"MICHAEL CLAYTON starts Friday October 12, 2007. Be sure to go see the movie and watch for Bill's!!! Read more about Michael Clayton on the Internet Movie Database.
  
 
 
 
"TELL THEM SETH SENT YOU"
Weekend In New York | Speakeasies

On April 4, 1929, nine parched years into Prohibition, New York City's police commissioner, Grover Aloysius Whalen, told a crowd at the Rotary Club in Manhattan that there were a whopping 32,000 speakeasies peddling forbidden hooch in New York City.

That was one for about every 215 New Yorkers (including children), and those were just the ones the police had documented. Ten days later, The New York Times called speakeasies — which it also called “resorts” — “one of the outstanding social institutions of New York.”
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OLD-SCHOOL MIRACLE ON 54TH STREET

Of three Zagat-listed restaurants on East 54th Street between Madison and Park avenues, one's about seafood, one's Italian and one's going Asian-esque. But the people at Oceana, Cellini and Monkey Bar have one thing in common:

They all know Aldo, manager of the one place on the block not listed in Zagat - the time-warp known as Bill's Gay Nineties, if you trust the awning, or Bill's Restaurant and Piano Bar, according to its Web site.
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George Clooney and Sidney Pollack visit Bill's

Actually, George Clooney and Sidney Pollack filmed a scene at Bill's for an upcoming movie called "Michael Clayton".

"Michael Clayton" is due to come out in January 2007, so make sure you go to the movies and watch for Bill's.

  
 
 
 
The Biography Channel's "DEAD FAMOUS" looks for the spirit of Mae West at Bill's.

Mae West was a show-off--a sensational showgirl whose wit was as legendary as her contempt for the censors. But she also had a passion for the paranormal that saw her take part in séance after séance. Where better, then, to search for her spirit than in New York.

  
 
 
 
NYC DINING
By Richard J. Scholem
A Restaurant Critic & Columnist for The New York Times

It's known as Bill's, Bill's Gay Nineties, and Bill's 1890's Restaurant & Café – and it is New York’s finest example of a 1920 – 1930 speakeasy. This time-warp restaurant is a piece of New York’s past. Those who walk down a few steps into the brownstone at 57 East 54th Street and push open the saloon swinging doors enter a world of dark wood, checkered table cloths, antique wrought iron chandeliers and bar lights, stained glass, creaking bare wood floors boards, mirrors and old photographs of boxers, baseball players and babes from another era.
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BEST OF NEW YORK - "Where nostalgia is king"
At this piano bar; customers dance to an old familiar song
By Amy DiLuna – The Daily News

I was in a drown-my-sorrows kind of mood. I wanted an inexpensive beer, the comforting sound of a tinkling piano and the feeling that I had a friend in this no-good world.

I found Bill’s Gay Nineties, where the drinks are cheap, the bartender wears a tie and the single upright piano is unobtrusive. Bill’s is part of an old guard of piano joints; it’s neither a cabaret hall nor a swanky hotel bar. It’s a low-key, old-fashioned hangout where neighborhood regulars and tourists alike come for a chat and a snack.
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