Tonight’s Music / West Village – Chelsea

Tribeca Film Festival: Drive-In and Discussions
School of Visual Arts Theater, 333 West 23rd Street
(btw Eighth and Ninth Avenues)
at 3:30 p.m., $25
tribecafilm.com/festival/events

“A series of film-related events continues at various  locations around the city.

Several conversations between actors and directors are also planned. On April 20 at 3:30 p.m. Mira Nair, the writer, director and producer (“The Namesake,” “The Reluctant Fundamentalist”), will chat with the actress Bryce Dallas Howard (“The Help”) at the School of Visual Arts Theater, 333 West 23rd Street, Chelsea.” — (ANNE MANCUSO, NYT)

Kate and Keith Duo-Palooza
55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street
(btw Waverly Place and Seventh Avenue South_
from 6 to 9 p.m., no cover, with a two-drink minimum
(212) 929-9883,55bar.com

“Kate McGarry, an emotionally lucid and musically sure-footed singer, joins her husband, the guitarist Keith Ganz, in a set full of far-ranging material, likely to appear on an album soon.” — (NATE CHINEN, NYT)

Claudia Quintet
Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street
(btw Bleecker and West Fourth Streets)
at 9 and 10:30 p.m., $20 cover, includes a drink
(212) 989-9319, corneliastreetcafe.com

“This precisely calibrated but willfully spontaneous chamber-jazz group led by John Hollenbeck, a drummer and composer, makes the layering of timbre a suspenseful event. The ensemble — now with Chris Speed on tenor saxophone and clarinet, Matt Moran on vibraphone, Red Wierenga on accordion and Chris Tordini on bass — will be playing new music intended for a forthcoming album.” — (NATE CHINEN. NYT)

Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm dates and check times, as schedules are subject to change.

A PremierPub and 3 Good Eating places – West Village

“Pub” is used in it’s broadest sense – bars, bar/restaurants, cocktail lounges, wine bars, tapas bars, craft beer bars, dive bars – just about anyplace you can get a drink without a cover charge.

Corner Bistro
331 W. 4th St.

Sometimes you just need a beer and a burger. If so, Corner Bistro is the place you want. Located just outside the hip Meatpacking district, this corner bar and grill is decidedly unhip, but it’s not uncrowded, especially at night. Seems that everyone knows this place has one of the better burgers in town.

In the maze of streets known as the West Village, where West 4th intersects with West 12th (and West 11th, and West 10th, go figure), you will eventually find Corner Bistro on the corner of West 4th and Jane Street. An unassuming neighborhood tavern, it looks just like dozens of other taverns around town. The bartender tells me that the Corner Bistro will be celebrating it’s 50th anniversary next year. The well worn interior tells me that the place itself is much older.

Corner Bistro has outlasted many of those other taverns around town because they know how to keep it simple — just good burgers and beer, fairly priced. The classic bistro Burger is only $6.75, and should be ordered medium rare, which will be plenty rare for most folks. Actually, it will be a juicy, messy delight – make sure you have extra napkins. I like to pull up a stool and sit by the large front window in the afternoon, where I can rest my burger and beer on the shelf, and watch the Villagers walk by.

Corner Bistro seems to attract very different groups of patrons depending on time of day. While it’s crowded with locals in the evening,  in the afternoon you hear different foreign languages, and watch groups of euro tourists wander in, led by their guidebooks and smartphones.

For the classic Bistro experience, order your burger with a McSorley’s draft, the dark preferably. This is the same beer that you can get over at the original McSorley’s in the East Village, the pub that claims to be the oldest continually operating bar in NYCity. The only difference is that this McSorley’s ale is served with a smile by the bartenders here. Or you  can get a Sierra Nevada, Stella, or Hoegaarden on tap if you want to go upscale a bit. Either way this is a simple, but quality burger and beer experience that is just too rare these days (sorry for the pun).