The Ride-Along Report: First Takes From Last Night’s Dinner

"What It Is: A cocktail and oyster bar with live music on the Lower East Side Perfect For: Drinks and A Light Bite, First/Early-In-The-Game Dates Sometime after walking past the raw bar and cellist, and before drinking a Ms. Jackson (a mezcal cocktail), we decided that Bar Belly would be rejoining our casual date night rotation. This place used to be Leadbelly, and from what we can tell, Bar Belly is almost identical. We sat at one of the small tables towards the back of the narrow cocktail bar, and tried lamb meatballs and octopus as the cellist and two guitarists played in the middle of the space. Also, the oysters are great, especially when they’re $1 at Happy Hour (5pm-7pm). The Verdict: A good new date spot on the LES. We’ve added it to our Bar Hit List." - hannah albertine, bryan kim, katherine lewin, hillary reinsberg, chris stang, matt tervooren