The pop-o-matic Bar Report

You know you are at a swanky joint when the coasters on the bar are crisp, white, hand-stitched cloth squares rather than the usual soggy cardboard circles with adds printed on them. I'm still not entirely sure why we were doing happy hour at The Star Bar in The Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South last night but I generally go where I'm told so there I was.

Despite this current location for the Ritz-Carlton being just a few years old, the hotel and bar have the feeling of old world New York with luxoriuos fabrics, rich woods and more marble than a Roman bath-house. With furniture and accessories that look like they may have once belonged in a Czar's palace, the place is gaudy but not too much.

I imagine that on nights where the crew I was with aren't there it's a quiet and stuffy setting but we managed to have a great time basking in the opulence and enjoying the talents of famed bartender, Norman Bukofzer. You aren't getting out of a place with a "famed" bartender cheaply, which is why this is the perfect spot to bring your parents from out of town when they visit you in New York.