One thing I love/hate about New York is how each neighborhood is ripe to being “saved.” The Lower East side, for instance. Before it was home to hipster bars such as Piano’s and Dark, the Lower East Side housed anyone who wanted to take advantage of the area’s cheap rents and who was capable of ignoring the junkies living in the abandoned buildings and the needles littering the sidewalk. The Meat Packing District is Manhattan’s latest district to “find God,” or in the very least, a little trend. Now the Meat Packing District boasts overpriced apartments and metro-sexual bars.

Most of the bars around this area are upscale and a bit clubby, such as Tonic, Glow, Marquee, and Lotus. But there are also places in the middle such as Gaslight and Rhone and there is always that beer-drinking, classic-rock playing hole-in-the-wall, The Hog’s Pit.

I am going to give you a run down about some of the places I visited in the area and maybe it will help you choose which places to hit when you are in the neighborhood.

Bre and Whitney

Marquee: Upon entering the bar, the loaded business man we love to bring out with us had to shell out a few hundred dollars for a table and one bottle. My advice: leave your financial woes at home and bring along a nice (read rich) guy. In the past, I have tried getting in on my looks alone. I took down my long blonde hair and helped out the chest god with some embellishment, but I got no response. Apparently Marquee is desensitized to cute girls. Once inside we danced to clubby music, although I did recognize a few top-forty tunes underneath the dance remix beats. Our table was downstairs, but I think the next time I go I will spend more time upstairs in the cozier hip-hop room. It’s more my style!

Gaslight: Fun hip hop/ eighties style dance music, but what a tease, there is no where to dance. But not to worry, this does not stop the random intoxicated girl from breaking it down in the middle of the standing-room-only bar. I went to this bar on a Friday night but I hear it is much cozier on weekdays. Gaslight has cute sitting areas that are hard to find amongst the weekend crowd, but it would make for great date place during the week. Too bad I haven’t had the chance to try it out!

Penthouse at the Gansevoort Hotel: I can really only say one thing about this very modern, dark bar: $14weak martinis do not agree with my bank account or my buzz.

Rhone: This bar’s previous life as a garage is very obvious. And I’m not going to lie - it is kind of frightening. Now, granted, I was terrified watching the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie which reeked of fake blood. Apparently Rhone has an amazing wine list, but I felt like was aging along with the Merlot in the wine cellar. I think I prefer a cozier atmosphere.

Pastis: A trendy French bistro much in the style of it’s Soho sister, Balthazaar. Pastis is a great late night eatery and the bar is always packed… we actually had to wait in line, college style. But when we finally got in it was worth the wait. We immediately found some older Wall street types to supply us with endless martinis . Try the blackberry martini - it is served on the rocks which I found to be a little odd, but who can resist a fresh blackberry perched on top? It was all kinds of yum!

Jeff Libo and Bre

Hog’s Pit: Any bar that has Stella on tap has a place in my heart. At the Pit I felt as though I was home at Ohio State and some drunken frat boy was going to break out with the fight song. The jukebox was playing classic rock songs. But I sure as hell was not going to find someone to pay for my beer here. It was a mix of lost fraternity boys trying to reclaim their college days and guys who were just really excited by the fact that they had finally found a bar on this street they didn’t have to shower to get into. Luckily for me, for as much as I can be a trendy, martini kind of girl, I also have a beer drinking side so I definitely had a good time. It was a nice change from the meat packing norm. But don’t get me wrong. I’m not down on pretentious crowds and trendy bars, as long as I can find a sugar daddy and don’t have to suffer through too much techno!