Gabbing At Gaby's

Friends of mine from Callicoon came down to the city for a week-end’s adventure. This is an annual event for “the girls,” but I and the Mysterious Chinese Woman got invited along for an evening’s entertainment. We started out with cocktails in their hotel room and then had dinner at the Blue Fin. The bar there was too packed to settle in for a drink so we headed back to the Sofitel Hotel and stopped at the bar there.

903) Gaby’s Bar

Shirley, co-owner of Fred and Shirley’s Dollhouse Bar in Callicoon, came down to Manhattan with three of her daughters, Kathy, Laurie, and Mary and hooked up with her grand-daughter Liz and her partner Peter and a friend of Liz’s, Diane. Most of us stopped at Gaby’s Bar for a nightcap.

Peter, Diane, Mary, Kathy, Bar Man, Mysterious Chinese Woman


Gaby’s is an elegant bar, richly decorated with marble , dark wood, and plush leather. The style is a combination of art-deco and French. White ceiling is ringed with paintings of the Eiffel Tower and other French landmarks. The area behind the bar is dominated by a large painting of an elegant French mademoiselle. Opposite from the painting is a large clear glass painting that separates the bar from a lounge area. Painted on the glass panel is a black outline of the French mademoiselle in the painting.

Bar Man Being Served His Bar By Tara


The L shaped bar has dark wood sides. The bar stools are padded leather. The dark wood cabinets behind the bar has glass shelves displaying their liquor bottles. The shelves have mirrored backs and softly back-lit. Small televisions are mounted on either side of the bar.

The lounge area has little green marble tables and a long wrap-around couch covered with a leopard-skin patterned fabric. Above the couch is a spot-lit shelves with clear glass vases containing odd shaped vegetation, some looking like oversized artichokes and asparagus. Framed abstract paintings decorate the walls. A large glass door trimmed with brass opens out onto the street.

I had a glass of beer but don’t remember what kind.