It's a blustery Saturday night in December and there's only one thing on my mind. Ok, maybe more than one thing, but my most pressing concern happens to be finding a hot slice of pizza. Pepperoni with black olive, to be precise. Nothing better than that. I'm in luck because I'm at Cabin Down Below, the "secret" basement bar beneath the pizzeria that has become such a popular destination for the black clad army that is the under 30 demographic of the LES. As I begin to ascend the golden stairs to pizza heaven, a hand the size of a catcher's mitt grabs my arm.
"Can't go up there, man."
"Oh, I'm just going to grab a slice real quick."
"Pizza Shop is closed."
"The Pizza Shop is WHAT?"
And so I sulk/stumble back downstairs to drown my sorrows.
Of course, this tragic story could have been avoided if I'd remembered Joonbug's last post about Cabin and its pizza slinging counterpart, but what can you do? Sometimes the urge for pizza overwhelms sense.
Anyway, there's a new tenant (popular opinion says Jesse Malin of Niagara and Bowery Electric is behind the conversion) upstairs and they're replacing the mozzarella/sauce/bread combinations of the previous tenant with burgers, oysters, alcohol, and plenty of plush booths and exposed brick. Dive bar? No. Scruffy enough to not be boring? Yes. I'd love to tell you the name of this place, but that's a little tricky since it doesn't actually have one yet. For now, feel free to either make up a name you like or just call it "that bar above the secret bar" like everyone else is doing. Now you know.
