Scratcher is my new favorite hide-out spot. Its so cozy and intimate! The bartenders are pretty cute too.The music selection is great and they even have meat pies available from Tuck Shop on their menu! You will find me here more often! ;) read more

scratcher isn't a bad bar. it's not exactly a great bar either, but hey, you can't beat the location. smack dab between the LES and east village. i keep coming back because it's around the corner from MenKuiTei. the drinks are a little pricey (says the uber cheap queens resident), but you can always get a seat at one of the many tables lining the walls. i've come here on dates (very low key, aka no pressure), with big groups, and out on a random nights. maybe its the confidence instilled by the dim lighting, or the constant blaring of 80s songs that fell just shy of the top 40, but i always feel comfortable sipping on a red stripe here. read more

Very low key, classic and comfortable pub. The bartenders are wonderful and friendly. The beer selection is basically classics only: Guinesss, Harp, a couple other more mainstream beers. But it's a fabulous place to talk, and sit comfortably. There's a good deal of tables and lots of space, so it's not overly cramped even when its busy. They also have a really good sound, so it's a great place to catch the singer songwriters that they bring in every week for free. read more

$3 dollar PBR. Someone always ends up bringing me here for an end of the night drink, thinking i've never been. Most people don't know the name of the bar, just recognize it by the graphic on the awning. Tuesday night at 11pm no one was around, then all of NYU campus flouded in. I like the bathroom door with boobs on it so I know which one to enter. read more

Dark and dank and unadorned. No TV's, lots of booths. No kitchen but who needs it--just ask your bartender for the take-out menu portfolio. A good place to let your Irish drinking gene off its leash. read more

This is a charming cozy little place to hang out. It really is a great place to go with friends and meet new people. It gets full but never uncomfortably overcrowded. Scratcher's patrons are friendly, but I can't say the same for the staff. The bartenders can be nasty, so they don't get much of a tip from me. They just seem pissed to be there and having to take my order. It's scary. Otherwise, this bar never fails. It just gets three stars because it's not anything overly special - it's just a solid bar with the basics you need on a laid back night out. read more

A laid-back and casual bar tucked away on 5th Street - perfect for grabbing cheap drinks with friends. Not super crowded at 8pm on a Saturday night (which seemed odd), but it was definitely nice to be able to hear each other talk. read more

I feel crazy when I tell people not from the EV to meet me at Scratcher.. sometimes I suggest another place first, then say "change of plans" and hope they don't really notice the semantics around the new location I'm proposing. The Scratcher, however, makes up for what it lacks in nomenclature in stiff drinks, a gritty-ish scene, and acceptable places to sit. The more I come here, the more the uh, charm, of the place realizes me. To bastardize the ol' rose axiom, Scratcher by any other name would still get me just as buzzed. read more

I love this place. Its low key and cozy. Perfect place to go if you just want to hang out with your friends and actually hear them talk. The bartenders are great, and I love the fact that they're cool with you ordering in (just ask for the menu book). read more

Long before the hard drinking yuppie corporate crowd discovered this place, Scratcher was a charming little bar, that served the best guinness in town and you could buy boxes of Lyons tea for $5. But alas like the rest of the bowery this place is slowly going to the pits. Avoid at all costs during the weekend!! read more

I have friends who are gonzo for this place; I'm okay with it. I think our differing opinions hinge on the fact that they live in Manhattan, while I live in Brooklyn. I just assume bars are supposed to be comfortable & relaxed. So I guess that is the moral of the story: if you want to go to a bar with a more Brooklyn feel, & avoid some of the unfortunate atmospheres of Manhattan joints, check it out. read more

Grace, the super sweet bartender let me taste a couple of beers before I settled on the Spring Fling that I refereed to as the sexy lady beer. You can see why when you see the tap. We grabbed a table by the window which gave us a nice breeze from the street. The lighting was nice and cozy. The music was just low enough for us to chat. Happy hour is til 8 which gives you enough time for a few rounds. read more

Francesca kept our pints full and the conversation fresh. Loved this little, dark NYC hole in the wall!

Cool dive bar feel. Lacks the crowd desired on a Friday night. Lots of space to sit or stand. Bartender was very accommodating.

Scratcher, or The Scratcher or Scritchy-Scratch as I like to call it, is the quintessential pub. Hard to find in the states, it is the ultimate hangout for a low-key drink (or eight). Never too crowded, there is always space for you and your friends to shack up for hours at one of the tables. The only reason that Scritchy-Scratch didn't get the full 5 stars is the doorman's attitude and disgusted face when I walked in wearing a Reagan Bush '84 t-shirt. Intolerance is not the way to 5 stars, hombre. read more

By far some of the best service I have ever received. The bar staff are more than happy to drop what they are doing and have a chat with you and make you feel like a regular even if it is your first time. Great beer selection to suit anyone's taste. Cannot recommend more! read more

I really want to like this place and it has reasonable prices. I have gone there a number of times to meet friends and colleagues during happy hour. Of the four or five times I've been there, however, at least 3 of the times my tap beers have been completely skunked. read more

This bar is disgusting. I went here and got a seat with my friend. I noticed that there was a disgusting bug crawling onto the guy's shirt next to me. Freaked out - it was NASTY! I will never go back in here again! There's a whole epidemic of bed bugs going around and I am going to protect myself!!! read more

A moral dilemma for your consideration: A friend of mine had a party here and I went, even though beer and wooden benches isn't really my scene. The place, though, is actually very charming little Irish bar hidden in a basement on 5th Street. If I were the type of guy who says things like "Hey wanna go grab a brewsky?" and I lived in the East Village, this is where I would probably go. But back to my story. When the boys and I arrived, we noticed a full draft beer sitting on the bar, completely untouched. it was in close proximity to some randoms, so we figured it was theirs and thought nothing of it. Then the randoms left, leaving the beer stranded. My friend Scotty and I kept eyeing it periodically, and eyeing each other, until finally I was like "what is this compeltely full, untouched beer doing here?" "I don't know, Sam, I was thinking the same thing..." Well, the next thing you know, YOINK, and Sam had a free beer. Now, I don't even really like beer (although I must say it's growing on me these days...) but I am never one to let alcohol go to waste, and since I wasn't having all that great a time at The Scratcher, the least the bar could do for me is get me a free beer. Am I a horrible person? What's the rule on a stranded beer? 5min? 15? All I know is I have The Scratcher to thank for the beginning of what turned out to be a VERY drunken evening. And should you ever indeed wish to "grab a brewsky" in the East Village, it seems as good an option as any. To me, it will forever be that place where I stole a beer. read more

Great low key place with the best live music on Sundays. A perfect spot to escape the city and listen to some fine tunes.

Had so much fun here that I accidentally left my bag. They were nice enough to hold on to it for me, and I picked it back up a few days later. Can't say enough good things about the staff at Scratchers read more

scratcher has friendly happy hour prices, and a good feel but no food and a sluggish bartender only gets it three stars.

All I can say is that what would have been an otherwise mediocre experience at a rather ordinary dive was completely ruined by an angry, goateed bartender who either left the bar unattended while we waited for drinks or just ignored us as we waited for drinks so he could continue talking to people who already had drinks about, i don't know, his hemmoroids??? i don't care..the point being, at best this place would be okay, but with this guy running the show, it's just a box of bad energy. read more

this place is pretty cool and laid back.. but one of the bartenders is such a jack a** that I dont like to go in there as much, i see him on sundays, nothings worse than a rude bartender especially when u are SITTING AT THE BAR, not to mention he was making out with some girl when we wanted to order drinks.. he has made this really cute place sleazy and suck a** read more

Wow. I went here with a few friends around 7 on a Friday. It was relatively crowded, but nothing unmanageable. After waiting to even be acknowledged by the bartender, I asked her if they had grapefruit juice (not all bars do so I like to make sure beforehand) and she said something sort of dismissively that I couldn't even hear and pointed at the bar. Um...okay? When she came back with my friends' beers, I asked "Could I have a vodka grapefruit?" to which the bartender just replied "NO" and walked away. I thought it was a joke, as I've never been treated SO poorly at any establishment. I don't care if being standoffish is your "thing," if you're trying to get people to give you money, being an over the top bitch is probably not the way to do it. I ended up not ordering anything and I'm pretty sure my party didn't tip because of the incident. It's a shame that the bartender has such a miserable life that she has to project it onto other people - but if you see her (older, dark hair, sort of Asian looking) steer clear. If it wasn't already obvious, I would NEVER go back here and will caution others from making the same mistake I did. read more

during off hours, you'd be hard pressed to find a better bar in the EV. it gets crowded with fratty types on weekend evenings so i avoid on the those nights but if you're looking to have a late afternoon pint, this is the place. bonus: no tv! read more

It is crowded for a reason. Lots of young people, a fun and chatty vibe, but I wouldn't try getting a seat there after 7 on a Friday or Saturday night. read more

super relaxed cozy dive, good to chat in