Hello and welcome to the snazzier side of the East Village. Surrounded by tons of bars that seem to crave anonymity behind their shabby exteriors and lack of signage lies Drinkland–a place that wants to be cool but can’t help being just a bit too mainstream and popular for its own good. Being mainstream on Avenue B is almost as bad as being caught without your khakis on East 77th Street–or so the locals would have you think. Somehow Drinkland manages to rise above its locale and maintain a modicum of class in an otherwise downtrodden landscape. That translates to showered and primped people coming from other neighborhoods to enjoy an evening of loud house music in a decent atmosphere. Get here before 10 PM and sit in one of the funky rooms, or grab a table in the main space, as the floor gets pretty crowded with dudes later on in the night. Oh, if you’re allergic to smoke or white vinyl, have a bad case of tinnitus, or have a tendency to get dizzy at the site of giant spirals on the ceiling, you may want to stay away. [MF]
339 E 10th St.
212/228-2435
