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
Whiskey Ward, photographed for New York on Tap
Photo from the 2008 site

Whiskey Ward

121 Essex St. · btwn Rivington and Delancey
Lower East Side, Manhattan

In 2026

Closed; now Sadie's Ward

Last licensed here under this name: 2022–24.

Checked October 15, 2026.

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Overview

By Chris Lukic

A drinking bar usually full, but rarely overcrowded. Not a bad place for picking up what with the enormous bar, friendly pool table, and a long shared sex line for the bathroom.

History

Not the rent, for once

The Whiskey Ward spent nearly 24 years on the Lower East Side1. We once called it a drinking bar, usually full but rarely overcrowded, with an enormous bar and a friendly pool table.

Co-owner Sandee Wright decided to leave in 2023, and at the farewell that September she said the closing was her choice, not a rent increase: "We're going out under our own terms"1, 2. She also said whiskey, of all things, had been hard to come by since COVID2.

Sadie's Ward, owned by former bar manager Stephanie Watkins, took over the room on January 9, 20241. It keeps half the old name and the address, 121 Essex Street, and is open seven days a week until 4am3.

Sources

  1. evgrieve.com
  2. evgrieve.com
  3. sadiesward.com

Researched October 2026.

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