Sophie’s

Awfully rude, bitter, sad door man. Beware of your drinks being taken before finished. Had my whiskey taken while semi full, doorman (who was taking my drink) then verbally lashed out at me for trying to take my drink back bc I was not done, only later to find out that I was banned from ordering drinks at the bar. Bartender refused to serve me. Fuck this place. There are WAYYYYY BETTER PLACES TO GO TO.

Don’t go to Sophie’s. It really sucks. It’s a total dive. I don’t want you to play anything on the awesome jukebox. I don’t want to hear you whine about your hipster, trust fund, or eurotrash life. Anthony Bourdain should never have said this was one of the coolest dives in nyc. It’s not. I am not going to say anything else. Just don’t f-​ing come here… and if you do please don’t say hi to my girl Maggie :-P

the thing about sophie’s is that it’s not the cheapest, the dankest, the nastiest, the most divey, the nicest, or the most interesting place
instead, it’s enough of all of those things to make it awesome.
pitchers are just cheap enough that you don’t feel like you’re going broke to drink there. it’s nice enough to be comfortable, but divey enough that you don’t feel like a loser if you go there in a tshirt and jeans. there are people to watch but there’s also TV that the bartender puts onto things like «how you make it» or whatever. there’s a jukebox that actually works.
Sophie’s: good enough at everything to be great

Sophie’s is fancy now. They have a doorman. It doesn’t smell. It seems clean. The lights are bright. THERE ARE PAINTINGS ON THE WALL. Two stars because it’s a shadow of its former divey self. But it’s 4 stars for grownups, perfectly acceptable for grownups.

Have to say that Sophie’s is a place so horrible that it actually motivated to make a Unilocal account for the sake of writing a negative review, which is saying something in itself, but man does this bar deserve it.
I meet some friends at the bar, and after 10 minutes there I decide to order a drink with my friend. We are sitting in front of empty seats and the bartender, a disgusting woman (if she can be called that) in her late 30s refuses us service because «people are already sitting there». Like what? How is that relevant? We aren’t even sitting down we are just ordering drinks.
I momentarily forget about the drink and go say hi to some more friends and probably another 10 minutes goes by when I try to get a drink again. The bartender asks for my ID before even asking for my order, goes to the opposite side of the bar, scans it LITERALLY 40 times (my ID is undoubtedly real), comes back after 2 minutes and simply says «I don’t like your attitude» and refuses to take my order. Really? I don’t like your false sense of superiority from being a bartender at a shitty East Village diver bar.
Well, she got what she wanted when the group of 10 people I was with left. Enjoy your lonely tip-​less night. I’m sure you’ll have plenty to come.
(On a side note, judging by a lot of the other 1 Star reviews, Sophie’s other bartenders are equally as bad as this wench, so its probably a safe place to steer clear)

I love this place! I’ve had two good experiences here.
Last Sunday I was here, me and my girlfriend shot some pool and then started making out against the pool table. Great time!
We’ll be back! Hopefully we’ll see that dog drinking from the bar again hahaha
I like the neighborhood vibe to the bar too. Lots of locals.
Grab a magic hat beer and a stool and relax.

A nice place for a Saturday night hangout with buddies. The place is a little bit underground, but you can see different people. The thing I like about this bar the most is that you can play pool

Horrible dive bar. Dive in the worst sense of the word dive. It was fine. The bouncer and the bartender were both very rude. Wasn’t worth my time. Don’t recommend this joint to your worst neighbor.

My go-​to dive in my neighborhood. Nice bartenders, good, diverse crowd, decent music selection on the jukebox, reasonably priced drinks, good amount of seating, and, my personal favorite, a pool table. Stop by for a beer while bar hopping in the EV, you’ll be glad you did.

Julie serves you well. If you tip well you’ll get kicked back more often than you’re told. And if you frequent, you will be welcomed every time.

The bartender here was farts. After requiring twenty minutes to make my friend the wrong drink he then refused to serve him bc he didn’t get a tip. He yelled at the ppl playing pool, and when asked if there was no love in his heart, he grumbled:” I guess not.” In addition, it turns out that as we leaving, some of the regulars told my friend that the bartender was great, had been there for x– amount of years, and then decided to call my friend the *f-​word*. All in all just the loveliest of people seem to hang out here. So if you want to spend your hard-​earned money, at a 20-​minute a wrong-​drink rate, then get denied service and be called names, Sophie’s is the place to be.

Sophie’s is the diviest of dives. Sophie’s probably is the pick of the stick in the dive bar category, but honestly I really don’t like dive bars at all. I find them gritty and noisy and dirty and the acoustics are not designed for conversation and the people are such a rag-​tag bunch.
They check everyone’s IDs, so you can’t just order two drinks. I hear that the men’s bathroom door doesn’t lock either. My drinks were about $ 5 – 7 each, so it’s not even THAT cheap.

Have been here for after work drinks, not so much late night escapades. That being said, this dive bar is one of the diviest dives to ever dive. A few middle-​aged men drinking PBR, Duck Dynasty on the CRT TV, a jukebox and billiards in the back. Chyeah, it’s a dive bar. Bourdain mentioned this is one of the last real dive bars in all of Manhattan, and there has to be a bit of credit in that department. It was a little awkward the first time I came here, as we got quite a bit of stares, but afterwards I felt pretty comfortable once we struck up some conversation.
Lots of worn décor and upholstery will tell you that Sophie’s been through a few rodeos, but that’s part of the charm. Not saying that pretentiously, I really actually think that it does show a bit of character. That being said, you should beware of incredibly dirty seats and walls. Heh.
Bartenders are generally friendly, drinks are cheap, and it’s rarely ever crowded like Doc Holliday’s. Sometimes that’s all you need in a bar. Definitely a fixture of the East Village bar scene, I hope Sophie’s stays for a while longer.

The Diet Coke @ Sophies was a real treat, the staff are excellent and the patrons seemed to be really happy.
I highly recommend Sophies to all you ladies looking for a place to bring your best gay friend.
You know some of my friends don’t trust their girlfriends best gay friend cause they think they are faking it and are just trying to get in their ladies panties.
I never felt that way.
You see my ex girlfriend has a best gay friend and he is a real swell guy. When I wasn’t around they were always doing fun things together and even having little slumber parties. I never minded because I thought it was good for her to have a friend to hang with when I wasn’t around.
He was really nice guy.
So nice, that last year we had an incident with a faulty rubber and he decided to be a good friend and take her to the doctor and pay for our little mishap to disappear…
I believe they are now roommates.

Seriously… No one is going to mention the song by King Missile?!? (See:
)
That alone makes this a MUST-​SEE place in my book!

If you’re reading this & contemplating going here, she’s the kind of gal I bet you want to take home.
+ Her jukebox is something like a stoned Catherine Keener in a Noah Baumbach movie would mix up. Neil Young. Yeah Yeah Yeah’s. Roy Orbison.
+ Her drinks are cheap ($ 5). Her 12 ounce mugs of good beer are $ 2 or $ 3, her pints are $ 5. Take into consideration that offer of a mug for less as an example of an offer of less commitment from her, and you.
+ Her friends are rowdy. They sing to The Smiths. They wear track suits & shades & headphones inside.
+ Her friends of friends are getting together too much in groups in the bathroom. She doesn’t condone the behaviour, but she doesn’t give them priority at the bar. And you like that balance.
+ Tipping her well goes a long way in your next orders with the crowd.
On my first night on a trip to the city, I feared $ 10 drinks, and the first place recommended to us was Sophie’s. With someone who rarely drinks any more for many reasons — including saving scratch for being able just to get to Manhattan — Sophie’s is Choice.

Sophie you slut. You really are a dirty girl, aren’t you?
Cheap beers. Enough ice in their drinks. Pool table. Jukebox. Smoke wafting inside from neighbourhood né’redowells. A great place to catch up and/​or snuggle*.
The seats at the back by the bathroom are super horrible, but in general this dive is A-​OK.
PEPPER PLEADS to New York’s glitterati youth: Stop going to the bathroom in groups.
*This would be a terrible place to snuggle.

Cheap beer. Pool table. Bathroom with no lock. A few of the memories that come to mind at the mentioning of this joint. Also, extremely pretty girls who insist that they aren’t pretty due to the fact that they aren’t wearing 6 inch heals and caked in makeup; can’t forget that.
Wouldn’t mind coming back at all, though it is a bit hard to get to. Have no fear though, just buy a bike and you’ll fit right in.

«What’s the name of that bar we ended the night in?»
Yep, it’s Sophie’s. Thank God for FourSquare and the Unilocal app, or I would never remember being here.
«You’ve been here 5 times!»
No way! I remember two of them!
It’s not a bad spot. I always remember it for the lack of air conditioning. The bar itself is nondescript, but it always has a crowd. Since I keep coming back here, I figured I should give it a nod, as my late night, end of the night, destination… however unplanned it may be.

Sitting at the end of the bar, an older woman is also drinking beer. I am with some friends. She is with a bag of pistachios. A big bag. I am so hungry that I am starting to hate her. They have blue moon for $ 5 and the beer and conversation with my friends is cool. There is a sign on the wall. It says:
You
Know is very
strange when you go
A persons house and
You tell them you
Haven’t seen that
Person in such a
Long time and they
Reply you no something
And you say what and
They say you are
About to eat that
Person
I saw that incoherent madness on the wall as i was walking to the bathroom. I tried to lock the door. There was no lock. I don’t know what that crap on the wall means… but I’m never coming back here alone.