Jolly, red-suited revelers will take to 32 bars and restaurants in midtown Saturday. Brynn Gingras reports
Jolly, red-suited revelers will take to 32 bars and restaurants in midtown Saturday as the festive but controversial SantaCon bar crawl winds through the Manhattan neighborhood.
Organizers normally announce bars along the bar crawl's route on social media one at a time but this year revealed the bars that would host Santa suit-wearing participants a full day ahead of the event.
SantaCon organizers said the change was made "in order to create the lowest possible impact on the city" amid protests in the wake of a Staten Island grand jury's decision not to indict an NYPD officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner.
Organizers urged participants to only go to the establishments it designated as part of this year's bar crawl. They also asked participants not to linger in the streets when moving between bars.
"If a venue isn't on this list it's because they don't want you there," organizers said on the event's website. "Please move around throughout the day from venue to venue but spend most of your time inside, not on the streets."
SantaCon, which draws thousands of revelers each year, has been criticized by some for being too rowdy.
Some community boards have banned the event from their neighborhoods, and several bars announced before last year's crawl that red-suited patrons wouldn't be allowed inside.
Local
NJ Transit, LIRR and Metro-North are banning alcohol on trains during SantaCon, as the commuter rail lines have done in previous years.
The bars participating in this year's crawl include:
• Butterfield 8 at 5 E. 38th St.
• The Australian at 20 W. 38th St.
• Vivid Cabaret at 61 W. 37th St.
• Reichenbach Beer Hall at W. 37th St.
• The Keg Room at 53 W. 36th St.
• Beer Authority at 615 Eighth Ave.
• Galway Pub at 7 E. 36th St.
• Suite 36 at 16 W. 36th St.
• Slattery's at 8 W. 36th St.
• The Liberty at 29 W. 35th St.
• Playwright Irish Pub at 27 W. 35th St.
• Foley's at 18 W. 33rd St.
• Feile at 131 W. 33rd St.
• Stout at 133 W. 33rd St.
• Jack Dempsey's at 36 W. 33rd St.
• Rick's Cabaret at 50 W. 33rd St.
• Blarney Rock Pub at 137 W. 33rd St.
• Rattle N Hum at 14 E. 33rd St.
• Nelly Spillane's at 18 E. 33rd St.
• Maru Karaoke Lounge at 11 W. 32nd St.
• Lucy's at 1 Penn Plaza
• Joshua Tree at 513 Third Ave.
• The Thirsty Fan at 254 W. 31st St.
• American Whiskey at 247 W. 30th St.
• Slake at 251 W. 30th St.
• Red Room at 251 W. 30th St.
• Mustard Harry's 352 Seventh Ave.
• Pioneers Bar at 138 W. 29th St.
• Tempest at 407 Eighth Ave.
• Mustang Sally's at 324 Seventh Ave.
• 230 Fifth Avenue Rooftop & Lounge at 230 Fifth Ave., Suite 1806
• The Big Man at 134 First Ave.
