This Italian Speakeasy Is Expanding to the UES

For the past two years, the only way in was to find an unmarked door inside a Long Island City warehouse, climb a flight of stairs, and walk down a hallway lined with black-and-white family photos. Starting July 23, there’s a much easier way: walk down First Avenue.

Bar Enzo, an Italian-American cocktail bar, is opening its second location at 1073 First Avenue (between East 58th and East 59th streets), roughly two years after the original made a name for itself as one of the more improbable date-night rooms in Queens. The team began teasing the buildout on Instagram earlier this year and has been documenting the renovation ever since.

Bar Enzo is a project of Joe Schinco, a Queens native whose company also runs the beer-focused Greats of Craft. The original bar occupies the second floor of the Greats of Craft warehouse on 43rd Avenue, a roughly 35-seat room done up in green velvet, brass and marble — what Time Out once described as a 1960s cocktail lounge with a streak of “grandma core.” The bar program comes from Attaboy alum Steven Lewis and leans heavily on gin, amaro and reworked classics.

The name is not a marketing invention. Enzo was Schinco’s grandfather, who left Sicily for Queens in the 1960s, and the bar bills itself as a tribute to the basement parties he threw. The family shows up on the menu, too: one drink is an Italian michelada built on sweet vermouth infused with a grandmother’s meatball spice blend, and another is a mix of Tuscan red wine, cola and ginger — reportedly Enzo’s own go-to.

The First Avenue room is being pitched as more of the same feeling in a different key. Bar Enzo’s website describes warm lighting, antique bronze details, layered tile, framed family photos and a bar made for lingering, aimed at after-work drinks and long conversations rather than a scene.