NYC - Intellectual hang-out needed

Cafe Society
#1

I recently joined the Brights and a bunch of us are having an extra meet-up next Monday. At our first meeting we made two very important decisions: 1) We hate the name Brights as it sound presumptuous (I personally favor calling us Devangelicals) and 2) we need a better bar. We need a place that’s not too expensive, has a table that can seat 8 where we can sit and figure out how to change the world. That means it can’t be too noisy. It probably ought to be somewhere below 14th and north of Houston.

My original impusle was Cafe Loup but the drinker’s tables are small and circular and therefore not condusive towards 8 men putting their heads together.

Any suggestions will be sincerely appreciated.

#2

There’s an Arby’s on Sixth Ave. between Minetta and 4th. Sounds about right for a group calling themselves “the Brights.”

#3

My apologies. I just Googled the “Brights.” I thought you had made it up yourselves.

#4

I, too, wish they’d come up with a less-obnoxious name. But the big plan is all good. http://www.the-brights.net/

Please, please change the name.

Oh, and I’m in Chicago so I can’t help you with a meeting place.

#5

Um, what about Central Park West, for the Society for Ethical Culture? They’ve got a great building, too…

#6

Well if Danny Dennett is down with it then it can’t be all bad but you need to edgy-up your name a bit because as it stands you sound like an opening act for The Wiggles. I suggest going underground ala the Illuminati or at least finding a nemesis group - perhaps “The Other Siders.” Every Blood needs a Crip. And if you do find any groups with similar goals, for god’s sake don’t call them sister societies; call them splinter cells. For extra intrigue, sign up for the secret room in “21.”

#7

Actually, the bar’s the key issue here, folks. Since we already agree that the name “the Brights” sucks, I think we need no longer belabor the point.

Anybody here know the East or West Village, hm?

#8

Please forgive me for exercising the cheap device of putting in a needless entry to keep this dying quail of a subject floating near the top of the list. I just wanted to give it one more chance to produce something useful before consigning it to the ash heap of dud threads — a category for which I have been an important contributor.

Your kind indulgence is appreciated in a profoundly cynical manner.

#9

Are you making fun of us? You think you’re BETTER than us?
:wink:
An intellectual hang-out in NYC? Is there such a thing? :rolleyes: How about the Algonquin–is it still there? It used to have a good rep for such get-togethers.

(signed)

Another unhelpful Chicagoan

#10

Perhaps I’m not being clear enough even for this generally perceptive crowd. I do not seek a bar that is already established as an intellectual hang-out necessarilly but one that can, so to speak, be colonized on an every-other-Monday basis.

Tonight I shall explore the Village myself. It’s been years since I fancied myself a young bohemian in search of intellectual excitement and the occasional experience out of an Anias Nin tale. My memory of the territory has grown murky. Besides, the place has changed. For one thing, the people formerly known as sodomites seem to have all moved to Chelsea, though I suppose the Three Lives bookstore is still operating.

This really ought to be my last attempt to try and milk something useful from this thread.

And by the way, dropzone, for your information we do think we’re better than you. We’re just polite enough to try and hide it but simply too lazy to sustain the effort. :wink:

#11

Unfortunately, The Portentous Pub went out of business a few years ago, so the best I can come up with Blaggard’s on West 35th. It’s close enough in name to braggarts, that it shouldn’t make much of a difference.

Either that, or you can wait for one of Sherman Billingsley’s heirs to re-open in NYC. If you’re lucky, they’ll name it the Dork Club.

#12

We’ll make you president.

#13

Wait, you’re looking for a bar in the Village that will seat a table of eight on a Monday night. You can’t swing a cat in the Village without hitting two or three bars meeting your criteria.

My preference leans toward dive type bars, cause you can’t write the meaning of life on a cocktail napkin in a place that has a little leather-bound booklet listing the apple-tini drinks they sell. Possibilities (from east to west) include Nice Guy Eddies on First and First, Grassroots on St. Marks Place, Kettle of Fish off Seventh Ave near the Christopher Street IRT station, White Horse tavern on Hudson St.