Dorrian’s Red Hand
“Ok, this bar is on the Upper East Side and is connected with the PREPPY murder.”
“She still remembered the red and white checkered table cloths from the 80s. Upon entering she said, "God, do I love men in boat shoes."”
“If you don't know the dorrians dress code before hand or would wear a t-shirt out to bars on a weekend night you don't belong there in the first place.”
Dorrian’s Red Hand
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Good For Dancing: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Oh how I love Dorrians…
If you are a preppy kid who went to a good school and now live in NYC, you will probably come to Dorrians and probably run into people you know. It's almost a given. Come 1AM, there will be line out the door and around the corner. Zog sports teams frequent the bar during the day, but there is a dress code for the night crowd (button downs, etc.)
The staff are extremely friendly and many have been working there for 10+ years.
Food is shockingly delicious too. I've had:
– mozzarella sticks: crispy & delicious
– sliders: juicy & topped with bacon
– mushroom flatbread: mushrooms piled high and balsamic and mayo drizzle. Messy, but delicious!
There is a private room available to rent out in the back and a coat rack near the back of the main room. (Yes, as others have mentioned, if you hang up your Barbour or Burberry jacket, don't be surprised to see its not there when you come back in 4 hours. Be smart people)
Dorrians is the perfect spot for sports games, a quick bite, and a night out!
Came here late on a Saturday night with friends, probably around 130-2AM (only in New York…) and had a great time! Obviously not the classiest of establishments, but very fun for a bar in the middle of Upper East Side. I like how the back room, even though small, has different music than the front…it's always fun to vary it up!
Great place for dancing and drinking the night away with a group of friends, esp if you don't want to venture downtown. Can't comment on the food, though!
Fun. Really fun.
The UES, like the UWS, is not a monolith. Each 10 block area is its own entity.
A friend in real life lived in the city many years and met someone who has worked here a long time. I went after dance class at Ailey and Tuesday is karaoke. I half-entertained the notion of singing because the DJ is cool and has music I might consider singing (I've never sung karaoke but in drunk moments have fantasized about show-tunes or Joni Mitchell).
I live in a more geriatric part of the UES (60s). Up in the 80s it's a lot different. In the early 1990s when I lived on weekends from college in CT with a colleague of my father's in the Leighton House on 88th between 1st and 2nd (a gorgeous highrise where this corporate lawyer had a duplex from which we watched the NYC marathon one year), the area was not that developed.
Dorian's is in the area formerly known as Germantown. Now it's Yorkville, the way that the Lower East Side is now Nolita by the Sunshine (Landmark) Cinema off the 2nd subway stop for the F train. And you can find, if you work at it, a really cute one-bedroom (not a studio with a closet for a bed) for 2100 or so on York. That's kind of Siberia in the winter as it's a hike to the 86th subway but you can have a real place and if you save that much on rent, you can take more cabs. If I didn't have a place in the city and moved here, I'd do the upper 80s on York thing and just cab more.
The Starbucks close by is nice and I met a nice woman with a law degree who worked at NYU in administration. She told me that with the NYU parents buying around NYU as investments and flipping properties, even graduate educated employees at NYU can't even think about buying in the Village. So it's a much more fertile and social place than it was back when HMV was still in business. Of course anyone under 40 hardly remembers record stores with cassettes.
Around 9, it's more a late 30s crowd. It gets younger as the night progresses. I had no idea this was the "preppy murder" bar as I had no connection to the city in those years. But when I checked in on Yelp, a doctor friend in his late 60s in DC who grew up in the city and worked here for some time, commented on my check-in posted to FB.
The menu looked fine and I contemplated a French onion soup for 6 but didn't end up eating. It's a friendly crowd and heavy on smokers (outside by the messy 2nd Ave subway construction which has put a lot of businesses out of business, sadly). I still smoke but much less now that I started V2 (e-cig) but it is just so NICE to be in a place where people do not look askance (at best) and viciously (at worst) at someone smoking on a potty/smoke break on the street. In WLA (the nicer part of LA), if you light up, people assume you slaughter rescue kittens in your spare time. SB is no different.
Dorian's is close to Brandy's, the largely but not entirely gay piano bar, which I like though I prefer Marie's Crisis in the Village. Brandy's is fun but it's hit or miss as far as the guy/gal playing piano.
On a nice night, it's pleasant to walk down to the lower end of the UES or Midtown East.
A very fun night. But I would never sing as the people are mostly quite good. It struck me as solvent young professionals (40 the upper limit) who elected to be comfortable in life rather than pursuing their musical passions. Solvent is good. But if I'm going to break my karaoke cherry, it will not be in Manhattan where there are servers, bartenders, hostesses with more talent than many people who make it on TV in an era that prizes looks over talent.
Aside from my couch this is my favorite place to watch a Redskins game when I can't be there live. Good food. GREAT atmosphere and a quick bar staff. We had wings and chicken tenders. The wings were better than the tenders, but I wish I had read about the mozzeralla sticks first. They sound amazing.
HTTR!
Just grabbed a Caesar salad and chicken fingers here. Good vibe, good bar for Sunday's to drink (not bad cost-wise)… Very good/fun if you are a redskins fan. Nice divey bar on the upper east side.
Casual bar/ restaurant great for bar food and fun time late night.
I've been here a couple times- the first time a while back to grab a casual bite and have conversation with a friend who recommended this place. I had a burger and wasn't disappointed. Early eve it wasn't crowded and we were able to sit in the back at a table and catch up.
Last night we stopped in late night, passing it after another bar, and it was such a fun vibe. Memorial Day weekend so the crowd was not too heavy. The Windows toward the front almost fully open so that you are basically one with the outside and passers by on 2nd avenue. So close a couple times people passing stopped and said hello, introduced themselves – funny.
The fun upbeat oldies and 80's music was fantastic. So good that several people passing by at one point started dancing to "run around Sue…" At another point a guy at a nearby table was doing an entertaining dance for his group; I think he thought he was pro dancer after his Dorrian's juice of choice; very funny. I also wasn't feeling any pain and thought a cute dog on the nearby table was adorable — in my normal frame of mind I would have thought that was gross thinking of the people eating there the next day but in happy Dorrian state I wanted to hold the pup … Then was geared up to wrap up the night singing karaoke after the fun vibe here. Everyone seemed to be in their happy place here late night.
Recommend as a casual spot to go for bar food and late night happy vibes.
It is Dorrian's People!
You don't come for the food, though the burgers and fries are surprisingly good.
Yes, there will be a line on weekend nights.
You come because you're almost gauranteed to run into someone you know here. If you just read that and said, "No I won't", then you should definitely go drink in a better bar. I like the Penrose.
If a house party is breaking up, or after an event, it is a good/the default spot.
Dorrian's is a fun spot, I like that they have coat racks in the winter, though if you hang up a Barbour good luck finding yours among all the others at the end of the night.
For those who have seen "Metropolitan" one too many times, for those who can't think of a better place to go, for those who have some sort of reunion happening, come on down.
Frat…house…basement.