• Pianos

  158 Ludlow Street, 212-505-3733

  Partyers looking for a night out on the cheap surely constitute a booming demographic. And the owners of Pianos must have foreseen this when they opened their starkly minimalist bar in a former piano shop last fall. Their wallet-friendly approach (no cover on most nights, $10 on weekends; $6 will get you a Stoli vanilla and Coke) has made Pianos wildly successful this year while other nightspots—Estate and Powder among them—have flamed out. This is not to say that Pianos skimps on talent: great garage rock bands as well as D.J.’s like FC Kahuna, Legowelt, and DJ Hell (all of whom cost big bucks to hear elsewhere) can be spotted on the decks at Pianos, pumping out blissful beats to heal our bear-market blues.

From the 2003 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine