The Boiler Room

First of all, they are cash only, so hit up your bank before swinging by if possible. The ATM inside the bar has a fee of $3. Had a great time here, and in one of the most expensive cities in the world the affordable drink prices are refreshing (pun intended), but important to keep in mind that this is a completely different business from what the images show. If you like gay bars this is a very good spot, but the dive bar aesthetic that I was hoping for from previous images is no longer here. The bartender Alec is extremely friendly and a blast to talk with.

One of the most chill spots in the LES, Alec is the best bartender I've ever had the pleasure to hang out with! Drinks are affordable(my mother has trained me not to say the word cheap) and served with perfect banter. You can hang outside, or play on the one pool table. I bring all of my out of town visitor's(they love it) and refer to the Boiler Room as the 'Cheers' of the gay bars. Happy hour is always calm, and after 10pm things really pop off for the late night crowd prepping to go out OUT. Everyone is welcome! An absolute gem. No food served(well a bag of chips if that counts), but you can bring in your eats, so many great close options in the LES. Highly recommend for a true NYC staple.

Old bartender berated friends. Made everyone feel unwelcome-not the type they focus on? A lot to deal with for a dump. Skip. History doesn’t mean class<~ Would have been happy to buy everyone in the bar a drink. (Ended up spending $$$ at another joint)-how about talking not screaming?

This place is great during later evenings to night sharp, however, we went there during evening time and it has few people but bar tender was very friendly and funny. We had few drinks as pre game and played pool table. They had photo booth, outdoor seating and other playstations. Drinks are reasonably priced, however, CASH only bar.

Come rain or shine, the Boiler Room has been there for roughly 3 decades, and I would feel lost without it. If you don't know the place, you should. Drinks are cheap and good and bartenders are great - they like to make sure you have a good time. And it's Cash Only which is fine by me - there's an ATM by the door.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS! come to the boiler room manhattan if you’d like to sit and stare at the people you came with, but of course only if they’re men. my femme/lesbian friends and i were charged more money for the same drinks than our male friends ( cash only… i should have realized they’d be scamming) and when this was questioned the bartenders began antagonizing my friends and i. They then began trying to recruit other patrons sitting at the bar to join in on their blatant bullying, claiming we were being rowdy and aggressive. Being that this was the first stop on a birthday bar crawl, all of us were dead sober and this nearly ruined our friend's birthday. All in all, QUEER WOMEN BELONG IN QUEER SPACES and i’m tired of non-inclusive “lgbtq+” bars ran by bitter geriatric misogynists.

Dear reader, although it pains me to say it, I have to give this rather dilapidated bar five stars. Why? You ask, with a look of horror on your face. Well… because at this place people actually TALK to each other. I stumbled into here after a fancy evening on the Lower East Side and quickly met a number of gentlemen from all walks of life. Really fantastic stuff, it’s these sorts of meets that hold society together. So, although this place had a crumbling ceiling, a toilet in desperate need of renovation and a forest of mold erupting on its shutters, I am afraid I have to give it a five. Well done the Boiler Room! Although it would be nice if, next time, you accepted a $100 bill NB: Drinks are very cheap here! Being only $18 for three rum and cokes - a bargain!

It’s hard enough to be queer and happy these days without queer people trying to put other queer people down in a bar meant for…queer people. My friends and I went to The Boiler Room this past weekend and our experience there left me speechless at the time. It’s more of a dive joint which we didn’t know. The bartenders were initially off-putting and rude, but everyone has bad nights (all of us have worked in a bar before, we get it). After paying for a song to come on, a bartender skipped it and we joked around about being upset. The bartender said “there’s other people here, it’s not your sweet 16” and laughed towards the other guests to get support. I certainly hope that made him feel better, because it definitely put a damper on our night. Our energy might’ve been a bit misplaced but our fun was harmless and not interrupting anyone’s night. All this to say, I would understand if we needed to keep it down bc that’s the type of place this is, and we definitely would have had we been asked to do so! But to be met with what was essentially bullying in a space where we were excited to let loose and feel safe is wildly disappointing.