Comments (0) Best After-Theater Hangout - 2012
Bar Centrale
You have to be a real theater-world insider to find or even know about Bar Centrale, the most alluring place in town to compare Playbills and talk turkey (as in Broadway flops—you know, Pirate Queen. Bonnie and Clyde. The last Tony awards). You go to the building next to Joe Allen's and head up the imposing steps, right up to a door that isn't even marked. Once you open it, don't think you can just waltz in and grab a table, even if you're a major personage like we all think we are. The place happens to be small and speakeasy-ish, so a reservation is highly recommended, because the seating books up, especially at the peak hours after showtime (though if they have to dis you, they're nice about it; they might even help you get a table next door). Once seated at Bar Centrale, you've got a captive audience of theater folks, whether it be Hugh Dancy hanging with playwright David Ives or a table mashing up critics like Charles Isherwood and Charles McNulty. The food is pretty basic and smallish, but the room's atmosphere is what you feast on, feeling as if you've seen a whole other show. 324 West 46th Street, 212-581-3130, barcentralenyc.com (10036)
