The Magician

I was pretty drunk by the time I got here, but the music was good and the beer was cheap.

Great neighborhood bar — good beers (and Magners cider!) on tap. Great and cheap happy hour (although we miss Mike Meyers who was a regular on Saturdays!!). Always a good spot to hang.

it would seem that I checked in to the wrong Magician bar on the mobile app. was it excitement, was it exhaustion, or was it sleight of hand? the world will never know.
The Magician is my kind of bar. inexpensive, laid-​back, casual, and surprisingly spacious with ample seating (it looks small, but there’s a whole big back room). happy hour goes until 8. the music isn’t loud. the bartenders are friendly.
it’s unpretentious, and a reminder that not everything in this damned city has to be a $ 15 drink made with artisanal locally-​sourced fair-​trade organic honey. sometimes you just want to slam down Jameson and Rolling Rock without breaking your wallet, and that’s the greatest trick of them all.

Classic dive bar with a super cheap happy hour, plenty of room for groups (booths at the front windows), music that allows conversation but no more than necessary, and a reliably nonchalant staff. This is my go-​to for happy hour drinks with my co-​workers and we always have a good time.

The magician has been my old favorite for years, but on my last visit they raised the $ 3 happy hour to $ 5 for everything but rolling rock etc. booooooo Guess such is life in the new Lower East Side. This place is dark and divey-​but not too divey or gritty. Good selection of draft beers. The bar is sectioned into two areas so it’s really good for groups or parties if you get there early enough to snag an area. At 6pm on a Friday there is basically no one here, but by 9 it will be slammed like most bars down here. Worth a visit for sure. I generally try to avoid any bar on weekends around here because they are filled with bridge and tunnel messes.

Typical dive bar in LES filled w hipsters! It can be loud at times. Cash only.

Great first stop for happy hour drinks. Not too crowded and great prices.

Came here with my girlfriend — we both loved it. cheap drinks, good times, good vibes.

I have a soft spot for the Magician. Its my idea of the perfect bar, with its tiled floor, low lighting, low key vibe and exceptional 90s Jukebox. This bar fell out of my happy hour dreams with $ 3 wells and beers.
You can walk by it a thousand times and not walk in but its perfect for groups and just by yourself. I celebrated my 27^th here last year — fed the jukebox $ 7 before I realized the Garbage album I wanted to hear was in fact missing (i hope its replaced!).
Come for the happy hour, stay for the Jukebox classics.
All thats missing is some skeeball in my opinion :)

Good dive bar, strong drinks, lost of space & tables — cash only so beware! Nice window views. Bring a friend, bring a date, maybe don’t bring your dog. This is is a great pregame place.

I literally Lol’ed at the reviewer who said the Magner’s glasses smell like pee because the glass I’m currently drinking from smells a little like pee if you think hard enough!
Anyways this place is as no frills as you can get, and considering the area is by far the cheapest place in the L.E.S. $ 3.50 beer during happy hour is all you need to know for this spot. Enjoy.

Came here last night (10/​20/​2015) on a Tuesday for cheap drinks for my friend’s birthday happy hour. You simply cannot beat $ 3 well drinks (we also got $ 3 tequila shots). It is a laid back atmosphere. The bartender was so cool. She looks like Carol from The Walking Dead. She made pretty decent drinks, the place was clean and makes for a good pre-​game spot because again… you can’t beat $ 3 drinks.
It’s cash only and there’s no food here but «Carol» told us there’s a pretty good taco place nearby and she said we could bring food in which was fair
If you want cheap drinks in this area this would be your go to spot

There are 2 bars I like in NYC and this is one of them.

I second the review that said the bartender checking IDs doesn’t play around. I’m of the legal drinking age and have never had a fake ID in my life, but she asked to see it twice, told me I didn’t look like my picture, and then, when she came over to check my friend’s, said, «At least this one has a picture that looks like you.» Either kick me out if you think it’s fake or drop the subject, but don’t take my money and continue to say things like that. It was (and is) a real ID and I don’t really know what a bartender expects you to say to prove it.
This is, for the record, the first bad review I’ve ever written of any establishment. I used to work at a restaurant and have great sympathy for people in the service industry, but I almost left because of this. I would advise women 21+ who look young and don’t want to be insulted to stay away.

Before heading to dinner, I was in search of a happy hour spot. And I found this chill unpretentious bar on Rivington. Awesome place, very relaxed laid back bar. Fyi no matter how old you look, make sure you bring your id. Lady checking ids doesnt play around. A beer & a rum and coca cola $ 6.50. Omg what!!! Awesome. The bar is large and there is plenty of seating. Tables in the front, alongside the bar and the back. I am so happy I found this place. Btw it is cash only. So come prepared to have a great time. I’m definitely going back.

I rated this place 4 stars only because they are cash only.
Aside from being cash only, me and my friends absolutely love this bar. It’s one of those few bars in the city where you generally want to start if you’re bar hopping. It’s generally quiet and empty and you’ll want know when to head out when it starts getting crowded. They open at 5pm and it usually gets crowded around 7pm. It thins out again later when people start going for dinner but I’ve never been around to catch when that happens. They have happy hour right as they open which is half off shots and beers. They also have a special for $ 7 beer and shot. Outside of the happy hour, I’d recommend migrating to your next location.

Really like this place
Great beer selection (on tap/​bottled) and always has a pretty good atmosphere. Drinks are pretty cheap too!
CASH ONLY!

Good option to know about if you’re in the ‘hood during happy hour, and in need of a cheap watering hole. Mind you, outside of happy hour, and/​or if you have more mid-​to-​top shelf tastes, not that different pricing from most midtown/​outer-​borough spots. However, awesome that a dive bar has some nice top shelf options. And the bartender was super nice, accommodating, and gave no judgment when I asked for a Hendricks martini with a twist (and it was made quite nicely, with the rim properly rubbed with citrus).
I liked the open space in the back. The crowd tended to go toward one demographic, but everyone seemed to be quite welcomed. Though, yeah… it gets eerily odd when that jukebox stops going…(drop them dollars, son!)…
And, most importantly, Magner’s on tap!!! ALWAYS good to know (ran $ 7/​pint).

Solid divey spot that’s surprisingly spacious for its LES location. They have $ 7 beer and shot specials, and they are quick and efficient even when the place is filled to the brim.
If you can snag a table in the back, you’re a winner– you are now out of the way of main foot traffic and can sit and chat (relatively) undisturbed.
Staff will occasionally walk around to collect used beer and shot glasses to make sure their bar doesn’t run out of glasses. Help the nice people out and bring your used glasses back yourself.

Came here for happy hour and stayed long enough to see the crowd shift from the hh crowd to the late nighters. Fun 1950’s décor, functioning jukebox with a nice selection of songs, great happy hour specials ($ 2.50 canned beers, $ 3 wells, and $ 3.50 drafts)…what wasn’t there to like? Pluuuus, I read that they apparently don’t care if you bring food from outside there to eat so my hungry ass got a side of medium McDonald’s fries and tore that shiz up. People may or may not have been giving me judging looks, but was it the Mickey D’s? Were they just hungry too? Who knows.
The bar almost felt a bit too big at times, and I would’ve appreciated a smaller, more intimate space in addition to a smidge more light, but not that big of a deal. The crowds that find their way there (at least for the night I was there) were less rowdy and much more chill. They were there to hang out and drink in what seemed to be moderation… but perhaps this changed after the midnight hour. I guess this is good to keep in mind if you’re wondering where The Magician falls in your evening drinking schedule.
Also, if you manage to snag one of the two booths by the front, the shadows cast from the street lights and wooden blinds that cover the storefront windows make you feel like you’re in a deeply intense film noir movie. Just forget for a second that David Bowie is playing in the background. Or don’t.