From the sidewalk on Downing Avenue, you’d by no means know a full-on social gathering was occurring inside a small venue within the southernmost nook of the West Village. Tinted home windows and drawn curtains stop any suggestion of the fête from flowing out the home windows. However prop open the door of the brand new bar Birds, and also you’ll immediately be immersed in an environment of vibrant reside music and top-notch cocktails.
The bar and music venue is the brainchild of Naama and Assaf Tamir, the brother-sister duo behind Lighthouse BK and Messy, and famend bartender Steve Schneider (Sip & Guzzle, Workers Solely Singapore). Birds is an intimate, listening room-style bar that hosts reside music 5 nights per week whereas serving traditional cocktails and a menu of sunshine, seasonal dishes.
After I walked into Birds one night throughout the first week it opened, the dwelling room-like house was abuzz earlier than the band even began taking part in. Past deep blue velvet curtains that stop the sound from pushing previous the entrance door, the 1,200-square-foot venue is cut up between small two- and four-top tables and a wealthy cherry wooden bar that may seat a couple of dozen folks with trendy, mirrored pendant lights hanging overhead.
Behind the bar, bartenders combine and shake drinks as a bunch mans the turntable. A formidable vinyl assortment retains the tunes going earlier than and after the band takes the stage. Inside minutes, a four-piece band begins to assemble on a barely elevated stage towards the again of the room, with one musician taking a seat behind the ‘70s-era Fender Rhodes keyboard, whereas others place themselves behind the drums, plug in a guitar and prop up a standing bass.
It’s immediately clear what Naama Tamir meant when she informed me the homeowners’ purpose was to “give musicians a house.” Every performer checked out ease, and their music invited friends into their world from the primary observe.
“Musicians deliver such a particular component to the room. They are surely such an enormous a part of the room, however venues don’t all the time see it that means,” Naama tells Observer. “They’re not all the time handled very properly in a variety of these locations, so we needed to create an area that targeted on the musicians and actually celebrated them.”
The staff introduced in sound engineers to craft what they see as “essentially the most optimum listening expertise.” That meant pondering via each tiny element and including particular touches, like putting in 1.5-inch acoustic panels between the drywall and customized felt lining the partitions to melt the room’s echo and quiet any noise which may distract from the music.
My good friend and I sat at a small banquette beside the band. We had been so shut that we may attain out and contact the bass participant. (We didn’t.) As a substitute, we watched our elbows to make sure we didn’t trigger the musicians to strike an sudden chord. Regardless of our proximity, the sound was nonetheless managed sufficient that we may chat and gossip, even because the band was jamming inches from us.
The venue’s musical lineup is organized by common supervisor Jack Smith, a musician and hospitality skilled with 15 years of expertise in each fields. Twice-nightly units will kick off at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., that includes everybody from three-piece native bands to rising jazz expertise. The schedule will span funk, blues and different genres, as a substitute of sticking with simply jazz, as many New York Metropolis haunts are identified to do. Later this month, Grammy-winner Samara Pleasure will take the stage, offering a uncommon probability to see a generational expertise in such an intimate house.
The staff sees the foods and drinks because the cherry on prime of this music-driven institution. The menu consists of snacks like steak tartare or a seasonal salad alongside uncooked bar classics like shrimp cocktail and oysters. The fluke tartare we tried was balanced and refreshing, and I appreciated the laid-back addition of potato chips to scoop it up with.
Schneider opted to maintain the drinks menu easy, with 20 traditional cocktails like whiskey sours, Negronis and cosmopolitans. Martinis and Manhattans can be found for simply $10 as a part of the pre-music, early chook particular day-after-day from 5 to six p.m., a deal that can undoubtedly draw me again for an additional crisp gin martini with a zesty twist. The one technique to customise the drinks is with the spirit; friends can go for the properly (home liquor) for $16, a name (mid-tier) for $20 or a premium bottle for $23. The wine choices comply with this ethos, with white wine pours labeled “huge” or “crisp” and purple wine following go well with with “huge” or “chilled” varieties.
In fact, the meals and drinks are merely a aspect character at Birds, the place each inch of the house has been designed to create the last word listening expertise. What’s in your glass and in your plate is probably not the rationale you got here via the door. However you possibly can belief each element is dialed in.
“I simply needed to create one thing easy and straightforward to grasp,” Schneider tells Observer. “I feel that’s the proper garnish for this place. Traditional and fashionable drinks to let the music shine.”
Birds is now open Wednesday via Sunday from 5 p.m. to midnight, and to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
