Korova Milkbar, East Village, New York City, USA
Created | Updated Nov 11, 2011
The Korova Milkbar was a milk-plus mesto, and you may, O my brothers, have forgotten what these mestos were like, things changing so skorry these days and everybody very quick to forget, newspapers not being read much neither. Well, what they sold there was milk plus something else. They had no license for selling liquor, but there was no law yet against prodding some of the new veshches which they used to put into the old moloko, so you could peet it with vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom or one or two other veshches which would give you a nice quick horrorshow 15 minutes admiring Bog And All His Holy Angels And Saints in your left shoe with lights bursting all over your mozg. Or you could peet milk with knives in it, as we used to say, and this would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of dirty 20-1, and that was what we were peeting this evening I'm starting off the story with...
- Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
New York City has a lot of bars with unusual themes and decor. However, the Korova Milkbar is probably one of the most disturbing. Named and modelled after the milkbar of A Clockwork Orange where Alex and his droogs would fuel up before a night of ultraviolence, it is quite a distinctive location for late-night boozing in the East Village (it's located on Avenue A a few blocks north of Tompkins Square Park). The bar is decorated in a similar fashion to the bar in the movie ('Moloko' in a wavy 1970s font interspersed with naked white female mannequins mounted to the black walls), but it is not a strictly exact reproduction - unlike the movie, beverages are not dispensed from the mannequins' nipples. Monitors embedded in the walls play footage from bad horror movies or whatever other unusual films the owners are into. As well as a few tables and seating at the bar, there are some nice vinyl couches (white, of course) that are often fought over on busy nights. There's also a jukebox stocked with contemporary tunes (as well as the Clockwork Orange soundtrack for the obsessively minded).
Unlike the book, Korova is licensed to serve alcohol and offers your standard range of drinks. In addition, the menu also features several molokos. Named after various minor dead celebrities1 these drinks are made from ice cream blended with alcohol and served in a tall glass. They're quite good, though they contain a substantial disguised punch which can sneak up on you. Although a bit on the pricey side, they are worth trying if you find yourself at the Korova. The bar is open every night of the week until 4am, but it can be quite crowded at weekends with Bridge and Tunnel people2, so weekday nights are recommended. The Milkbar also hosts a few weekly DJ nights.