Profile

This venue is closed.

Remember in Revenge of the Nerds when the brainy outcasts had to build a frat house? This might have been the result—a collegiate, testosterone-friendly hangout drawing a crowd that’s more about pocket protectors than pool pockets. Appropriately, the step-below-street-level bar was modeled after the owner’s own childhood basement: It has a ratty make-out couch, a Getaway pinball machine, and pin-ups of Burt and Farrah in the bathroom. During the day, when the place operates as a coffee shop, NYU kids bring in laptops and munch on bagels. At night, the scene can get schizophrenic: a group plays Hungry Hungry Hippos at the bar while a woman does her homework at one of the small tables, and a random suit under the influence of the bar’s mid-week, all-you-can-drink special gets his dance on. Not quite Union Square, not quite East Village, The Cellar is a little out there and a little out of the way but the back yard patio may be 14th Street’s best kept secret. — Daniel Maurer

Barbeque: From 4pm-8pm on Saturdays and Sundays during the spring and summer, there is a free rain-or-shine barbeque on the backyard patio.