When I dined recently with three friends at the Knickerbocker Bar & Grill on University Place in the heart of Greenwich Village, I was surprised by who was filling nearly every one of its bar stools. Most Village restaurant bars these days are inhabited mostly by Gen Zers in their twenties and Gen Xers in their thirties with rarely a person over 50 years or so in sight.
But at the Knickerbocker Bar & Grill, nearly every bar stool was occupied by guests 50 years and older, and they were all talking, despite placing their smartphones on the bar. What gives?
Knickerbocker Bar & Grill is a steakhouse, known for its 28-ounce T-bone steaks, more than as a neighborhood bar. Ron D’Allegro, one of its managing partners, explains that it’s been around since 1977 or 48 years, and its bar attracts a slew of regulars and mirrors the atmosphere of the 90s TV show “Cheers,” where everyone knows your name.
“We welcome new people, but the older folks feel comfortable here,” D’Allegro explains. It attracts regulars because it keeps its liquor prices moderate and “that helps keep the seats full.”
Why does it attract so many people aged 50 to 80? D’Allegro says there’s no loud music blasting away so it’s a calming atmosphere for many people of that age.
He acknowledges that “we’re missing out on the NYU-type student, but that’s fine. We attract the professionals and locals from the neighborhood.” Many of them are retired psychiatrists and attorneys, “people who had good careers and are interesting,” he points out.
In fact, it contains 13 seats at the bar, sells 8-ounce glasses of wine costing $13 to $16 a glass and $8 draft beer. It opens at 5 p.m. and by 6 p.m. invariably every bar stool is occupied. And bartenders Fiona, Norma and Hazel get to know the regulars and what they order.
Indeed D’Allegro describes each bartender individually. “Fiona is engaging and a true New Yorker and knows the city well, Hazel has been around forever and is very efficient, and Norma is a great mixologist and loves serving good quality liquor,” he explains.
Hence, the regulars get to know the bartenders and each other, their tastes and habits, and look forward to seeing each other, forming a kind of meeting place and community. And many return several nights a week.
Not only can they sip their draft beer, glass of wine or club soda, but they could order any items on Knickerbocker’s menu from burgers to T-bone steaks. And he adds the menu is extremely varied going beyond what traditional steakhouses offer and that includes home-made pastas, cold salmon, and its chocolate souffle dessert for two has a following.
Many of the regulars opt to dine at the bar so those 13 seats are like extra seating in the dining room and help boost revenue on a steady basis, D’Allegro points out.
And Greenwich Village is so dynamic that the neighborhood is always changing. New families moving in have been transforming the neighborhood, he points out, of late.
If two women in their late twenties found some stools at the bar, D’Allegro said they’d blend right in with the over 50 crowd, no problem at all.
Knickerbocker Bar & Grill, like every local eatery, endured many changes during the pandemic. It used to be open from 11:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. pre-Covid for lunch and late-night dinner. But after Covid, he couldn’t find the right staff to hire, and it’s now open only from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. so it’s a much more concentrated time period.
What these regular bargoers do ultimately for Knickerbocker Bar & Grill is create “consistency in revenue,” and that’s a good thing, D’Allegro concludes.