131 Chrystie Street, New York City

Time/Date visited: 10/23/2009 (Friday) @ 7:50 PM

Quick Peek Inside: Decent beer selection, average service, good music if a bit loud, hipster living room vibe if Norman Bates was a hipster.

My wife and I discovered Home Sweet Home on a rainy Friday night while heading to a birthday party on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. We had some time to kill before the party started and a sandwich board caught our eyes advertising a happy hour featuring $3 drafts, well drinks and mixed drinks. We were immediately sold.

Heading down the stairs into the bowels of this bar, Nine Inch Nails greeted us echoing through the hallway. We then entered the barroom, which was quite spacious: wide and deep enough for a long bar with stools, couches on the wall opposite the bar, and couches scattered around the wall in the space past the bar. A small DJ booth completed the scene.

The décor was like something out of the Addams Family meets Psycho. The room was adorned with taxidermy and illuminated by electric chandeliers overhead. The animals mounted in perpetuity around us included a lion’s head on the wall and a large hawk that hung above us as we sat at the bar.

The clientele was mostly hipster, with the odd partygirl group frontloading before going elsewhere on the Lower East Side.

After situating ourselves at the bar, I was pleased to see Old Speckled Hen available on draft.  I ordered one and my wife ordered a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.  The other beers on tap included Stella Artois, Blue Point Toasted Lager, Guinness and Magic Hat #9.

Service was initially good, but an attempt to order a second round proved futile.  The lone bartender seemed to be engrossed in conversation at the other end of the bar by other customers.  I noticed that we weren’t the only people at our end of the bar with empty glasses who looked frustrated.

After 10 minutes of trying to get her attention, we left.  Hard to say if this was a one-off occurrence with the service, as it was our first time at the place, but as the place was fairly busy, I really think the bartender should have been paying more attention to all of her customers instead of just the ones she was chatting with.

On the upside, there was a rep from a tequila company present who was buying rounds of shots for everyone in the bar.  I didn’t get the name of the tequila, but who am I to turn down a free shot?

Would I go back?  As they have Old Speckled Hen on tap, I wouldn’t say no.  But the service needs to be more attentive in order to keep me as a repeat customer.