Manhattan, NY Restaurant Review: Live Bait

If you are looking to grab some decent food and drink in the Flatiron District, you can try Live Bait, a bar and restaurant that serves Cajun cuisine. It attracts a lot of Wall Street types since it is next to Deutsche Bank, and a few other financial firms, not to mention CUNY's main business school Baruch College (which is how I discovered it). So it is a bit steeped in pretension, not to mention oft-told college tales. If you want a seat at the bar, take the day off and come in at about 3:00 in the afternoon. It gets crowded very, very quickly.

The food is robust and greasy, the kind of food that goes great as prelude or postscript to about a dozen shots of Patron and a day off from work. With a Jameson neat, I would go with the Country Fried Steak, Macaroni and Cheese and Collard Greens. With a rum and coke, try the Seafood Jambalaya over Dirty Rice or the Plantation Gumbo. They also have an oyster bar. The food is not spectacular but it is in great supply, and it is substantial. It is not that cheap, but you are more prone to ignore the prices when you have sampled the fare and some alcohol. The appetizers average $9.00 dollars, the sandwiches $10.00 to $13.00 dollars and the entrees about $15.00 dollars.

I have experienced far better service from the servers than the bartenders who have always seemed very annoyed when I have ordered food at the bar. I thought perhaps it might be about tips; they expect the Wall Street types to tip well, and I do not fit that profile. I have not observed huge amounts of money being thrown around as tips though, and I usually am a pretty generous tipper. Regardless, the iciness of the bartenders, especially during off-peak hours, leaves much to be desired.

It is an all right spot for lunch. The service is fast, and the food is just a bit above average. As a bar, it is decidedly average. But if you are in the area, Live Bait is at 14 East 23rd St between Madison Avenue and Broadway, and is open Monday through Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. and Sundays from 11:00 a.m. to 12: 00 a.m. You can get there by taking the N, R or 6 subway lines to 23^rd Street.