The Red Lion

Most places with live music are either date spots where you listen to jazz while sipping a $16 shot of whiskey with a giant ice cube, or they’re so loud that you just smile and nod when you think someone is speaking to you. In other words, they’re not great places to meet people. The Red Lion is an exception. The big Greenwich Village bar, which has three different bands every night, tends to be crowded in a good way, with a dancefloor that gets used more and more as the night goes on, and a long bar where ordering a drink doesn’t feel like trying to hail a taxi in a rainstorm. Music doesn’t start until around 7pm, and during the day, there are a bunch of projector TVs playing soccer matches from around the world.