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.

A New York on Tap pick

Bacaro

136 Division St. · btwn Orchard & Ludlow
Hells Kitchen, Manhattan

In 2026

Still pouring

Checked October 16, 2026.

Show on the map Directions See the 2008 page

Overview

Situated in the most unlikely of areas, this cavernous, candlelit wine bar and restaurant is at time raucous, at times intimate, but always warm and charming.

History

Named for Venice, adopted by the galleries

Bacaro takes its name from Venice's workingman's pubs1. By 2008 the new double-tiered restaurant had quietly become an art-world clubhouse, thanks to its manager and part-owner, Kama Geary, and it often hosted the after-parties of the surrounding galleries1.

It opened on Division Street, on the Lower East Side, in 20072. Much of the menu was created by the chef Frank DeCarlo, who owned Peasant with his wife, Dulcinea1. When we listed it, we said this cavernous, candlelit wine bar sat in the most unlikely of areas. The galleries around it didn't seem to find it unlikely at all.

It's still at 136 Division Street, and in 2025 the city had it down as a wine bar2, 3. Doors open at 5pm2.

Sources

  1. newyorker.com
  2. bacaronyc.com
  3. nyc.gov

Researched October 2026.

What's nearby