NYC Cigar Bars - Upper East Side Manhattan

Bar & Books on the Upper East Side NYC

January 26, 2016 / Upper East Side Neighborhood UES / Restaurants & Bars on the Upper East Side UES / Manhattan Buzz NYC.

I’ve walked by the Bar & Books on Lexington Avenue numerous times, and occasionally stepped in to see what it looked like close up and to see who was there. So around the holidays, I had a special guest in town who is a bit of a cigar aficionado. After dinner one evening, we took a walk along Lexington Avenue looking at store windows on our way down to the Bar & Books between 72nd and 73rd Streets.

The Bar & Books takes reservations, which I had made just to be certain we’d be able to get in to enjoy a fine cigar to close out the evening. It was a weekday night, so as it turned out, it wasn’t necessary, and we found a table just off the bar in the center of the establishment.

An attractive woman, with the look of a James Bond ‘girl’, waited on us. My friend had a Macallan 12 year scotch, while I ordered a glass of Malbec wine. We settled in, checking our coats and keeping our bags on the chairs of the table next to us. The walls of the Lexington Avenue Bar & Books are lined with shelves of books, which I suppose you could read if you were inclined to read Rabkin A. Johnson’s Current Legal Forms with Tax Analysis - which I can only imagine would be the case in the worst of circumstances - and tonight was no such night.

Click here for the rest of our report on NYC cigar bars on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

NYC Cigar Bars - Upper East Side Manhattan

Bar & Books on the Upper East Side NYC

January 26, 2016 / Upper East Side Neighborhood UES / Restaurants & Bars on the Upper East Side UES / Manhattan Buzz NYC. Continued.

I had inquired as to the relative costs of cigars prior to our visit, and cigars ran from about $10 or $20 on up to perhaps $60 or $70 … maybe more. But Bar & Books on the Upper East Side also allows you to bring and smoke your own cigar for a cutting fee of $5 per cigar. That seemed reasonable enough, so my cigar aficionado friend brought along a couple of Monte Cristo Classics, which we cut with their cutter and lit up.

The conversation wafted along, like the cigar smoke curling up into the air. Politics, business and perhaps some lingering ambitions crept into the conversation as the Malbec wine and Macallans 12 year scotch loosened tongues. The bar began to fill up with both men and women along the bar, engaged in quiet conversations, as well as at some of the tables lining the wall of the railroad shaped bar.

NYC Cigar Bars - Lexington Bar & Books UES, Hudson Bar & Books West Village & Beekman Bar & Books Cigar Bar Midtown Manhattan

The Lexington Bar & Book cigar bar is one of three in New York City. Two of them – the Lexington Bar & Books [located at 73rd Street & Lexington on the Upper East Side] & Hudson Bar & Books [located at Horatio & Hudson in the West Village] - opened in 1990. The third, Beekman Bar & Books is located at First Avenue and 50th Street in Midtown Manhattan, only a stone throw from the United Nations. They also have two cigar bars in the Czech Republic capital of Prague and one in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. So if you travel to Eastern Europe, I suppose you could make Bar & Books your home away from home.

There were French doors leading to a back room where the privacy is near complete in the quiet, sophisticated Upper East Side cigar bar. In the private room there was a television monitor showing video with the sound muted. Along the walls there were also several glass cased exhibits of pipes and smoking paraphernalia.

Places to go After Dinner for Drinks Upper East Side Manhattan NYC

We opted in for a second round as our cigars and the conversation weren’t finished. And leaned back into the soft booth backed chair as the conversation rolled on. The Lexington Bar & Books also serves food ranging from a dish of cashews for $6 to $25 for the Cheese & Charcuterie Platter. Cocktails, wine and hard liquor were generally in the range of $17 a glass, with a few hard liquor items rising a few dollars higher. Bottles of wine run from about $50 to $60 on up.

While the Lexington cigar bar on the Upper East Side opens at 5 pm and stays open until 4 am daily, it was getting late for us, as it was still a weekday, so after our second drink, we bid adieu, and headed home. It was a nice relaxing evening.

This map will show the location of the Lexington Bar & Books, one of the leading NYC cigar bars on the Upper East Side UES of Manhattan and this link will provide the contact information for the Bar & Books cigar bars in Manhattan NYC.

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