Lower East Side

The night here

The Lower East Side was built as an immigrant tenement district, and its night still runs at the scale of those buildings: small rooms, low ceilings, basement bars and storefront restaurants rather than big clubs. The licensed venues cluster on a grid of a few short streets, Orchard, Rivington, Ludlow and Eldridge, so a night here is mostly on foot.

Weekend nights are the loudest: it has one of the highest rates of loud-music complaints of any area in these guides. The Delancey St–Essex St station has trains all night, and the F, J and M lines run through it; the Williamsburg Bridge is a short walk east.

When it gets loud

1,744 complaints about loud music or parties at bars, clubs and other businesses were made to 311 from here in the last 12 months (1146 per km², #1 of 24). 61% came in between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m., and 49% on Friday and Saturday nights.

Each row is an evening running into the next morning (the Saturday row ends Sunday at noon). Darker = more complaints. Source: NYC 311 service requests, “Noise – Commercial: Loud Music/Party”.

What’s licensed here

Streets with the most licensed night spots: Rivington St (20), Orchard St (20), Ludlow St (16), Eldridge St (14).

On-premises licences active today in the New York State Liquor Authority’s list, placed by their published coordinates. A licence is not a guarantee a venue is open, or open late; New York venues may serve until 4 a.m.