting a little. After 15 minutes (i think it was 15 minutes but could have been 2 minutes) i got impatient and dropped $ 40 to get me and 3 friends to jump the line. Definitely a good move (at least i think it was a good move).
Skipped the $ 65 open bar option and I am glad i did. This tiny box of a room makes an open bar a poor choice cause you wait foreverrrrrrr for drinks and you can only get one at a time. Bottles weren’t too bad and i probably would have been better off just splitting an under $ 200 bottle 3 – 4 ways. But I was already obliterated and I cant think about these things when under the influence.
Everyone is pushy. There is no space. And drinks are expensive like many of these reviews say. I also noticed the options for their «top shelf liquor» are absolute crap. Things I have never even heard of before.
In my opinion the great city of New York has numerous spots in which one can indulge in the sweet alcoholics nectar that are far more superior than this place.

I am pretty sure that any positive reviews of this place are purely fictional. I went here with a groupon that was given to me so thankfully I didn’t waste any cash but definitely wasted time. The place reminded me of the basement of an apartment I lived in in college, which would have been okay if I was drunk enough to get nostalgic. but… alas, I was painfully aware of just how lame this place was. I stood in line for at least 20 minutes without even moving an inch closer to the teeny tiny bar.
Do yourself a favor and head up the street to Arctic or the Hairy Monk or if you really have a hankering for expensive cocktails get to the Boom Boom Room.

i am not active on Unilocal,but i feel compelled to write as this was, hands down, THE WORST bar experience i have had in new york.
DO NOT GO IF YOU HAVE THE GROUPON GIFT CERTIFICATE!
it feels like the kind of space they would reserve for a group on a reality tv show– as in, not an actual bar. there are NO cocktail servers. that’s right, you need to wait in a 30 minute, single file LINE at the bar for your $ 17 drinks.
the bartenders are slow and unapologetic. they even charged my card an extra $ 110, that I NEVER signed off on.
do yourself a favor and skip it all together, and head to inoteca next door instead.
i can’t believe polar hasn’t gone out of business yet!

Like Giselle, my friend bought the Livingsocial cocktail making class voucher, and we were hoping to at least find out what ingredients were in the delicious-​sounding cocktails. The main issue was that a dude who was CLEARLY not a bartender was making drinks — from other reviews I assume he is the manager — and could barely make our drinks, let alone teach anyone anything. The drinks were fine, but had we paid the regular price of $ 17/​each, we would probably have tried to steal something to make up the difference.
The best thing to come out of this experience was that I learned of the existence of Dragon Berry Bacardi. Never go here.

Polar has an interesting entrance because you’ll never guess that the club is located within the hotel. The club is tuned to the typical top 40 music with a trance spin. I bought three drinks for my friends, which the bill came out to be over $ 60. A small part of me almost died because I didn’t expect these measly filled drinks to cost $ 20 bucks each. Bartenders were snobby, and the crowd was really weird and mixed; I could have sworn I spotted my grandmother… just kidding, but there’s just a lot of really really old people who shouldn’t be clubbing.
I think this is a cool place to take out-​of-​towners (especially girls who will get in for free) to a trendy, pseudo socialite club.

You call that mixing and scratching? My 4 year old niece does it better on her Fisher Price DJ keyboard.
You’re welcome.

I’m going to take away a star because when we tried to come here again last saturday they wouldn’t let us in without getting a table. boo…

The atmosphere here is good, but the place is tiny. I would not go here unless you have one of the «caves» reserved in the back.
Drinks are a little overpriced, but hey. it’s nyc, I won’t deduct any points for that.
The part that really killed it for me was the DJ. Now, I can understand having a bad DJ on an off night. but this was a Saturday night. No excuse for that. I might as well gone up there and put iTunes on shuffle with top 40 music. The guy didnt know what he was doing, really killed the night for me.
There was also a «required» coat check… which I really dont care about, except when I go in to the place and half my group was let in with their coats. It’s not a big deal, I just dont like the feeling of being BSd.

Pros: The music was pretty good — only a few dud songs the few hours we were there. The bouncers were actually (gasp) nice! They were so nice I told them that they were nice and that meeting nice bouncers in NYC was really really unusual — I’d only had two drinks the whole night so I swear I wasn’t drunk-​talking. They were actually respectful, and gave you real answers if you asked things like how long the line would take. Made the wait (which was about 15 minutes when we got there at 11:30pm on Saturday night) so much more pleasant. MAJOR plus.
Cons: I paid $ 15 for a non-​top shelf weak gin and tonic. Not including tip. I know this is NYC, but that’s just ridiculous. It was insanely crowded and packed and HOT. It’s a small place and it was filled way over capacity. There were only two bathrooms, with constantly long lines.
I probably won’t be back, but I am a huge fan of those bouncers. A star for the music, and a star for them.

A small, intimate lounge located downstairs of the Gramecy Hotel. It was a decent place to have a birthday party as we all hung around our table.
The music was good. The crowd, however, wasn’t all that great. Like I said, we just kind of kept to ourselves.
There really wasn’t much of an arctic feel aside from the polar bear pictures hung around the place. The couches were cozy though. The «caves» looked like a nice area if you and your date wanted to be a little secluded from the rest of the place. The birthday boy had free drink tickets so we didn’t have to pay for our drinks so I can’t really comment on drink prices.
Other downers: ONE bathroom for the entire place. Really? I think I spent the majority of the night waiting on line. Chatted with a few people which helped pass time.
By the way, even if you have a table reservation (our group was 20 – 30 people), make sure you have a close to even ratio. Usually places specify that when you’re making the reservation, but we had no idea. The poor birthday boy spent a good half hour arguing with the doorman to let the rest of his friends in. Not our fault that the majority of their crowd was male.
Was it a fun night? Def (good music + friends. You can’t go wrong with that equation). Would I go back or recommend it to others? Ehh…

I love partying at this place!
Door guy and bartenders are very friendly. DJ is awesome. Red wine is excellent… What else can you expect from a lounge in NYC?
Well, the personality. This place is not named «Polar» because of a few photos of polar bears hanging around, but due to it’s among the very few rooms in NYC that are not over heated. How great! We do need to feel a bit cold in the winter. I don’t want to party in bikini in Dec.
The main dancing space is ok. But when I stepped into the side caves, I was chilled. I can feel «polar» with all senses. It feels a bit colder, like an inhabited basement, and the chic, modern, glassy furnishing and decoration give me the instant impression that this is such a clear and cool place to be.
I feel like I am helping the polar bears by going to places like polar lounge where are not using heating gas excessively. Never mind the a bit of cold, I heated myself up by dancing.

Lovely, modern space; manages to be edgy and intimate at the same time. Adore the metallic silver walls and white chaises with Kartell type drinkstands (just like my own apt). White fur pillows are eclectically strewn throughout. The space features a few smaller enclaves which would be good for parties of 3 – 5 and the main space boasts a fireplace, coat check, and good looking staff.
Cocktails were tasty and refreshing albeit stronger than they seem. The only downside would be the boring 2^nd Avenue location.
*Note: T-​mobile Reception is pretty non-​existent. You have to walk upstairs for it to work.

We were looking for a spot for «Valentine’s Day Cavernous Carousing» and only a cave at Polar would do. This spot just opened and has already got a nice mention from GrubStreet. I emailed the reservations addy and we were one of the first to squire a cave for a night.
There’s an unmarked door in the hotel that leads to the basement bar. The security guy knew me by name (how? I never found out, he said they’re just «prepared») even though we’ve never met and I never supplied a photo.
The caves are fun and flirty. Brick is painted silver, a deconstructed mirror hangs on the wall, a little chandelier drips from the ceiling, and the white leather couch is topped with a bajillion furry pillows. You can close the metal mesh curtain for some privacy wink wink nudge nudge.
Our waitress couldn’t be sweeter, even as we ordered round after round of Polar shots. In fact, they even brought us a round of them on the house. The blood orange purée made it so tame we thought «this is Jamba Juice, not alcoholic» but we were quite wrong, at least by the third set. Our favorite of the premium mixology cocktail list: «Endurance» made with rye, lemon and honey and the «Tundra» made with sake, cucumber and lychee.
If you’re peckish they serve small bites from ‘inoteca. Bar food but with the ‘inoteca slant, in other words, fancy pantsy.
There is a minimum spend in the cave if you’re not a «VIP.» But with drinks at $ 17 a pop and gratuity applied for a big group (we were 8), you’ll have no trouble meeting it. We did it in three hours at 150% of the minimum.
Coincidentally I was then invited to a Supper Club session at the Marcel Hotel this weekend. I can’t go, but it seems this little boutique Gramercy spot is on the rise.