Came to The Haunt to see James McMurtry - anyplace in NY that will book him is a place I'd go to again. Â Ample parking is available, albeit hard to figure out when a show draws a big crowd (don't park in the bus lot). Â The layout inside lends itself to a good viewing experience. Â Bar service was slow and the locals crowd a bit too much at times. Â But all in all it's what you'd expect for a hole in the wall bar. Â Did not try the food - it smelled good though.
Review Source:I went to the Haunt again last night with a group of girlfriends for karaoke night. The crowd was fantastic--a really colorful selection of students and townies alike (it's universal--everyone loves a good karaoke night!)--but the overall experience was not good enough to make me want to go back again. I get that it's called "The Haunt," but I'm always baffled by the decor of this place...it's like it's trying to exude some southern charm with the fake window boxes and ivy climbing up the walls, but the wrought iron fence and gravestones and skeletons over the bar just gives the impression that the clearance rack at a Halloween superstore threw up all over the place. Not to mention that everything is clearly covered in an inch of dust.
The BBQ can be hit or (usually) miss. Of the four times I've been there, three have been a miss. Wednesdays happen to be wing night as well as karaoke night, so we all shared a few different flavors of the smoked wings (meh), sweet potato fries (average), and nachos (disgustingly soggy). Someone later tried to order ribs and the waitress (apparently there is only one for the whole place, so you might as well order two beers at a time) mentioned that they were out, because Thursdays are their smoking days. So...does that mean that the wings we were eating had been smoked a week ago? Hmm. Maybe that would explain why they weren't that stellar.
The location of the haunt kept me from visiting for months. Â It's "on the wrong side of the tracks" and looks a little shady from the outside, but rest assured, it's a hopping music venue with a friendly crowd. Â I popped in on a random night out and ended up staying all night listening to 2 great funk acts from NYC and a local 9 piece horn band. Â
The layout of the space is a little odd, but the acoustics are good and they seem to book talented bands. Â I was underwhelmed by the bartenders (they didn't know how to make anything beyond the basics and even the basics tasted iffy) but I really enjoyed the music and had a great night out. Â I'll definately go back.
Thursday nights are "Ribs night", and they serve up fresh BBQ ribs hot from the smoker at $1/bone. Â The quality of the ribs vary from night to night, and if you are lucky, they can be damn delicious.
Interestingly, ribs night also coincides with karaoke night, and the music is dauntingly loud making it impossible to maintain a conversation.
Waiting staff is nice and beers are cheap, although the Guinness has always been fairly flat.
I've decided to do a numerical list of things that are wrong with the Haunt. And while there's an obvious less-than-zero joke hidden in here somewhere, I'll avoid any further Bret Easton Ellis references.
1. The music.
Unless you like droning, repetitive techno that would make Skinny Puppy shit itself inside out in agony (makes Daft Punk sound like Does It Offend You, Yeah) or some local band scoring big on finding big nice drugs for the owner and convincing him to let them play in the hopes of fame, groupies, and drugs of their own, you're going to have a rather unremarkable time with it.
2. The people
Well, this is Ithaca's club. Which means you have Ithacans in there. And if you're not entirely aware, most Ithacans are about as pleasing to be around as a pack of senile, boozed up ducks, always quacking some opinion in some issue they don't understand. If they're drunk, they're even worse. I swear you could shout the word "bush" in there and they'd all start talking like political pundits of lesbian analysts.
3. The atmosphere
Much like an aspiring sociopath, you get the sense people are only in here out of desperation, not any allegiance towards The Haunt itself. A rather dank aura of "well, why the hell not" permeates the air as well as the stale, sharp aroma of watered-down whiskey shots. Yes, I know it's difficult to classify a smell as both stale and sharp, but believe me, it's there. You know what I'm talking about.
4. Robert Downey Jr.
He's not there! I mean, come on. Okay, that was a really obvious reference, but they can't all be gold. Go see Kiss Kiss Bang Bang or something.
5. Trying to get out.
I swear, I came this close to being mugged when I came out of there. I didn't even know there were muggers in Ithaca. I thought everyone was too bloody timid to do anything but shout like-minded liberal opinions at each other. It turns out I was wrong, and in fact there was someone trying to roll me. Unfortunately for that dimbulb, I was out of cash, having spent it on the crappy drinks, and instead ending up giving him a tip on who not to attempt to mug and encouraging my friend to puke on him.
There you have it. I'll recommend the Haunt to people, but only really boring people with stupid opinions who can't actually handle their liquor...which, come to think of it, is a lot of Ithacans.
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