Goodbyes are easy at The Irish Exit

WORK • Commuter Report

There’s a food menu at The Irish Exit, a new bar in Moynihan Station from the team behind Wall Street cocktail den Dead Rabbit, but at 5p last Wednesday, no one sitting at the bar was eating. This was commuter drinking, focused and efficient.

We circled the bar three times before finding a pair of stools, right behind the bar-top espresso martini machine. The gentleman next to us drank Guinness, Airpods in, his two iPhones facedown on the bar.

Per the bartender, the specialty of the house is “whiskey,” but we opted for the cocktail menu, which is elaborate in a way perhaps unsuited to drinkers with trains to catch. Still, our “Last Class Pass” and “Lost & Found” were mixed and served in the time it took for the ticker with cheeky slogans above the bar to reset. 

Over our drinks, we discussed whether the gentrification of train hall drinking and dining — from tallboys in ice chests to a cocktail list conceived by the owners of a former “best bar in America” — is progress or encroachment. Verdict: Maybe a bit of both. –Josh Albertson

→ The Irish Exit (Moynihan Train Hall) • Mon.-Sun. 10a-12a • 421 8th Ave.