A Martini and a Manicure?
Recently my best friend and I were planning a girls night out event in New York for a bunch of our nearest and dearest. My friend stumbled on Beauty Bar, a beauty salon cum bar on East 14th Street. We checked out the website and it looked like a lot of fun–complete with old chrome hair dryers and lots of silly girly-ness. And better yet, they had an offer for a martini and a manicure for $10.
A martini and a manicure for $10? No way!
At first blush, it sounded too good to be true. But I checked out reviews on City Search and New York Metro and found that it was not only true, but a lot of girly-girls had liked the place. We were so in. (To be fair, there were also a number of naysayers who said the place was a bore and that it wasn’t worth the trip . . . but we were already psyched to go so we pretended not to see those.)
When we got there - a short walk from Union Square - we all got carded (and when you are hitting mid- to late-20s like my friends and I, that’s a treat). Inside, it was smaller than I expected and a bit dingy. But sure enough, there was the manicurist and the bar was happily serving up drink after drink.
Personally, I didn’t get a manicure and I only sipped at my dry martini (nothing wrong with the martini, I just wasn’t feeling like drinking) but my friends exaulted the cosmos and loved their fun manicures. It was definitely a chick place - few guys beyond the bouncers and bartenders ventured in - but sometimes that’s nice.
Would we go again? Definitely. It was as silly and fun as we expected.
FYI - The drink and manicure for $10 special is available Tuesday through Saturday from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
231 E. 14th St., New York, NY 10003
b/w Second Ave. & Third Ave.
(212) 539 1389
