Some restaurants are like a port in a storm, the sanctuary that you’re seeking in the midst of a blizzard. The snow is falling and the wind is blowing and you can hardly see across the intersection – but there’s an illuminated sign up ahead and people out in front smoking. It’s the one place that’s still open in this weather and it’s the Half King Bar and Restaurant.
Of course, you might have known, given that the Half King is owned by Sebastian Junger, author of the best-selling book, The Perfect Storm. It makes perfect sense that this Chelsea anchor at the corner of 23rd Street and Tenth Avenue would be open to serve those salty dogs and snow-shoed denizens of Gotham, regardless of what the Mayor recommends.
For the past ten years, the Half King has been a fixture of its neighborhood, so well-loved by Chelsea locals that a Chelsea Piers soccer team is named for a Half King bartender. Most of the comely staff has been trodding the establishment’s wide-planked floors (salvaged from a 200-year-old Pennsylvania barn) for at least five years, and the chef Gregory Baumel, has been in the kitchen for seven. With this kind of longevity, it’s little wonder that the Half King is now celebrating its tenth anniversary.
Monday Reading Series a Chelsea Tradition
This past September, there was a large anniversary party, frequented mostly by the bar and restaurant’s regulars, but also by a surfeit of bold-faced names. The Half King’s three owners are well connected in the arts: apart from Junger who recently produced the critically-acclaimed documentary, Restrepo, based on his book, War, there’s also Scott Anderson and Nanette Burstein. Anderson was a war correspondent with Junger, and Burstein is a filmmaker whose recent film Going the Distance with Drew Barrymore was an indie hit.
The Half King opened in July of 2000, not so long after Junger’s nonfiction tome of a meteorological trifecta took the country by storm – and it seemed right and appropriate that each Monday evening the restaurant was given over to a reading by an author, usually of non-fiction. A decade on, the Monday Reading Series has become a Chelsea tradition, and numerous writers, bold-faced and otherwise, have transfixed Half King audiences with their tales of life beyond the shores of Manhattan.
(Source: The Half King)
Hellfire Fries (Laden with Cayenne Pepper)
Every six weeks, there’s also a new, curated photojournalist exhibition. Currently on the walls of the restaurant are stunning photos by Fulbright and Guggenheim fellow, Carolyn Drake, of an Ulghur community and its millennium-old culture in a remote part of China.
But it’s not only the arts that keep locals and tourists returning to the Half King. Baumel’s forte in the kitchen is an unfussy take on comfort good.
Long before “gastropub” entered the lexicon, Baumel was turning out solid fare such as an artichoke and beet salad with goat cheese crouton that is both luscious and fresh. An arugula and fennel salad with grapefruit is nicely balanced with a lemon-thyme vinaigrette. Order one, or both, of these salads, with a side of the piping hot sweet potato fries, or the hellfire fries (laden with cayenne pepper) served with chipotle aioli, and a pint of Guinness – and you’re easily fortified for another trek through the snow.
The veggie chili is as spicy as it should be, with sides of guacamole and salsa, and the blueberry cobbler is pleasingly evocative of a season still six months away.
Bay Ridge French Roast (From Brooklyn, No Less)
If you’re not in a hurry, sink back into one of the black leather sofas while sipping from a cup of Bay Ridge (as in Brooklyn – yes, that’s right) French Roast coffee.
Don’t be surprised if you start thinking about writing your own best-selling book. There’s something about the Half King and its aesthetic atmosphere that inspires the muse.
With a street café, as well as a back garden – and a kitchen that remains open until two am, the Half King beckons as much in perfect weather as it does in inclement.
And this summer, the latest High Line elevator entrance will open right outside the Half King’s doors. Make yourself a regular now, while booths are still available.
Manhattan’s Bar Where Everyone Knows Your Name
The crowd is as youthful and fun as it is pretty and it’s possible to look at some of the more striking specimens – a threesome, for example, of two sylphs accompanying Adonis – and imagine them ten years hence, when the Half King is celebrating its second decade, dancing in the aisles with their children.
While Boston has had, for years, the bar where everyone knows your name, the Half King Bar and Restaurant proves that Manhattan has a locale equally as welcoming and convivial.
DETAILS:
The Half King Bar and Restaurant
505-507 West 23rd Street
New York City
Telephone: 212.462.4300
Email: thehalfking@nyc.rr.com
Hours:
Monday through Friday: 11:00AM to 4:00AM
Saturday & Sunday: 9:00AM to 4:00AM
Kitchen Hours:
Brunch: 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Late Breakfast & Lunch: 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Dinner: 4:00 PM to Midnight
Late Night Menu: Midnight to 2 AM (available Monday through Saturday)
