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Subterranean Victorian
living rooms are all the rage these days. Lies. But in the case of
The Dove, the genre works well for it. Surrounded in lush red velvets,
fireplaces, white columns and paintings of fat ladies, one could be
a regal Jersey home and not in a basement in Greenwich Village. Of
course no bar is going to go all out and purchase actual period pieces,
so The Dove has gone the Rejuvenation
route, and decked the place in decent reproductions. The only shortfall
they have in recreating a true Victorian space is the space itself,
which feels oddly claustrophobic with its lower-than-usual ceilings,
along with a few strangely placed support beams (like the one wrapped
in rope-like material next to your pool table in your childhood basement).
All of this aside, it's nice to see that the owners here really put
in the effort to create a bar that's classy, clean and well run. There's
definitely a polish to the place that you often find lacking in bars
in Manhattan--especially in Greenwich Village. Even the shiny, brass
taps scream quality. We actually sat at the sweet dark wood bar, leaving
the many tables and banquets for some of the customers that were actually
even older than us (now that's old!) The tunes were controlled via
an iPod behind the bar, and for a bar that clearly caters to a crowd
outside of your typical downtown polyester beard-guy crowd, suit-dudes,
or stick-figure-like club goers, the mostly hip music selection (filled
with Brooklyn indie trios, five-piece Montreal bands and whatever
else I happened to be shuffling through in my iTunes this month) was
refreshing and surprising. In many cases I enjoy the chaos and unpredictability
of a good dive bar, but occasionally I like to remember that I am,
in fact, a fully-employed respectable member of the adult community
who shouldn't mind drinking my Stella in comfort and generally roach-free
surroundings. The Dove is certainly wending its way into my softening
yuppie heart, and making me realize that maybe my days of slumming
it may have come to an end. [MF]
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