The Riviera Cafe

Riviera Cafe
225 W 4th St
New York, NY 10014
Phone: (212) 929-3250

Category: Sports Bars
Neighborhood: West Village

This is a sports bar for Boston Sports fans, so why did I go? Because Mary was going and I didn’t want to stay home or go out alone. Also I am trying to learn everything I can about hockey and she is a good source of information. She only had two conditions, I couldn’t root for the Leafs, (Bruins were playing the Leafs) and I couldn’t tell anyone that my team of choice is the Sabres. Two reasons for the no Sabres condition, one is, they are not a Boston team. The other was in the most recent match up between Buffalo and Boston, not only had Buffalo won (first time since 2011) but also John Scott, one of the Buffalo players got in a fight with Shawn Thornton, who may be the most well-respected Boston Bruins player, and Thornton ended up with a concussion, John Scott is 6 inches taller and 53 pounds heavier than Thornton. The Leafs condition was easy, I have no love for Toronto, the other was doable, I thought. I made sure my clothes has no sports logos on them, I forgot about my jewelry though and had my Ravens dogtag on. Mary suggested I get there at 6:30 because it was Saturday and it was possible the bar would get crowded, and she told me I wanted to go to the “downstairs bar”.

If you are going there to watch sports, the downstairs bar is where you want to be. When I walked in there was a bar right in front of me, I told the host I was meeting someone at the bar, he said they had two, and then directed me to the downstairs bar. It wasn’t crowded yet, but a lot of the seats were taken, we managed to get the people next to us to move their stuff so I could sit at the bar. Halfway through the game I turned around and several people had pull up stools behind us to watch the game. At the end of the bar were some very loud basketball fans. Mary mentioned that this was a relatively low-key ‘Boston’ bar, not like another place that I started to hyper-ventilate in the one time I went there. Toward the end of the game I let it slip I was not a Boston fan, not to everyone, but the ones I told didn’t pummel me unmercifully. Our bartender was Darryl (he spelled his name for me when I told him I was going to write a review) and he noticed my Ravens necklace. When I tried to stuff it inside my shirt he asked, “Why are you hiding it?” Well cause it’s Ravens and they beat the Pats ….. “That was long ago.”

I can’t comment on the food since I got just drinks, every drink I got was $7 and they were top shelf alcohol, Honey Jack Daniels and diet Coke, and Fireball Whiskey shots for the goal and the win. I love Fireball Whiskey so that is one reason I will probably come back. I was annoyed with the basketball and the fans, but that is not the bars fault. Darryl was friendly and efficient, I ordered just diet Coke after my drink and every time my glass was empty he refilled it. When I told him I was waiting for the Bruins to score for my next drink and it was going to be a Fireball Whiskey shot, he put the glass in front of me to ‘Get ready’, and when they scored he ran over and poured the shot for me. Some of the reviews on Yelp said the drink selection was ‘small’, my thought is, no bar has room to stock every alcohol made, they had a decent selection, they had whiskey, rum, tequila, vodka, beer (several on tap) and wine. I thought the prices were reasonable, not too expensive, and a not oppressive atmosphere for a Yankee fan. Of course its not baseball season yet, I don’t see myself coming during a Red Sox game, even if Mary and Rose invite me, mainly because I don’t know if I could stop myself from cheering for the ‘other team’.

In conclusion, if you are a Boston Sports fan living in NYC and want to watch the game someplace where you can be with people of a similar disposition, if you don’t want to be around extremely rowdy fans, this is a good place to go. If I go back and eat food, I’ll let you know how that goes too.