Pier A Harbor House

"Do you like summer? Do you like seafood? Do you like eating and drinking outside? If you answered yes to any of the those three questions, Pier A Harbor House needs to be on your radar. New for summer 2015, Pier A is a monster bar and restaurant located at the southwestern-most tip of the Financial District. This place is absolutely massive. It's literally an entire pier, the kind they sometimes have huge concerts on, converted into a bi-level bar and restaurant with tons of outdoor seating. With a direct line on the Statue of Liberty, it's the single best view a restaurant can offer in NYC. During sunsets, you absolutely can't beat it. Pier A has plenty of big tables both inside and out, which are ideal for large groups, and the menu is full of straightforward, unremarkable seafood that's easy to share. The food is not the reason you're coming here, although we're still thinking about the po boy sliders. The view is the draw. It's nice to be a tourist in your own city sometimes. Lunch is the best time to come here, as it's pleasant and relatively empty. You can chill, take in the sights, and try not to get drilled by the heater that's blasting hot air underneath your table even though it's beautiful outside. From happy hour through dinner on nice days, this place is off the chain. Packed. So much action. At those moments, the scene transforms into some Jersey Shore meets Surf Lodge meets The Boardy Barn (does that place still exist?) scene. After 10pm, people seem to clear out, and you're left with a big empty room that's still got some modern remix of Darude "Sandstorm" with Chris Brown "rapping" turned all the way up. FiDi is not a late night kind of scene, but they do serve a limited late night menu here just in case you find yourself hungry for oysters and calamari at 3AM. If we're being honest, without the overall setting, Pier A is probably gets a 6.0 rating. It's the kind of place you should go once, just to see it. Go with your friends for drinks and some light bites. It's an impressive space, and very different from the kind you're used to hanging out at in New York. Plus, you can call your parents and tell them you went sightseeing. Just leave out the part about the 8 beers you pounded in the process. Food Rundown Bloody Mary Oyster Shooters When restaurants serve oyster shooters, we tend to order them. These shot glasses of oyster and tomato funkiness did not disappoint. Warm Giant Pretzel Your newest summer accessory? A pretzel the size of your head. Definitely order this. It's super soft and comes with a real tasty honey and beer mustard for dipping purposes. Oysters They get a nice daily selection of both east and west coast oysters, and also have a pretty impressive full raw bar, but wave had a couple pretty funky batches of bivalves here. Sticking to the cooked foods is probably a good move. Steamed Littleneck Clams A big pot of sweet Littleneck clams, steamed up in flavorful broth. We enjoyed. Oyster Po'Boy Sliders Best thing on the menu. We're still thinking about these simple little nuggets of po boy joy. Maybe cooking the oysters is the key at Pier A. Sleeper smoked onions and a lime tinged slaw don't hurt things either. Definitely order these. Fish & Chips Solid fish. Solid chips. A safe and reliable option. Harbor House Lobster Cutter Instead of a lobster roll, they serve lobster cutters, which are chubbier versions of sliders. We're not mad. Finely chopped, celery and mayo heavy lobster salad squished between toasted potato buns ain't a bad situation by any means. Do it." - Andrew Steinthal

"If you work in FiDi, you probably reach your tourist saturation point when seeing selfies with the bull. So you may be skeptical of a bar overlooking the Statue Of Liberty. While Pier A Harbor House has plenty of people posing for pictures (the views are very good - forgive them), it’s a huge space that doesn’t feel like a tourist trap. Sit at a picnic table with friends and share some pitchers of beer and things from the seafood-heavy bar menu, like the very good oyster po’ boys." - matt tervooren

"There’s no need to double-back and run past that couple still making out on a bench in front of Brookfield Place, so when you get to the tip of Manhattan, take a break and get some food at Pier A Harbor House. They serve oysters and six different types of fried seafood, but we like the bar food here best, like the crunchy and gooey mozzarella sticks, or the massive plate of cheesy nachos topped with chunks of crab. Sit at one of the many picnic tables on the huge outdoor patio, which has the best views of The Statue of Liberty you can get from dry land." - matt tervooren

"Hidden away in the water off Battery Park is one of the most moving memorials you are ever likely to see. The American Merchant Mariner’s memorial, sculpted by Marisol Escobar in 1991, takes the form of three merchant seamen stranded on a sinking ship, terrified, calling for help and trying to reach the desperate hand of one of their shipmates floundering in the water below. The United States Merchant Mariner suffered more casualties than any other American service during World War II, 1 of every 26 mariners would not return home. Facing submarines, mines, armed raiders, destroyers, aircraft, “kamikaze,” and the elements. About 8,300 mariners were killed at sea, 12,000 wounded of whom at least 1,100 died from their wounds, and 663 men and women were taken prisoner.  Some were blown to death, some incinerated, some drowned, some froze, and some starved. Sixty-six died in prison camps or aboard Japanese ships while being transported to other camps. Thirty-one American merchant ships vanished without a trace to a watery grave. The sculpture bears the following inscription: “This memorial serves as a marker for America’s merchant mariners resting in the unmarked ocean depths.” The monument is based on a true event, the sinking of SS Muskogee by German U-boat 123 on March 22nd, 1942. The Muskogee was sailing from Venezuela to Halifax carrying a cargo of petroleum. Without an escort and unarmed, the Muskogee was hit by a torpedo in her engine room and began to sink within a quarter of an hour, 335 miles north-northeast. Ten survivors clung to life rafts in the burning sea as the U-boat surfaced. The submarine captain Reinhard Hardegen took their photograph, and it’s from this, that Escobar based her sculpture.  What makes the memorial so moving is that the helpless sailor in the water is covered by the Upper New York Bay with each high tide. His fingertips permanently out of reach to his companions, he drowns twice a day. The plaque next to the memorial makes the striking statue all the more poignant, where we learn that for the crew of the SS Muskogee; “left to the perils of the sea, the survivors later perished.”" - ATLAS_OBSCURA

"A waterfront FiDi bar with great views is never going to fly under the radar, and you shouldn’t expect to arrive at Pier A and find the outdoor picnic tables empty. But the space is so gigantic that it still rarely feels too crowded. It’s a good spot to get a pitcher of beer or sangria and some fried seafood, as long as you’re fine with occasionally being asked to take pictures of families posing in front of the Statue of Liberty." - bryan kim, matt tervooren