Sid Gold’s Request Room might be New York’s newest piano bar, but it has an old soul. The Chelsea hotspot, which has been drawing karaoke fanatics, Broadway stars and Hollywood types since opening this spring, boasts not only a grand piano but a chic, retro design and a menu of classic cocktails and bar snacks.
It’s no surprise the venue combines the present and the past so well, however, considering one of its owners is Paul Devitt, the brains behind the salon-saloon hybrid Beauty Bar. His road to opening Sid Gold’s started two years ago when, burned out from non-stop travel, Devitt began to search for a new venture. He found just the right partner in Joe McGinty—the creator of the hit musical event Loser’s Lounge—who was hosting piano karaoke at the Brooklyn boîte Manhattan Inn. “I approached Joe at the Manhattan Inn one Tuesday night,” Devitt recalls. “I said, ‘Hey, how are you? Remember me?’ Of course he did and, as they say, the rest is history.”
Sid Gold’s Request Room
What Devitt and McGinty have created at Sid Gold’s, however, isn’t quite your average piano-bar experience. “I always wanted to do more of a rock ‘n’ roll take on a piano bar,” McGinty says, “because a lot of the classic New York piano bars are very show tune-oriented, which is fine, but not what my friends come to.”
What McGinty’s friends, and plenty of other revelers, are flocking to are theme nights like girl-group karaoke as well as shows from up-and-comers and musical luminaries alike; the vibe is always laid-back, something that’s evident in the bar’s most-requested karaoke favorites, which include “Don’t Stop Believing,” “Killing Me Softly” and “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
In other words, a night at Sid Gold’s Request room is musical without being entirely about, well, musicals. It’s got all the charm of a piano bar, but the spirit of a rock club; really, it’s the sort of New York haunt where anything could happen. McGinty couldn’t be happier; he says, “That was always a dream I had.”
Sid Gold’s Request Room, 165 W 26th St., (212) 229-1948
