Rififi / Cinema Classics

I’ve been here a few times, for comedy, for burlesque, for «Trash» dance night… I’ve always had a great time. It is small in the front bar area and can get fairly crowded. The line for the women’s bathroom can get mondo long. If you’re drunk and dancing, you’ll have a blast. My friends knew the bartender pretty well, otherwise I’m not sure how long it would have taken to get drinks all night. I’m anxious to go back and try a couple of other «theme» nights.

If there’s anything better than 200 hipsters singing along to «Common People», it’s 200 hipsters singing along to «Sugar Pie Honey Bunch».
Yes, the Trash parties were insanely fun (provided you were drunk enough not to mind the crowd), and I’m really sad to read here that they’re gone (is this for sure? It’s still up on their website). But mark your calendars – the 3^rd Saturday of each month is the Subway Soul party!
The crowd at Subway Soul is actually not SO hipster-​filled. I’d say that on the hipster scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being Tavern on the Green and 10 being Don Hill’s, SS falls in at about a 6. The people are a little geekier than your average hipster, which makes me feel right at home because I used to be on the math team. Also, you’ll always see at least a few people who were actually ALIVE when this music came out! How cute are old people at an East Village dance club???
The music is obviously amazing, though the DJs don’t always do the best job of picking the absolute most dance-​able songs. Still, though, it’s great to have a place to dance that’s free and fun and where you can hear music you won’t hear anywhere else. Hooray for Rififi!

david bowie to davie bowie, can you hear me?
my buddy and i descended upon rififi for their saturday night ambigusexual night, ‘glamdammit’.
people were dancing — good.
kids were drunk — good.
girls were loud — expected.
freaks were in attendance (beardy the pirate & the pocket gay) — excellent.
bowie tunes and bowie visuals — superb.
everything was brilliant until the photographers descended and the vibe instantly changed from respectable, flirty danceclub to «OMG WILL YOU BE IN MY TOP 8 ZOMBIE APP I LULZ LOVZ U!!!1» retarded emo boys and girls posing for club photos.

I’m not sure what the vibe in Rififi is the rest of the month, but the Glamdammit party was excellent.
Upon walking in there is a bar to your left, and further down the space there is a moderately sized space for dancing with a small stage and a screen – which in this case was projecting David Bowie videos from the Best of Bowie DVD (which I love but have neglected to buy due to the advent of Youtube).
The crowd there were surprisingly sweet and shy, leading me to believe that these were in fact INDIE kids, whom are the more docile and intelligent offshoot of the HIPSTER kids that have become very fashionable at this time.
There was a small cover but an open bar when we arrived which was great. The door boy, bartender boy, and coat check boy were all very friendly – and I could tell they were enjoying themselves which is always a plus…
But my bud Eric B. below is right, at one point there were so many photographers in the small dancing space that it seemed like we were stuck in an episode of CSI Crime Scene Investigation (word!).
I will return here!

Rififi was THE place to be in 2003 and 2004. When I went back to grad school most of my partying went by the wayside but I went out every now and then. Friday nights were awesome but I think since I’m older everyone seems so much younger. They had (or have, who knows) burlesque shows every Sunday night which was awesome. I’ve got great memories from Rififi and might go back to visit when I come back home.

Rififi is a space of many faces. Trash on Friday nights has a totally different vibe than Invite Them Up on Wednesdays. I like the comedy there, Eugene Mirman’s $ 5 Wednesday nights are hard to beat for price and he’s funny! This rating is based on Wednesdays. I’d go lower, probably 2.6 stars for Friday night.

Last time I went to Rififi I was knee deep in (under age) vanity obsessed trashy hipsters.
«I’m going to make out with another girl with my shirt exposing one of my mosquito bite sized boobs in hopes to get my photograph on the internet. I will use it to advertise myself on any and every social network that I’m a party girl/​boy (maybe some boys that like boys will think I’m a boy because of my boyish hair cut and appearance) and I am down for being completely sloppy in public!» — hipster trash
The few times I’ve been there the music was rockin’ if you’re into the music they play (indie rock/​pop, 80s, etc) but the vibe sucked.

havent been here since the cops busted them this past winter (i think that was in January?). we tried to go there maybe a month or so ago… but now they have a cover at the door. blech to that! i think it’s free before 11pm. sometimes they have some cool music (the nights trash! DJs).the guy at the door that checks IDs always looks like he is gonna kill himself.
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UPDATE:
this place totally sucks now! i was just there this weekend… and left after 1 drink. most certainly not as cool as it once was (before they remodeled it). it used to rock… but now it is SUPER TINY and the whole vibe there has changed. they also got rid of a lot of their seating there. no longer cool. i dont think i’ll be back there anytime soon. which is a shame… because i loved going there (previously gave it 4 stars… but had to knock it down to 2).

I love this place! I went here on a Friday night to watch an early comedy show with John Oliver from the Daily Show with John Stewart. I got to meet him and get a picture, which was awesome. The 5^th star is because there was a surprise performance by Demetri Martin!!! Small place, so I was able to talk to the comedians afterwards. Drinks are priced well and this place isn’t marked… so you’d definitely have to be invited to know about it. I had a GREAT time here and I wish I lived closer to it so that I can go every Friday night! Oh, and apparently David Arquette was the D. J for the party after the comedy show (I left… so I’m not sure if this is true… but that was the rumor).

We got there before 11pm on a Friday, so there was thankfully no cover. A friend who I went with joined us at 11.10 had to pay $ 5 to get in — something he didn’t know they implemented. So, that kinda sucked.
Drinks were a little expensive, but since I am a cheap drunk, all it took was $ 7, a little Chambord+7Up and I was pretty happy! Dance party with lots of interesting and crazy people until it got too crowded at 2am — when stupid biatches start elbowing or smacking their purses around as they dance — and then I just had to leave. I’d do TRASH again. but next time, I’d have to get my friends pre-​gamed into a controlled drunkenness before we head in because a decent sized cup of vodka-​tonic cost her $ 16 (!!!).
Get in semi-​drunk before 11 and I’d say you could buy yourself a night of good times for under $ 20 (beers are $ 5).

Jesus, this place sucks. You pay $ 5 for an eyedropper full of bottom-​shelf liquor that they serve to you in a Dixie cup. The crowd is made up of people who really really want to be hip and want to go to places where people can be free to attempt to be hip without being laughed at.
You’ll have more fun at a Holiday Inn bar for fuck’s sakes.
That said, I did instantly laugh at every skull tattoo I saw on each of the scrawny guys. You can imagine them crying while they got them…

I went to Trash Friday night a very long time ago, probably sometime in 2005. I went for the music and it was good. The crowd, however, was pretty young and the place smelled, well, kind of like BO. I didn’t go back, until over the holidays, when I saw a listing for it on
. This time, it was frat rat central, there was no open bar (guess I should ding
for that one), and 2 of my friends couldn’t get in because they were filled to capacity. at like 12. The music is the only saving grace but even then, I’d rather go somewhere else.

Been here a couple times had fun…
i prefer the TRASH party on fridays over GLAMDAMMIT on saturdays.
good crowd… drinks are totally outrageous…
i DIG it

Two stars, that’s it. I would have gone for one, but then again, the music still really is awesome. the problem? Well, please scroll down to Anna H’s review (hey, I was there, and the near injuries we nearly suffered would have been more than problematic).
It’s so damned crowded now, and the worst part is who it’s crowded with — serious bridge and tunnel children who do that loud-​talking to show-​off who they are. Oh yeah, and they also get nastily debaucherous (but then again, I’m pretty anti-​PDA generally).
Sigh, oh the days when Rififi was a classic night of hard-​core dancing. Yeah, they’re no more — so don’t get confused by the mixed reviews; this place has lost its charm.

A few months ago, Rififi would have gotten five stars from me. When I first stumbled in here on a Friday night, I was ecstatic over the 80’s new wave music and the dive-​y, unpretentious atmosphere of the place. At last, I had found my dancing mecca!
Unfortunately, after a few more Friday night visits, the rosy blush of new love quickly wore off, and I realized that this place kinda sucks. It sells overpriced drinks in tiny Dixie-​sized plastic cups that are mostly filled with ice, and even worse, it just keeps on getting more crowded every time I go. Friday night is about DANCING, s

Fun and with a more local, down to earth feeling than Don Hills (don’t get me wrong, I love the Don Hill’s 80s night. But I tried to go over the summer and it wasn’t happening — the place was EMPTY! What the hell?).
Friday at Rififi is a great 80s dance party but laid back, too. One complaint: the movie screen is cool and I love that they screened Blondie performances during a recent friday night, but it kind of makes the back room a little too well-​lit for the proper dance atmosphere. Of course, a couple of drinks will fix your inhibitions and make you forget all about that…

I give this establishment four stars, because that’s usually the number of stars circling around my head after I pass out on the stoop next to Rififi on Friday nights.
Great place to go on Friday if you don’t want to talk to anyone and just want to dance. The rest of the week, ask about the various shows, movies, performances and such.

On a Wednesday night, I watched a video of a barmitzvah here. That wasn’t my sole intention of the night. I came to see comedy in the small back room of Rififi (only $ 5!). But this was not an ordinary night of comedy.
Comedians come here to try out new stuff on Wednesdays, apparently. You might find a novice up there, or a seasoned vet (there was a woman that had an HBO special there performing), but they are all taking chances with their acts. My favorite part of the evening was the aforementioned barmitzvah video — shown as part of Seth Herzog’s three stories of the worst times he bombed onstage. Here I was, in the middle of the week, drinking draft beer and watching a 80’s home video of a pubescent singing showtunes to prove his manhood.
I’m Irish Catholic, but inspired by the events of that night, I’m gonna say that Rififi did a mitzvah themselves. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. This shagitz was full of the glick.

Trash on friday nites is awesome. 80s, punk, & indie rock come together to make an awesome dance night with 80s videos and other weird stuff being projected on the back wall and drunkards dancing. drink prices are reasonable (there are always some specials)
It gets really crowded here after 12. but up until then it seems like its dead. dont leave if ya get there before 12 and there’s nobody there! It gets REALLY packed though
little tip: the bathroom line will seem long, but just go to the 2^nd bathroom at the very back. nobody’s ever waiting on that one. but if you see me you have to let me go before you since i just told you here

I give this place 5 stars for it’s Wednesday night comedy show. Hosted by Eugene Mirman and Bobby Tisdale, you can’t go wrong for $ 5. You get a number of good comics trying out new bits, some are writers for Conan, others you’ve seen in movies.
It’s intimate and always a lot of fun; very creative.
The bar itself is fun to hang out pre/​post show. I haven’t been there on a weekend night, but I bet it pulls in a pretty chill crowd.