The Spotted Owl Tavern

I love that we found a table on a Saturday night. It’s not too crowded and good music. They have a great deal of PBR and a shot for 6 bucks! No cover and chill place to catch up with friends. Definitely recommend visiting for a chill night out.
Fellow customers here are so nice. This guy asked to borrow our chair and he brought it back when he left. Who does that? People at spotted owl tavern are very polite.

After consuming our body weights in Japanese barbecue, my friends and I decided we clearly needed some beer.
So we wandered from the East village down to Alphabet City in search of a *cool time* (I feel so old), and after little success locating a table in other bars, found our way into Spotted Owl.
And the heaven’s rays shone down on that vacant high-​topped table. And beers magically appeared (sort of). And all was right with the world.
In all realness, Spotted Owl is a fun, unassuming bar with a solid beer selection and plenty of group seating.
It isn’t overly memorable; just your casual neighborhood watering hole with kind bartenders and NY-​priced pints.
For a chill bro-​esque Friday night, Spotted Owl did the trick!

If I could give this place no stars I would. After checking my bill online the 64 and change I agreed to turned into 69 and change. I think it’s awful for an establishment to give themselves a tip, especially when I already did that in person with cash. I was already not planning on coming back due to their over priced drinks and bartenders that choose to take shots and hang out, instead of help the patrons trying to close their tabs or order drinks. I wouldn’t come here. There are plenty of other bars on the area with great food, great service, and that use ethical business practices.

Shitty bartenders including the one chick that looks like a guy with tats! Drinks are over priced for all drinks if anyone wanted to pay Vegas prices$ 20 a drink might as well pay the extra for a trip to Vegas. Drinker beware!
Bartenders need to be trained on a more customer service standpoint after receiving a message on here regarding the bar, because they didn’t like what I said or didn’t understand. The only real reason this review is up here is because they literally didn’t know the prices to their own drinks and over charged… and on top of that was trying to close out another tab for 45 mins. and the bartender stated above got real rude.

I feel as if the art of the bartender has been lost to this current cocktail movement. It’s rare in NYC when you stumble into a bar these days and out of shear personality the bartender makes you forget that time exists. Kristen was on point. Not once did she neglect us by playing on her phone or gossiping with her co-​workers at the waitress station. (as I witness in so many places) A true old school style bartender. Upon sitting down myself and my friend received a handshake and an introduction from herself.(I can’t remember the last time a bartender introduced themselves with out me asking first) Immediately we felt @ home. The interaction was fantastic! There was several people at the bar already when we walked in and Kristen seemed to not only know them all but by name as well. (WOW) It was like hanging out in her living room. What a Pro! Not once did Myself or my friend have to ask for a drink while in the room. The second my drink got low there she was to get me another (not in a pushy way though) The best part though was that she didn’t just talk to select customers and ignore others. No, she made it a point to introduce us to her regulars and involve us in the fun of the environment. She had us all interacting together. I made several new friends that day because of her.(thank you Kristen again) In a day and age where most establishments have become overly concerned with the cocktail menu or the fancy light fixtures in the room Kristen reminds us what truly makes a bar great. THE BARTENDER.

Solid place. Low key. Excellent happy hour. Food is much better than your average pub grub.
Staff is always bad ass. Always.
Music is always good and varies with the barkeep working that night and not a one has bad taste.
Ranks a 0 on the doucehbaggery scale.
Find the hidden wallpaper…

This is my go-​to for week nights– friendly staff, busy but still chill enough where I can read my book if I want. Also a reliable late night place to get some good food. Happy to have this place just steps away from where I live!

This place was our refuge after the hostess at Fat Buddha across the street deemed our party of 15 too uncool to go inside (or maybe the place was already too crowded, whatevs). We came in to a well-​lit bar with plenty of space for our crowd to sit. The bartender was super nice (and so pretty!) and she even managed to spot good ol’ short me trying to place my order among the throng of tall people at the bar. The DJs that night were dope– they pretty much played the (hip-​hop) soundtrack of my life in the 90s.
Good prices and they have tvs so you can follow your teams.

Awesome Turkey Burger!!!
Great vibe! Will def be there again.
Great service. Awesome bartender, Kristen was great.

Nice low key place with great food! The bartender Kristen is amazing! Great happy hour. Did I mention the great food!

Interesting and kinda cool place. Good drink specials, but hard to keep up as they seem to change them too often, stinks to head there thinking there is a special only to have it gone from the week before. Great grilled cheese for cheap — and even comes with fries before 8pm. Had some great attentive bartenders and some totally clueless ones who can only memorize one drink at time. This type of service makes me just want to jump back there myself to make my drink. I hope they can be consistent with the specials from week to week and get the bartending down, good future for them if they get it together!

I have to admit that I preferred this place in its former iteration as Destination, but the remodel unequivocally made the place nicer. Replacing the jukebox with hit-​and-​miss DJs wasn’t phenomenal, but I still go here whenever possible because Kristen is the greatest bartender in NYC. The rest of the crew is also great, and there are warm vibes from everybody form Orlando at the door to Frankie behind the bar, but the stars of the show (as they always should be) are the bartenders. All are good, though none live up to Kristen, and both food and drink are top notch and very affordable, especially considering the neighborhood. There have been multiple nights where I’ve started at Desty (it will always be Desty in my heart), circled around the neighborhood for other places, and come back home because nobody does it like the Spotted Owl (Desty)

Amazing $ 5 bloody Mary’s!!! Great tacos and the most artisanal cheese fries I’ve ever had. The music is nice and chill, the bartender is perfectly attentive and it’s been an overall good time with a good friend.

This spot is going on my neighborhood rotation. The renovation was done tastefully. The staff was nice. And they have a solid drink/​food happy hour rotating special. Decent deals on cheap beers or you can up it to a cocktail. DJ on weekend was spot on as well.

«EVill Entropy»
This was the former space of Destination Bar which was a solid, low key, divey bar, which used to be par for the East Village. As I live in the neighborhood, I was afraid it was going to be replaced by an overpriced small plates style, $ 20 bourbon cocktail place. I am happy to report that’s not happening.
This place has gotten a sorely needed refresh: New paint, seating, more wood, and a thorough cleaning. They still have the 6 – 7 taps, and a fairly large spirits selection (maybe added a few) and the ubiquitous EV happy hour (wine/​domestic $ ⁴⁄₅ 4 – 7 pm).
I’m happy that the gentrifiers have been kept at bay for the mo…