A Page Six-Worthy Hangout Minus the Attitude and Catfights

The Bush twins were here over the weekend. John Edwards’s daughter too. Totally coincidental,” says Anthony Martignetti, the 25-year-old co-owner of Martignetti Liquors. But there were no dance-offs or catfights or any other Page Six-worthy behavior. “They were hanging out,” he reports. “It was definitely friendly.” The scene seems consistent with Martignetti’s plan to create a rock ‘n’ roll “dive nightclub,” more Lower East Side than meatpacking, a place where his friends and their friends and their friends could hang out all night. The bi-level space manages to be cozy, seedy, and sophisticated all at once, thanks to dim lighting, loungey red banquettes, and gorgeous design details, like the splashy, almost-tiki floral-print fabric covering the main floor’s walls. Bud and Miller High Life bottles cost $5 and mixed drinks start at $6, but more decadent drunks might go all out and get “white trash bottle service,” a case of beer packed in ice priced at $120, or a bottle of top-shelf liquor for $200 (“the cheapest bottle in town,” Martignetti claims). Another special feature: a $15 shot of absinthe, 110 proof, imported from Switzerland. As they always say, absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.

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