16 country joints that bring some honky tonk to NYC -

Explore More

When you’re living in New York City, getting in touch with your roots can seem as likely as squeezing grits from a stone. I know: After growing up in South Carolina, I’ve been on the hunt for country-music haunts and bona-fide barbecue since moving to Brooklyn eight years ago.

Well, bless my heart: I finally found them!

Country music has been making inroads in the city — Little Big Town is playing the Apollo Theater Saturday night, after stopping Thursday at Carnegie Hall. And other folks who grew up south of the Mason-Dixon Line are happy to see the music, food and fashion they know and love finally take root in the city.

“It seems like, [since] moving to NYC something like 14 years ago, that this kind of music has grown,” says musician Frankie Sunswept, who books roots and world-music acts at the Jalopy Tavern in Red Hook. But even he seems to think that trend seems like “the most un-New York thing.”

Jaylin Ramer, owner of SoHo’s far-out Western outfitters, Space Cowboy Boots, says her clients these days include Lil Nas X and Post Malone. Lately, she says, she’s seeing stylists coming from fashion magazines two or three times a week. “They want a very American look,” she says.

If you’ve found yourself two-steppin’ to Tim McGraw in your studio apartment, hankering for BBQ or reckon yourself a rhinestone cowboy — or cowgirl — we’ve got the down-home joints for you. Here’s where you can go, as Hank Williams Jr. would yodel, “honky tonkin’ ’round this town.”

Hoedowns

1 of 14

In this here city, there’s a stomping ground for every scene, including the country bumpkins. And y’all can feel right at home at the Jalopy Theatre & School of Music (315 Columbia St., Red Hook; JalopyTheatre.org) where they showcase roots and world music almost every night. Jalopy’s booker, Sunswept, says its weekly, Wednesday night Roots & Ruckus variety show is the best introduction for first-timers. On some nights, a dance instructor might teach guests the Cajun two-step before a Zydeco act. For the cowpokes, there’s Little Laffs: a monthly kid-friendly variety show, and, for the pickers-and-grinners, a bluegrass jam on Tuesdays that’s BYOB: Bring your own banjo!

Just next door at Jalopy Tavern (317 Columbia St., Red Hook), guys and gals working up a thirst can grab a brew and boot-scoot the night away to country, klezmer or even Chuck Berry-inspired R&B. In April, Jalopy will host the Brooklyn Folk Festival, the largest in the city.

The Big Apple Ranch is New York’s one and only LGBTQ-centric (and straight-friendly) two-stepping and line-dancing event. For $15, movers and shakers of all experience levels can learn classic country steps and put them into play until the party ends at 1 a.m.

“It doesn’t matter who or what role you play,” says co-founder Susanna Stein, who encourages switching teams — on the dance floor, that is. “Women can lead, men can follow.”

Their event goes down at the Dardo Galletto Studios (151 W. 46th St.; BigAppleRanch.com) on the second and fourth Saturday every month. Often there are themed events, such as the annual Leather Meets Levi’s night (Jan. 25), featuring a performance from the in-house dance crew, the Manhattan Prairie Dogs.

“It’s warm, welcoming and friendly,” says Stein. “[It’s] good, clean fun, and that’s not always easy to find.”

Honky-tonks

1 of 14

After a week of workin’ “9 to 5,” you can head on over to Dolly’s (101 Kent Ave., Williamsburg; DollysBk.com) where they drink to the “godmother of country music” with every sip. “This is the decade of the woman,” says co-owner Devin Schuck, who opened Dolly’s last month. Both he and Parton share a birthday — Jan. 19 — which he’ll celebrate Sunday by spinning Dolly all the day long. Theresa Brown, co-owner and interior designer for the bar, spent five months sourcing album covers for a shrine to the 9-time Grammy-winning artist she calls “empowering.” You’ll find those covers in the bathroom, where patrons can tinkle to Dolly and Kenny Rogers’ duet “Islands in the Stream.”

Dolly’s isn’t the only laid-back watering hole in town. For the last six years, you could hang your cowboy hat at the Waylon (736 10th Ave.; TheWaylon.com), named for outlaw singer Waylon Jennings. Co-owner Pete Smith compares his bar to a “Smalltown, USA” dive, and aims to be “a solid neighbor and member of the community.” Solid, but raucous, especially when acts including the Mavericks or Waylon’s son Shooter come to hang there.

There’s also Patriot Saloon (110 Chambers St.; 212-748-1162), an all-female bartender dive in Tribeca, and one of the few Manhattan bars where you can still find a beer for under $3; the East Village’s Doc Holliday’s (141 Ave. A; 212-979-0312), the biker-friendly, Texas roadhouse-style tavern; and the hip honky-tonk Skinny Dennis (152 Metropolitan Ave., Williamsburg; SkinnyDennisBar.com), where you might catch a disco-country set from Houston-based DJ duo Vinyl Ranch.

Good eatin’

1 of 6

These ain’t your mommas’ kitchens! At Mothership Meat Company (27-20 40th Ave., Long Island City; 347-808-7078), you’ll find globally inspired riffs on Texas barbecue. The eatery’s pride and joy is a 1-ton rotisserie smoker that pitmaster Josh Bowen affectionately calls a “hell-beast.” He says it took him about three to four years to get the city’s approval for the giant oak-wood smoker.

“I get to wake up every day and be a pyromaniac,” Bowen says, “5:30 a.m. with a flamethrower.” He considers his latest smokehouse, which opened last year, his barbecue “lab,” where spice-and-meat combinations are mixed in a way he describes as “galactic barbecue.”

The popular Peaches HotHouse (Bed-Stuy and Fort Greene; BCRestaurantGroup.com/Hothouse) serves Nashville-style hot chicken — crispy fried chicken doused in hot sauce or spice, with all the fixins’. There are Peaches in four New York locations, including the Southern coastal-inspired Peaches Shrimp and Crab in Clinton Hill, and the original, upmarket American eatery Peaches in Bed-Stuy.

New York is blessed with a bevy of Southern-style eateries, including fried chicken and pie slinger Pies ‘n’ Thighs (166 S. Fourth St., Williamsburg; PiesNThighs.com); the brisket bosses of Hill Country BBQ (30 W. 26th St.; HillCountry.com); the elevated Southern fare at Root & Bone (300 E. Third St.; RootNBone.com); and Southwestern-style Cowgirl (519 Hudson St.; CowgirlNYC.com), one of the few places with the fabled corn chip-chili-nachos concoction called Frito Pie.

Gussying up

1 of 14

Space Cowboy Boots (234 Mulberry St.; SpaceCowboyBoots.com) owner Ramer regularly travels to León, Mexico, to oversee the production of her Planet Cowboy brand of boots. She claims they’re perfect for life in the city. “They’re work boots,” she says. “They don’t look comfortable, but you can stand in them for hours.” Aside from her colorful line of kicks and other classic American boot brands, Ramer also deals in traditional cowboy hats, bolo ties, Western belts and buckles.

Western Spirit (392 Broadway; WesternSpiritNYC.com) is a carnival of all things Tex-Mex, featuring 6,000 square feet of Western wear, including hats, boots, belts, ponchos, embroidered button-ups, turquoise jewelry and a whole heap of fringed fashions. They’ll also help you outfit your home with traditional pottery, serapes and other handmade goods.

ncG1vNJzZmimqaW8tMCNnKamZ2Jlf3F7j2pmam9fZoNur86upa2qqWK3sLXNrapmrJiWwW6u0aKloGWjpLqmeceopaSxXam8r7eMraZmpqmYfA%3D%3D