Greatest bartenders in the world.
Great selection of beers and liquors.
The regulars (not including myself lol) are some of the most interesting, well-read, honest to god good-hearted people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing and spending time with.
Fights are broken up quick, please don't come to start trouble.
Location is perfect.
If you behave yourself and treat everyone with respect, you'll be welcomed with open arms.
Great prices.
Great times.
You have a story about this place. It probably goes something like this: It's like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with around the clock happy hour, and you're Dorothy trying to meet the Wizard. Next thing you know, you're drinking like Hemingway on ecstasy and checking your watch like it was your ATM balance. The jukebox has played the same song 2 times in a row, and someone is singing along to it at the back of your neck. You just did a shot with someone you knew in grammar school, and you're about to make out with a regular who's way below your caliber. You go back the next day to collect whatever you left there the night before, and wind up getting drunk again. It's like the film "Groundhog's Day" except this one stars Gary Busey.
Review Source:I been here a few times. Not much to write about. Beer, liquor, bar stool..........
This is definitely an old man's bar with tons of regulars. I like places like this with lots of character, but this place is a real hole in the wall.
Lots of clutter in the back. Old light fixtures. Just dirty. Bathroom is definitely not a 4 star place. More like a hole and stand over it. I know this is rough, but you need to keep bathrooms at a high level of cleanliness.
This place could be so much more. Has lots of potential.
Amazing enough the times I visited after midnight there was a very attractive and trendy crowd. Don't get it.
I have been here twice. Once after a Mets game. I just wanted a couple beers before I went back to midtown. As I sat in the bar, a patron ordered a pitcher of beer- and only ordered one glass for himself. The bartender got off duty and prompty sat down next to me at the bar and kept drinking. He had these classic old school pink colored blublocker style glasses. Â A short time later, a woman in her twenties walked in, claiming some there "owed her money." The off duty bartender got in her face in an amusing manner, tell her "no one owes you shit! Beat it! get out of this place."
Seemed quite routine. At one point in my life, I was going to move to NYC, and was likely looking to live in either LIC or Astoria. Well, that didn't happen, but I could see myself popping into this place off the subway line and ordering my own pitcher from time to time...
I feel like this is the type of bar you go to when you lose your job, your significant other leaves you, your car gets towed and you slip on a banana peel - all in the same day: THIS is the place I'd want to come to just crawl into a whiskey bottle for 3-4 hours and drown my sorrows away.
Just your standard Irish pub with the usual standard operating procedures going on:
-dimly lit
-funky smell (no matter the hour of day)
-interesting/shady characters at the bar, no matter the time
-3rd world country standard bathroom
-cheap drink specials
-a beat-up TV or two to catch the game
Came here on a makeshift bar crawl that I put together with a bunch of friends. Â I called it the Astoria Dive Bar Crawl. Â This was stop numero dos.
The bar was relatively empty, but those that were there were old men who looked like they made homes out of their stools. Â There also looked to be a "party" here that was finishing up. Â They had brought in food and were all hanging out. Â They must have been regulars because they didn't look too happy when we walked in.
Was happily surprised to find a little outside area in the back. Â Filled with smoke, but we made do. Â The drinks weren't expensive, but more expensive than I thought they'd be given the diveyness. Â Probably wouldn't come back, but worked for the dive bar crawl.
First off, let me clarify that this is not a grill in the traditional sense of the word. They do have a grill on the back patio but it is only used on holidays and is usually manned by customers. I'm not sure when "grill" was added onto the name but I've been going there since 2004 and they've never served food like you would expect at a true bar & grill.
That aside, this place has become a second home to me after moving to Astoria a couple of years ago. I used to live right around the corner so it was a curious mix of convenience and danger. I've come to know the bartenders like family and I've yet to find another bar that is as loyal to you as you are to them. I've also gotten to know the many colorful people that frequent the place, both the good and the bad. That is perhaps the thing that keeps me coming back. The place has an authentic vibe unlike some of the other places in the area that practically hit you over the head with their manufactured "atmosphere" as others have so correctly alluded to.
Another plus is that my pool and dart skills have improved greatly. Good players abound in both disciplines and it re-kindled my serious interest in darts. So much so that I got my own set of darts and set out to practice at home. Vinny, the bar's patron saint and weekday bartender, got wind of this and gave me a used dartboard they had lying around for free. Another regular of the bar also donated a brand new professional backboard as well! You couldn't ask for more. I now live closer to the Irish Rover and The Quays but McCaffrey's will continue to be my regular pub.
Stopped in last night with some buddies to catch the tail end of the Yankees game and have a quick pint. That pint turned into four after we felt like we'd been coming there for years. We woulda stayed longer if we didn't have work in the morning. It's everything ya look for in your local dive bar. Grab a stool, order a pint, the bartender will take care of ya.
Review Source:This is hands down the best bar in Astoria. It's been around since I was a kid, and it'll continue to be open way after those annoying trendy wanna-be hipsters run back home to nowheresville after their trust funds run dry. Vincent is the main bartender there. He's a no nonsense kind of dude, and if he sees that yer okay, he'll take care of you.
The crowd is a mixture of everything and everyone. Here you'll find your locals who never left, the struggling artists, your sports fanatics, the fading alcoholics, your college students, hipsters, what-have-you. You'll be sitting in-between the whiskey shooting grandma and the young struggling actor. You'll be doing shots with your gifted poets as well as sinking lowlifes. It's Charles Bukowski's version of nirvana. It doesn't get any better than this.
Oh, and as a previous review on this site said...it's a great F***k you to those pretentious annoying Astoria trendroids.
My friends and I are major fans of dive bars.  If there is a place with the word "Blarney" in the name, or if the name of the presumably fictional proprietor sounds like  they could be a close cousin to the Lucky Charms mascot, chances are it's our kind of place.
For the longest time, we have been curious about McCaffrey and Burke, but have always kept walking. Â Something just looks imposing about the joint. Â I don't know if it's the location smack dab under the train tracks, the study in contrast presented by Indigo next door, or the fact that you can't see in. Â But for whatever reason, we avoided going in for a long time. Â Perhaps we figured that if we did go in, it would be like that scene in "A Bronx Tale." (Now yous can't leave!)
We finally got over ourselves and went into the place and could not have been more pleased. Â The place is divey, but not in a homey way rather than a threatening one. Â The drinks are fairly priced and the buy backs are ample. Â The CD jukebox is excellent and heavy on the classic rock, a surefire shortcut to a good mood.
I always feel bad when a quality neighborhood place like this is overrun with outsiders who spoil it for the regulars. Â So with all respect to the locals who love this place (and for good reason), I intend to make it a regular stop.
I was not aware that there was a "grill" involved, but my friend and I hit this place fairly often for darts and manhattans. Â I think we're the only people who ever order manhattans there, but they don't give us any grief. Â It's a chill place with good people - from the struggling artists, to the sports watchers, to the hipsters, to the ones who have been drinking there since breakfast. Â If you're looking for someplace "nice" (i.e. polished and proper), this is not your bar, but if you're looking for "real", check it out.
Review Source:To say that this local is a dive understates things; its wood-panel dinge and threadbare pool table are accurate indicators of how long it's been since the place was decorated. The only additions to the look of the place since the mid-70's are the big-screen TVs showing sports all day & night, the LeRoy Neiman knockoff of Joe Namath, and the CD jukebox. (They recently shot an episode of "Life On Mars" there. I'm sure there was very little that needed to be done to the place.) And the locals can be loud, rambunctious and sometimes a little belligerent. This isn't a great first-date place, unless you know who you're meeting enough to know they'd be into that kind of vibe too.
But Vinny is a caring and attentive barkeep, the jukebox is way above average, and even the career alcoholics in the bar are good-natured and reasonably well-read. There's a smoking patio in the back, which is a nice touch, and they do have darts & pool tournaments, and the karaoke night is a very big hit, even though it sometimes gets chaotic. If that's your thing, or if you just want a decent local where you can grab a pint and maybe watch the game, this could be your place.
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