Archie Bunker would feel at home in this place. Upon arrival I was greeted with menacing stares from the«regulars». They tend to cluster at the end of the bar waiting for someone to walk in to leer at. After you find a seat they continue to stare, as if trying to figure out if you’re a college kid, new local or cop. The bar itself is small and set up in such a way that you are forced to sit with you’re back to these«regulars». This only adds to the general discomfort of the place. Nothing much to do but get wasted, so, I did just that. The night started to get interesting around 11 when some females actually entered. To my relief the regulars then set there attention on them. More and more people arrived. They all appeared to be from Sarah Lawrence College. The guys looked like girls and the girls like guys. The regulars appeared oblivious to the fact that these females wanted nothing to do with them. Watching a guy with a thick Irish accent buy drinks for an obvious lesbian who couldn’t understand a word he said made the visit worth my while. The place turned into an absolute freak show. Irish construction workers and trans-gender college kids dancing the night away. I left around 1 with the bizarro party in full swing. Other remarks: The bartender was an irish guy named Joe. He seemed okay at first but, was very nosey. He continued prying for personal info, and I just didn’t trust him for some reason. Then again he may have been happy to see a new face, however, I would have preferred to be left alone.
Louis L.
Place rating: 2 Yonkers, NY
I go there from time to time because it’s so close to where I live, but my impression is that it doesn’t have a particularly friendly atmosphere. Both the staff and patrons(mostly longtime local dregs) frequently disregard the county smoking ban after 9:00PM, and I don’t particularly care for that especially since their ventilation system either isn’t very good or isn’t kept turned on. It’s otherwise a clean place with a nice façade and some interesting interior décor, but underneath it’s strictly a beer-and-whiskey and Red Bull concoction type joint where the bartenders don’t have a clue about how to mix drinks and some will give you an attitude if you ask for anything more complicated.
Dian L.
Place rating: 3 New York, NY
Since the Spinning Wheel disgraced the Sarah Lawrence community and became the Palmer Lounge, The Malt House has been the students’ bar of choice to get wasted in on Thursday nights. It is Irish owned and features an assortment of creepy Irish regulars that like to hit on unsuspecting Sarah Lawrence girls(my favorite pick up line is when some guy told my lesbian friend«But, I have a vagina»). This can get overwhelming on a night when there aren’t a lot of students around. For a student, it can be a place to get congenially soused, talk, and play darts or pool with their friends on a packed Thursday night or they can feel like they are surrounded by random acquaintances they know in various ways that don’t always mix, standing around and hardly able to make small talk because of the loud music. In other words, I find it extremely awkward unless I’m drunk and then ambiance no longer matters. Other remarks: Joe the bartender is well known and I am unsure whether he is a nice barroom psychologist or a manipulative bastard. The bar has begun to ID so there are mostly upperclassmen. The drink of choice is the Bailey’s Irish Car Bomb.
