International Bar
The Spaghett here is a can of High Life with Aperol in it, $10. You take it out to a patio coated in graffiti.1
Why go
This is the third room to carry the name. International opened on St. Marks Place in 1979 and moved over to First Avenue. It poured at 120 and a half for more than three decades, then served its last round there. Shawn Dahl and Molly Fitch had brought that room back in 2008, after it sat empty for years. In November 2017 they moved the whole thing one block south into Coal Yard, another bar they owned.6 The neon Marlboro sign came too.1
Julien Levy wrote for Time Out New York that the staff of the neighborhood's other bars and restaurants drink here late. They mix in with the regulars.3 The bar itself is a semicircle, so the room talks to itself.3 A beer runs about $5 to $9. A cocktail runs about $10 to $15.4 Justin Goldman opens his Eater dive list by saying the city's bar scene has become notoriously expensive.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the pickle martini. Molly Fitzpatrick, reviewing the bar for The Infatuation, names it the best drink off the round bar.2
- Order: dinner somewhere else and carry it in. Paulie Gee's is next door and the bar lets you bring food.2
- Avoid: turning up late if you came to talk. Levy's own advice is early for conversation, late for disappearing into the room.4
What locals & experts say
- Moe Aljaff opened the cocktail bar Schmuck with Juliette Larrouy across First Avenue. PUNCH asked him in November 2024 to name the one New York bar he loves most, and he named this one:
it's going to be the dive bar where you go when you are like, I need a break from this place.
His own room is over the road, and he says so.5 - Levy, in that February 2026 Time Out review, on who the room is for:
all are welcome, and none are special, but that's a dive for you: a place where, if you expect nothing, you're liable to find anything.
3 - Fitzpatrick, in The Infatuation in August 2026:
This dark East Village spot with a jukebox, neon beer signs, and a small back patio feels much cozier than a bar this divey has any right to.
2 - Justin Goldman keeps it in Eater's fifteen best dive bars in the city. He last rebuilt that list in May 2025 and added four rooms to it.1
Good to know
- Timing: it opens mid-morning and runs to the small hours, seven days.7
- Booking: walk in.
- The door: 102 First Avenue, next to the McDonald's.5
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "PDT rec for dive bar"
Verdict
should-visit — Walk in. There is one door, nobody takes a name, and what you are really buying is whoever is working that night. Ask for something simple and let them steer.