Perpetually Underrated Alibi Named Second Best Dive Bar In New York City
Alibi was named merely the second best dive bar in New York City, further proving that the internet (thankfully, finally spelled with a lower case i) is full of lies and deceit.
Among those lies and deceit: Yelp thinks Alibi is in Park Slope. No, really.
Grub Street ranked the 50 best dive bars in New York City and Alibi, of 242 DeKalb Avenue just off Vanderbilt Avenue, finished second. Also of note, Hank’s Saloon, at 46 3rd Avenue on Atlantic Avenue, placed 19th. Both got short shrift.
We tried to reach out to Alibi for a comment, but like any good dive bar, their phone number isn’t in service.
“Most nights it seems there’s barely a patron who doesn’t come here religiously for Jeopardy viewings, Thursday-night pool tournaments, back-room Big Buck Hunter, or a five-beer nightcap with Tommy the bartender,” wrote Mary Jane Weedman.
Even if Grub Street got it wrong overall, they still implicitly acknowledged that the Fort Greene favorite is the best in Brooklyn. Billymark’s West in Manhattan finished first overall in the biggest screwjob since Shawn Michaels “beat” Bret Hart in Montreal.
Grub Street’s criteria were as follows:
Cheap beer matters, and hiring a decorator is basically a disqualifier (dive-bar décor just happens). A food menu shouldn’t really go beyond peanuts.
Alibi is armed with pool, Big Buck Hunter, a great jukebox, and cheap, stiff drinks that become an even bigger bargain during happy hour. What more could you ask for? It’s a place that caters to regulars, be they students at Pratt or neighborhood lifers or anything in between.
Hank’s Saloon took 19th, which is probably also too low. A dive bar par excellence, it doubles as a live music venue and it doesn’t have much competition as either. They’ll schedule up to four bands in a night, and they’re usually pretty good like the recent standout performance by Perp Walk.
Oh, remember what we said Alibi’s disconnected telephone service? Hank’s does it one better: they never had a line in the first place, as Park Slope Stoop’s intrepid Donny Levit discovered.
Alibi might have gotten underrated (by a little bit), but let’s be clear: we don’t need to shlep out to Bensonhurst because we’re already home to the best dive bar in Brooklyn.