My girlfriend and I found this bar when she first moved to NYC a few years ago. I still lived outside of town, but every time I came to visit her we ended up at Parkside for drinks or music, or both.
While there's no grill (even though the sign atop the building says otherwise), there's plenty of booze at unheard of prices for Manhattan, and at night, a little hidden room in the back plays hosts to live music.
We've seen everything from bluegrass to punk rock to Latin music in that back room and most of it was free and actually pretty good. We almost always found a seat, except for the time when it was absolutely packed for some live karaoke band.
The front is more of your typical LES dive bar, but we had many late nights playing pool or chatting up some locals. Just make sure you bring your A-game for the pool table, some of the players are really good.
Pros: Cheap drinks, live music
Cons: Bit of a walk, bartender with dreads isn't there anymore
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