At the Fulton, the decor’s the thing, with flat-screen TVs hidden behind mirrors, fancy wallpaper and bottle service for football fans. The upscale menu includes yellowfin tuna taquitos (near right). (Alex Troesch)
Hailey Pollitzer serves up Champagne at the Ainsworth. (
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Stop by Bounce Sporting Club on any given Sunday and you’ll likely find a bunch of guys hanging out, eating duck confit sliders and ordering Grey Goose by the bottle. Look closer, past the DJ booth and the girls in heels, and you’ll see this is no night at the Roxbury — it’s football day, and the fans are there to watch. This is Sports Bar 2.0, a place where colorful cocktails and 10-spice, twice-fried Korean chicken have replaced cheap beer and 10-cent wings.
“You can’t survive just off sports,” says managing partner Yosi Benvenisti, 32, of the Chelsea spot, which opened in September. “You need a dining experience, and a nicer environment.”
Enter bathroom attendants, bottle service and a slew of popular DJs — Q-Tip, DJ4AM, DJ Calcutta — who attract the 20- and 30-something club crowd. They’re at Bounce on Fridays to dance on the tables and brown leather banquettes, and they’re there for Sunday football to, uh, dance on tables and banquettes.
For young professionals who no longer fit in at Down the Hatch, the new hybrid sports bar provides a posher place to perch — as well as an occasional celebrity sighting.
“You won’t find the football fans who paint their faces here,” says Sharon Estelle, 38, who was recently sipping Belvedere martinis at SNAP in the West Village with her pal Elena Russo, 35. They were admiring athletes on the 72-inch TV while their husbands were at the bar, rooting for the Ravens.
The entrance to SNAP is marked by baseball bat door handles. Inside, banquettes are covered in football leather (with stitching!), a 1960s Soldier Field crowd looks down from the ceiling and $14 cocktails are named for defunct NY teams.
“Apartments are small. Football Sundays force people to go out, which doesn’t have to mean a beer-drenched frat environment,” says SNAP co-owner Jordan Harris, 30, who opened the lounge in 2010 with his Cornell roommate Justin McManus, the 29-year-old great-grandson of Peter, whose eponymous bar has served Chelsea since 1936.
Other luxe sports spots seem inspired by daytime brunch parties, where triple-digit bottles are topped with sparklers and served with great fanfare. At the wildly popular Ainsworth in Chelsea, you won’t find cheap draft specials and beer pong, but you will find table minimums — $500 for 10 people, $250 for six.
The Ainsworth, which opened in 2009, has proven so popular, owner Matthew Shendell, 37, has replicated the formula in the Financial District with the opening of the Fulton last month. Its swanky setting boasts 34 TVs, which disappear behind mirrors when there’s no game on.
“Daytime stuff has become big,” says Shendell.
And there’s no more widely acceptable, time-honored excuse for daytime partying than sports.
On Sundays at the Ainsworth, it’s a nonstop halftime show under the chandeliers — when game sound is replaced by a thumping DJ.
An absence of game sound is a hallmark of the new breed of sports bar — and a boon to many patrons, about half of whom are women (with or without dates).
That’s part of the appeal for Kirsten Bohme, 27, a marketing coordinator for Diane von Furstenberg who recently sipped on a Red Bull and vodka at the Fulton. Though she doesn’t exactly dislike football, she admits she’s more into “the good vibe and the great music.”
Over at Pour George, which opened in July in Greenwich Village, you will find game sound — but you won’t find a boisterous, testosterone-fueled crowd.
“Sometimes sports bars are so noisy and full of boys,” observes Andrea Schloeder, 41, who was recently enjoying a glass of shiraz and a roasted beet salad with pistachio purée and goat cheese.
“There’s great atmosphere here,” adds the regular at the comfortable room complete, which features eight TVs and a fireplace. “It’s all about the sport — but there’s also good food and drink.”
Gourmet nibbles and fine wines are certainly part of the draw. At SNAP, you’ll find adult offerings such as chicken liver pâté crostini with cognac honey.
“We thought of doing a wings place, but there was no good, classy sports bar option in a pretty wealthy neighborhood where people come to spend money,” says SNAP’s Harris.
Asked why she and her husband decided to skip the local bar for NFL Sunday brunch at Pour George, Anna Bounds, 39, puts it this way: “It’s different from a traditional sports bar — you know, dark, dirty, all guys. That matters to me.”
HAUTE HANGOUTS
Bounce Sporting Club
55 W. 21st St.; 212-675-8007
Looking to score? Sip the Trophy Wife (Belvedere Pink Grapefruit, Domaine de Canton, lemon, Champagne; $14), then have your sugar daddy spring for truffle mac and cheese ($21).
Pour George
35 W. Eighth St.; 212-253-2999
Skip the Jaeger. Today’s hungry man opts for a Smokey Scotsman (10-year Macallan, lemon, fresh sage; $13) and an $11 endive-frisee salad topped with poached duck egg and crispy prosciutto.
SNAP Sports Bar
248 W. 14th St.; 646-350-0539
Enjoy a $28 flight of Johnny Walker (1 ounce each of Red, Black and Blue labels) paired with a truffle-and-shiitake-mushroom grilled cheese ($12).
The Ainsworth
122 W. 26th St.; 212-741-0645
Toast game day by securing a table with a bottle of D.P. ($425) and some tuna tartare tacos ($16), dahling.
The Fulton
121 Fulton St.; 646-545-6647
Refuel during halftime with $17 lobster sliders and the Battery cocktail (pear vodka, St. Germaine, lychee and passion fruit puree; $15).