124 Old Rabbit Club

I’m in town alone for work last year hunting for a drink but with the World Series going on every bar has defaulted into a sports bar. It’s… not my thing. With the hour having passed into the next day I was ready to head back to my hotel when down and to the right I spotted a steel door. Dark and inconspicuous. The type of entrance that likely fronts a sex dungeon in another reality. Cheap decals read «CRAFT BEER BAR.» This can’t be right. I took each step down with caution — noticing a faint sliver of light peeking through — and I gently pried the door open half expecting a grizzly arm to reach out and pull me into some strange hell.
I stepped into the bar’s dim glow and to my absolute surprise minimal techno plays over the speakers. I love minimal. Am I dreaming?
What followed was one of the more magical moments of that trip. Turned out that Harrison, behind the bar, was feeding the speakers from his phone. He didn’t seem like the type of person to suffer fools but after buying my sincerity we talked music until closing. Harrison, if you’re reading this please know that it was that conversation that sparked my love for music again. You pointed me in the direction of some parties, from where I came across labels like L.I.E.S, and I’ve been learning of new music ever since.
While I can only speak of my one visit the experience here will stand as one of my ‘only in New York’ stories.
It’s dark, cold, gritty and likely playing music apropos of the atmosphere.
I can’t wait to visit again.

Loved this place. Hard to find, like an old timed speakeasy. The music was great, the lighting was dim, great beer selection and nice bartenders. Good date place.

Good Bottles! Can’t beat this spot. If people getting offended because the bartenders, it dark and dim. You didn’t come to chat it up with them and they can’t see your ugly face. I’ll be back, and I’ll tip well. Thanks for keeping the variety!

You would never know this place exists! Very dim lighting, music, knowledgeable bartenders!

THE MOST INSULTING QUESTION A BARTENDER COULD ASK YOU
This place is simply the worst bar I have ever been to, and I have always been a bar person. I have lived at nyc for over 1 year, and tried so many bars at a weekly basis, with best beer, best appetizer, best music, or best view. I was hanging out with my friend and I saw this bar at Unilocal,it seems like a tiny bar without many spaces for customers. Well, that sounds nice in a rainy night, doesn’t it?
It turned out that this bar is located near NYU, and the entrance is so secretively located that you could miss it ten times passing that road if you don’t have a sharp eye.
My friend went to park her car, and I went inside. The place is even tinier than it is in my imagination, with a smell of damp amd mouldy. It has overall, around 10 seats. There are only 2 small tables, and one of them are occupied. Oddly, in such a busy hour when all the other bars in this street are filled with people, there are only 3 customers there, which makes this tiny bar looks deserted.
This is the first time I went to this bar. I went over to the bartender, and asked that if I could seat on the table if its not reserved. And then I just came across the most astonishing moments in my entire experience of going to bars. The bartender is a young man, around 26 – 28, with a look of woolgathering, like everything bored him.
He squinted at me, said, «Seat wherever you want, DO I LOOK LIKE YOUR FATHER?»
In a moment, I froze. This is such a unexpected response that I didn’t know how to react. All the other customers, well, the other three customers turned around and looked at him, and then looked at me. Anyone who were really there must be really confused about what was going on here.
My friend came in, and she was like,“come on did you already ordered some beer for me?” I feel cold, and my hand trembled. «Lets just go to some other place, shall we?»
We went to a local bar just across the street, in front of 124 Old Rabbit Club. We had fun, and drank a lot, and then I shared this horrible story with my friends.
We were really confused about what really happened.
Is he some kind of extreme racist? If so, why a bar located at NYU, which has so many international students, would hire a racist? I am an Asian, I have lived in England, Hong Kong, LA, Beijing and New York, and going to local bars is my favorite. I sure have met several drunk idiots at some bar, but I have NEVER in my life met anyone treating customers like that.
Is he just not in a good mood? If so, I really felt sorry for any potential customers who might go to that bar. I even hope that he is a racist: then he is only insulting Asian customers. If not, he is just insulting all the customers in the world. So you are planning to go to that bar huh? Consider AGAIN. The probability of you being insulted is just random. You would feel bad, and you would feel humiliated, but the most important part is, you just ruined your own evening.

Its a good place to hang out with your friends. Small, dim lit, relatively loud music. but definitely a place where you can $hit talk with your friends. The entrance and setup makes it look like a speak easy bar, but it isn’t. Again, as compared to the rather difficult to get into speak easy bars in NY, this one has the vibe and easy to get into!
It’s a CASH ONLY place. Great beer selection, just 2 beers on tap, and some wines. Most of the beers are European.
I tried really hard to enjoy this place, but it never grew on me. the only plus point is, you can get piss drunk, walk across the street and get some extremely unhealthy food at Mamoun’s for a perfect drinking night!

Cool dive bar in the Village with a great beer selection. There isn’t much seating so it’s not ideal for large groups. You can easily pass it by without noticing so keep an eye out for the stairs.

This place is nutz. Old, dirty, dilapidated, full of crazy do-​dads, everything that makes a dive bar, divey, plus some! I’m glad I checked it out; it’s a great place to experience but I’m not sure if I would seek it out to go back. There are a lot of other dive bars to go to with a chill atmosphere, more places to sit, and a little more elbow room. However, if I’m in the area and want a quick drink in an interesting atmosphere, it’s not a bad choice.

I like this place because it has a speakeasy vibe, but without all the pretentious crap that so many speakeasys in New York seem to have nowadays. Cash only. Beer, cider, and wine. Good tunes. Great place to meet up in the West Village and bonus points that Mamouns is nearby.

Perfect location and awesome atmosphere. So glad my friends and I decide to pop in! The Manager, Emily, was friendly and so knowledgeable, will definitely go back!

Discreetly hidden among the raucous businesses and patrons of McDougal Street is a serious beer bar. Navigate via door number (124) to face some steep metal stairs that lead down to a black door, flanked by an image of a rabbit and its name in tiny lettering above the door frame.
To enter 124 Old Rabbit Club is akin to descending underground. The cave-​like space is narrow and unusually dimly lit, even for a bar. After some adjustment to the light level, it becomes possible to see the exposed brick, white subway tile, and low-​slung pressed tin ceilings that complete an unfinished subterranean look, accented by a subtle rabbit motif.
Most of the seats are at the very long bar that dominates the interior. There isn’t much space otherwise to stand. Then again, this isn’t the typical bar to socialize at, and is most certainly not a sports bar. Its a place to enjoy a bottled brew from a serious list of European beers, divided between Belgians, Germans, and English/​Scottish. Surprisingly for a beer bar, their draft selections are not the reason to go; only a handful of taps, which feature good but not unusual domestic crafts.
There’s not much for the non-​beer drinker, with just a few token wines in all. But for the craft beer drinker, its Christmas. With Christmas ales (seasonally), alongside over three dozen Belgians ranging from Trappists to saisons to dubbels, tripels, and quads, and a bonanza of sours, and not just the more accessible ones. Great stuff, served in proper glassware. The English and German list is wide-​ranging also, with just about every style represented, but not explored yet.
The bartenders are approachable, knowledgeable, and friendly. The only impediment to getting their guidance is the background music, which is usually metal or punk dialed up a tad too high for comfortable conversation. That, the overly dim lighting that makes reading the menu and seeing the beers challenging, lack of bar snacks, and a cash policy when the average cost of a bottle is about $ 10 scales down its rating. But most of these are arguably minor quibbles. 124 Old Rabbit Club still carved out a unique niche among the many craft beer bars in NYC. Great place.

Dig the solid dive bar, cash only feel but don’t have time to make the journey to Brooklyn? 124 Old Rabbit Club is the spot for you. The bartender and I nerded a bit about sour ales, I scoped out their on draft Speakeasy Milk Stout.
Any bar that has many seats available, a crazy (questionably) dark atmosphere and a lot of chaos on the walls is an instant sell for me. I just wish I had carried more cash on me to really get settled in. Although this place is mainly a bottle bar (which is a bummer, but probably partially how it’s nook-​ish feel can carry an A-​list sanitary inspection), I definitely hope to swing back in eventually.
Any place that I can recommend to someone that they «Follow the white rabbit down…» is a great place to me.

A small place, with a cool atmosphere, and a great selection of beer. I liked this place from the moment I walked down the steps. This place is defiantly a hole in the wall. Where they lack in size they make up for in beer selection. So many different beers from all over. Bartender was great in making recommendations and next time I’m in NYC I will be back.
Make sure you keep your eyes open when looking for this place, you can walk right past it. Also, make sure bring cash.

This place is an itty bitty beer palace that was not on my radar until two days ago. It’s essentially a speakeasy… but with beer. Lots and lots of beer. More beer than speakeasies have cocktails. The best part? I’m not sure I recognized any beer on the menu. Novelty and allure are, well, novel and alluring. So I was hooked even before trying anything.
The dichotomy of MacDougal truly amazes me. It houses a dynamite cocktail bar, The Up & Up, as well as this joint. In the East Village, both of these places would be suffocatingly crowded and/​or would have pretty long wait times. But on a street populated by what seems to be the entirety of NYU on any given night, these two places are strangely not that full. Not that I’m complaining — if the Old Rabbit Club had been packed/​rowdy when we went (granted, we were there during the wee hours of the morning), I probably would’ve knocked a star off this review. But it wasn’t. Dark, cozy, hidden and the polar opposite of what I like to call MacDougal Mayhem.
While the space itself is tiny, the beer menu is expansive. Like I said, they all were completely alien to me. Belgian tripels are my go-​to beers, so I figured telling the bartender that would suffice for him to find me something comparable. Thanks to the app Untappd (would highly recommend it), I’ve started tracking the different beers I try at these types of places. So despite me being, as my friend put it, «droopy» by the end of the night (due to exhaustion, no inebriation, thankfully), I still took note of what I was served — Gouden Carolus Tripel brewed at «Brouweij Het Anker» in Belgium. If you’re a fan of dark and/​or Belgian beers, this one has my vote.

I love this place! I am a big fan of Belgian sour beers and this place was heaven for me. It was so exciting to find such a great selection of Belgian sour beers like lambics, gueuze and Flanders red ale. Nothing more refreshing than super tart, tasty beer. The bartender was knowledgeable about the beer selections and made excellent recommendations. They also had a selection of German beers if Belgian beers are not your thing. Décor is divey, a totally dark narrow space with minimal red ornament lighting so huddle close to your iphone or candles if you want to be able to read the menu. Awesome Belgian bar. Love it!

This was the 3^rd stop on my bachelor beer tour and honestly part of me doesn’t want to go back because the experience was great. Old Rabbit Club was brought to my attention by my beer loving co-​worker and she purposely made this a spot on the agenda. I thought I would honestly hate it, a ‘super secret’ club type place with a bunch of beers-​basically it was what I thought Torst would be like: overpriced, pretentious a-​holes, but honestly it was great.
The staff there was friendly and even though there were honestly, more people that I thought the place could carry everyone got served and after being told it was for my bachelor party we got a lot of attention and the staff were funny and so easy to deal with. The cost of the beers were honestly not that bad, I just don’t know if it’s a place I could come back to again and again.

Post a Valentine’s dinner with a good friend, we immediately scored two seats upon walking into 124 Old Rabbit Club, which I can say was very lucky. With crowds coming in and out throughout the evening, attaining seats can seem a challenge. Once settled in however, it will be hard to leave. Undeniably a narrow, small space, and as others have noted, it is extremely dim and dark. It takes time for the eyes to adjust, but it makes for an atmosphere that I found to be super chill, intimate, in spite of what others may describe as a dark basement or small closet. It may seem limited on the space, but it is big on the beer selection. It is nice to happen upon a secret beer spot of the West Village. There is no other liquor served, minus some wine choices. It is cash only also.
The menu is substantial in choices, and there is definitely something you will find new to try. Pull up a candle to their one page menu, one will see a list a great variety of Belgians, English, and German ales, ranging from IPAs to sours to pale ales, etc. Our bartender that evening was sociable and helpful in providing advice on the beer options. I tried the Evil Twin Hipster Pale Ale and the Petrus Aged Ale (sour), and they were solid choices. The pricing is a little expensive when compared to others, especially for non-​draught beers. All beers come bottled or in cans, which I find as a slight drawback.
I will definitely return to this spot and recommend to others. I have not found a better, or more decent beer spot in the West Village. I would give 5 stars should there have been a draught menu, unless I am mistaken. Nonetheless, cool hidden, intimate beer spot worth checking out.

Had a hard time locating it as the entrance is in the basement and the door is unmarked. Once you enter, immediately you feel as if you have entered a medieval dungeon that is dark, damp and mysterious. The lighting is very low so as to create that effect. Seating is limited and will get crowded during a weekend. There’s a few tables and some seating at the bar.
Best thing I liked about this place is the beer selection. They carry pretty decent hefeweizen and other beers from around the globe. Haven’t tried the food so can’t really say anything. Service is friendly and I look forward to coming back.

Summary:
Tiny cavern of a speakeasy with an amazingly deep and complex beer selection.
The Atmosphere:
This place feels like a rabbit hole or small cave. It’s a very small, intimate space. Most times I’ve been here, it has been fairly quiet with a small but very chill crowd.
The Drinks:
I’m not certain of the wine or liquor selection as this place has a massive, very crafty beer selection. The bartenders are very knowledgeable and will advise you on what kind of beer to have depending on your mood and taste. I’ve always been quite impressed with them.
It’s very easy to pass this place but it is a very cool space in the heart of NYU. I really enjoy coming here for a good craft beer and chill atmosphere.

I can’t hate on a bar that carries La Chouffe. A buddy of mine took me here a long time ago as he thought I’d like the spot. I did, mostly for the novelty of it being my first speakeasy in NYC. But it’s not amazing. Just a very low key hidden bar with good beer. I always think about going back but never do, but I have a hankering for a La Chouffe so perhaps I will…