The One Who Keeps the Book New York
How to Get Into Tigre on the Lower East Side
When the team behind Williamsburg’s beloved oyster and cocktail bar Maison Premiere debuted its first bar in Manhattan, expectations were high. And given the weekend crowds at Tigre on the Lower East Side, it’s safe to say they’ve been met. But where Maison Premiere is an homage to New Orleans and old-school maritime references, Tigre is new and shiny (literally — there’s a lot of mirrors and chrome); a sleek lounge with a doorman, private booths, drinks inspired by Playboy’s “Host & Bar Book,” and interiors that reference the disco era. In fact, Grace Jones was a muse for the design team.
Cocktails have names like Carol Channing, Airmail, and Rolls Royce, plus there are sections devoted to “coolers” and “mists,” which feature tropical juices mixed with single, lesser-known-in-the-U.S. spirits like sotol and bacanora. Still, the draw for many is the martini section, which features martinis by ratio, a curated selection of frozen gins and vodkas, and two original concoctions: the Perfect, made with Thomas Dakin Red Cole gin and Mauro Vergano Luli, and the Cigarette, featuring Empirical Spirits Charlene McGee, Truman vodka, and Cap Corse vermouth.
This isn’t the kind of bar that you can stand around in, and the best way to get a table or coveted booth is with a reservation. But lately, those have been hard to come by. In this edition of The One Who Keeps The Books, we spoke to co-founder Joshua Boissy to help you score a seat.
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Resy: When do reservations open up at Tigre?
Boissy: Thirty days out at midnight.
And how quickly do seats usually get booked?
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are booking two to three weeks in advance pretty quickly.
How many seats and tables are there at Tigre?
If you add up how many people can actually sit somewhere, roughly 60. And if we’re going to utilize some of the standing room — we have butt rails, basically it’s like this little rail on the wall that you can rest your butt on — we could go up to probably 70 with standing.
Can you reserve a space at the rail?
We normally use that for people that are on deck. A lot of times, people will come for a reservation, and if somebody has overstayed (we allow one-and-half-hours per reservation per table), it impacts the next round. We do our best to encourage people to move on to keep it moving, but sometimes that’s not easy. And then at times where we don’t have that issue, we’ll take walk-ins for [the butt rail].
What You Need to Know
Tigre
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Plan Ahead
Reservations drop 30 days in advance at midnight. -
Must Order
The Cigarette Martini. -
Pro Tip
Dressing for the room (sleek disco funk) is appreciated, and if you want to request a private snug for a smaller group, email connect@tigre.com.
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The Layout
There are about 60 seats total and standing room for about 10 people waiting for tables. There are eight seats at the horseshoe bar, which are reserved for walk-ins only. -
Walk On In
Bar seats are held for walk-ins but you might be able to get a table as a walk-in if you’re willing to sit for a smaller window of time, between reservations. Late-night (after midnight) is the best time to snag a table as a walk-in.
When someone’s making a reservation, can they choose a particular table? I’m curious about those chic, private booths I saw when I was there.
We call them private snugs. Those weren’t originally for guests; those were closets and then we converted them and made them really luxe and people actually love them. Right now, those snugs are just a part of our floorplan because Tigre is small and those snugs can seat larger groups. So, if you try to book a party of five, six, or seven, that’s most likely where you would end up, if those were available. But we kind of want to see how the next quarter plays out, and then I think we’ll start to create the ability to book those and reserve them, which would come with some type of elevated fee.
How about the seats at the bar?
We don’t reserve the seats at the bar. There are eight seats to the bar and those are for walk-ins every night.
What would you say are the quieter nights at the bar?
Well, coming off the holidays and dry January, I would say Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday would be the quieter nights, specifically on the Lower East Side. I find those to be quieter for drinking.
Is there a time that the bar is quieter? When I went at 6:30 p.m. it was packed!
Believe it or not, we’re actually busy [on the] early [side]. And that goes for every day. You would think that a cool, sexy cocktail bar on the Lower East Side, that late would be hard, but actually late is the easiest. Hard is six o’clock, five o’clock. On the weekends, obviously, it’s busy late. But even that, if we’re open until 2 a.m. on the weekends, you know, by 12 it starts to calm down, and you could definitely get in between 12 and 2 pretty easily.
How many covers do you typically have in a night?
On a busy night, it goes between 250 and 280. When we first opened, we could push 300, but that’s where people were getting upset because their table wasn’t ready. So we stopped that.
Do you utilize the Notify list?
We do pull a lot of people from Notify. It can be upwards of 200 people on a busy night, but with that said, I would definitely go on the Notify list.
Any tips for getting in on a busy night?
A lot of times, you’ll roll by and there happens to be a gap. If you’re really sweet, and you just say, hey, we can be in and out in 30 to 40 minutes, we have those windows all the time.
You kept the outside door untouched, surrounded by graffiti and with no sign. Do you consider Tigre a speakeasy?
No, it’s not a speakeasy. But there is the hall of mirrors and the beautiful candle burning and fresh flowers. And that was very intentional. There was a long hallway and we thought we could create this anticipation, where you come in and you get hit with a scent and the sound and it locks in the reflectivity. You finally enter the room and the Ojas speakers hit you, and you realize that you’re somewhere kind of special.
So, we have to talk about the martini program.
We like to do things that aren’t being done, that have integrity, or that have history to them. Things that are forgotten, if you will. We wanted it to be a serious vibe, a really sexy, sophisticated vibe that we feel is missing from the market right now. When it came to the drinks, it was almost less is more. What are the things that are just timeless, that in any environment feel appropriate. And I think for us, we like martinis. Although there’s this kind of martini craze that’s going on, but then again, I do believe — without sounding cocky or arrogant — that Maison Premiere is responsible in great, great part, for establishing this renaissance.
Fast forward to Tigre. Will [William Elliot], who’s our managing partner and bar director, had this idea of doing martinis by ratio. It basically has a ratio from softest to driest, and it tells you what the ratio is, so if you know nothing about martinis, you could sit down and our server would say martini by ratio is basically your options, you can start off with the softest, meaning it’s gonna have more vermouth, down to the driest, which is basically going to be just straight gin, or whatever you choose. And then we have the gin and the vodka section, which we have six frozen gins and six frozen vodkas. And then there’s a couple of classic martinis, like the Perfect martini and the Cigarette martini, which is not a classic. It’s one that Will created, which has gone completely viral and everyone’s freaking out about it. It was named a top martini of America in Esquire and now there’s a story out in New York magazine about it.
Cool. Well, what’s your favorite martini?
I’m boring, but I’m definitely the 16-to-nothing, bone-dry Old Raj with a lemon twist.
Right now, there’s just nuts and olives for soaking up those martinis. Are there plans for a more robust food menu?
Yes, so there is a basement kitchen, which is part of a bigger basement renovation project. That kitchen will be done in the spring and there will definitely be some small plates coming.
Tigre is open from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sundays to Wednesdays and from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursdays to Saturdays.
Devorah Lev-Tov is a food, beverage, and travel journalist with bylines in The New York Times, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Eater, Vogue, and more. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, two children, and senior shih-tzu. Follow her dining adventures (usually at a reasonable hour) on Instagram. Follow Resy, too.
