The Rum House

The Rum House
The Hotel Edison
228 W 47th St
New York, NY 10036

Is it a cocktail bar? Is it a piano bar? Is it a drinking hole for tourists in Time Square?

These questions swirl themselves around in your mind -- much like the brandied cherry in your Old Fashioned -- to an unresolvable conclusion while drinking at this bar on a busy Thursday night. But after hearing some fierce piano-ballad renditions of Gun and Roses "Paradise City" and Eddie Money's "Take Me Home Tonight," you don't really care: You soak in the campy, bedlam of this Times Square bar much like the boozy cherry in your drink.

The Rum House is a vintage piano bar with decent cocktails. The place definitely has some character with all the old oak paneling and ironwork, akin to the Algonquin and the Oak Room, boozy dens of iniquity during the Mad Men era. I had a drink named after some deposed Latin American general with tequila, bonal gential, and bitters, but much like Reagan's foray into that region's politics in the 1980's, it was ill-advised meddling at best. The Full Sail Session Dark Lager (only $5!) was much better; it's crisp, malty, and caramel notes has made it my new session drink wherever I find it on the bar menu.

Am I'm a sucker for old-fashioneds, time-worn bars, and 80's power-ballads? Perhaps. But Rum House is a surprisingly good bar in this area.