The New York Post checks in with a piece on how awful some rooftop bars are in the city, including Mr. Purple on Orchard Street between Houston and Stanton.
An excerpt:
The reality is that you have to wait an hour to even get to the roof, then another half-hour to purchase a can of beer, and your friends are still stuck in line while you’re surrounded by bottle-service-loving blowhards who flock to rooftop bars like moths to a flame.
Such was the scene on a recent Saturday at Mr. Purple (180 Orchard St.) on the Lower East Side. Young guys clad in white calf-socks and baggy khaki shorts nagged the bouncer at the ground-level waiting area, a glorified alley decorated with too-cheery pop art, and loudly contemplated whether they should slip him some cash to cut the line, as the coolest kind of people do.
They didn’t have any luck, but a gaggle of girls who entered screaming, “None of us are over 21!” did. The 15th-floor view is, admittedly, pretty great, with clear views of both the World Trade Center and the Empire State Building, though most of the patrons seemed more interested in staring at their iPhones than taking in the sights. If you don’t post a selfie and spend all evening checking your “likes,” did you ever really make it up onto the roof?
Meanwhile, the June 20 edition of The New Yorker has a short review of Mr. Purple.
Per writer Sarah Larson:
Aiming for a kind of neighborliness, the proprietors named the bar after the eccentric L.E.S. icon Adam Purple, a community-garden activist with a dark past, offending locals and relatives alike. The luxury-on-Ludlow vibe is equally uneasy. The interior, meant to evoke an artist’s loft, leads to two outdoor patios, with chaise longues, purple chairs, staggeringly gorgeous views, and a swimming pool. “This is horrible!” a neighborhood man said on a recent night, scowling. “It’s like a disco bar in Thailand in 1995.”
And!
And how are the drinks? In an age of near-universal craft-cocktail excellence, they are mediocre, pricey, and boldly unsubtle, served in acrylic.
Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] The upscale hotel bar with a pool named for the late environmentalist Adam Purple (44 comments)
[Updated] The Gerber Group responds to criticism over Mr. Purple (23 comments)
As the Hotel Indigo and Mr. Purple continue efforts to be part of the LES neighborhood (25 comments)