Finding a bit of heaven in Hell's Kitchen

I arrived in NYC on Friday with my buddy Paul for a fun weekend in the city. We took the Acela from Amtrak down to the city and arrived in plenty of time to enjoy Boxers, crazy happy hour festivities.

Bars are not allowed to have happy hour promotions in Massachusetts so true to form we drank more than intended and left pleasantly buzzed with plans to head out to Hell's Kitchen after a quick pit stop back at the hotel to freshen up and a quick bite to eat.

We'd both been to Hell's Kitchen but it had been several years (at least for me since my previous visit). One of the things I really like about the neighborhood is how easy it is to bar hop. We started by checking out Industry. It was one of the busier bars we visited and the music was great, but neither Paul nor I were feeling it so we walked across the street to Therapy. However, Therapy was fairly dead by comparison so we opted to head over to Ritz.

Entering Ritz would make just about anyone feel claustrophobic but of all the places, this had the most energy and the by far - the best people watching. We worked our way to the back room and danced up along the walls.

Paul and I spent most of the evening watching a young couple "get familiar" with each other, some A-List wannabes with killer bodies shake their groove thing and chatting with people to our left and right - there always seemed to be a constant ebb and flow that brought a new someone every 5-10 minutes.

There are plenty of other bars all close by and when visiting its so easy to bar hop its enough to make my head spin. What bars in HK do you like and why? Leave a comment to share because I'm hoping I can head back soon.