Description
The "Bar and Books" angle is a strange one, engendering some kind of idea of "sophisticated" that usually manifests itself in $10 beers and $20 cigars, and a coordinate air of pretensionathe social-club library, the Trillings' study. Hudson Bar and Books (636 Hudson Street, 212-229-2642), however, does it right, offering no more than the appearance of class apropos to high literary-politico dispersions, and that's enough. A classically tiled floor, reading-lamp counterfeits on deep cherry-wood-paneled walls, a copper-topped bar tended by amiable well-dressed men and women, Funk and Wagnall's on the shelves, and a fake fire make a surprisingly ingratiating, intimate experience. Not cheap at $7 a beer, but (despite the available cigars) it's mostly a cigarette crowd, good peopleagood citizensawho haven't forgotten that a whiskey in one hand leaves the other hand free.
