New York on Tap 2008
Archive · modern edition Every bar New York on Tap knew, as it stood around 2008, with a 2026 check on each one. This page in the 2008 edition

No photo of this bar survives from the 2008 site.

Tool Box

1742 2nd Ave.
Upper East Side, Manhattan

In 2026

Still pouring

Checked October 16, 2026.

Show on the map Directions See the 2008 page

Overview

There's gay porn on the TV, Go-Go boys, and the walls are bedecked in metal fencing. We recommend it as an ideal place to form beautiful, lasting relationships - particularly after 2am in the downstairs lounge.

History

A lasting relationship with the Upper East Side

New York Press once wrote that nowhere was the difference between living and living on the East Side more noticeable than in the Tool Box, the neighborhood's sole gay bar at the time1. It had been open for almost 20 years, the last two at a spot a few blocks south of its original home1.

When we listed it, the walls were bedecked in metal fencing, and we recommended it as an ideal place to form beautiful, lasting relationships.

It seems to have formed one with the Upper East Side: in 2024 a local site called it a beloved gay bar that, after decades in business and three years proudly visible to the neighborhood, continues to forge strong ties2. The Toolbox Bar is still at 1742 Second Avenue3, open from 4pm until 2am Monday through Thursday and until 4am on Fridays3.

Sources

  1. nypress.com
  2. uppereastsite.com
  3. thetoolboxnyc.com

Researched October 2026.

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