L'Officiel USA talks to the guys behind the Lower East Side cocktail bar and its umbrella group, Paradise Hospitality.

&ldquo;I mean, is our sign too obnoxious? Is it obnoxious enough?&rdquo; ponders Ryan Gleason,&nbsp;restaurant operator&nbsp;of Pretty Ricky&rsquo;s, which judging from its name would leave anyone to believe this newly minted Lower East Side establishment has more to do with <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/categories/wellness">wellness</a> or hair care than what it actually is: a grown-up den of delight.

&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got something for everyone here,&rdquo; he adds, as he points to the 40-ounce&nbsp;Colt 45, then to beverage director Will Wyatt&rsquo;s simplified list of six <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/travel-living/guaro-colombia-summer-cocktail-drink-2019">cocktails</a>, just when chef Jeremy Spector says &ldquo;yeah, but we also have a porterhouse steak for two.&rdquo; Nightlife on the Lower East Side has long been New York&rsquo;s sloshy spray of dive bars, burlesque clubs, and choose-your-vice houses of ill-repute&mdash;and where those under 25 tend to trawl on Saturday night. The latter hasn&rsquo;t changed much, which is in part responsible for the local vernacular of dubbing Orchard and Ludlow Streets between Rivington and Stanton as &ldquo;Hell Square,&rdquo; or &ldquo;the cologne zone.&rdquo; Yet, as Gleason says, &ldquo;people still need a place to go on a Tuesday.&rdquo; So with Pretty Ricky&rsquo;s, &ldquo;there&rsquo;s always that feeling that &#39;Oh my god, am I doing right by the neighborhood?&#39;&rdquo; he adds.

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Photo via Instagram / @prettyrickysbar

Gleason, Spector, and Wyatt have long been in hospitality. Along with their cohorts Eric Kruvant (himself &ldquo;Pretty Ricky&rdquo;), Darin Rubell (in fact related to the late Studio 54 co-owner&nbsp;Steve Rubell), and Jamie Felber, they have recently formalized their relationship into something of a formal partnership under the umbrella of Paradise Hospitality. Between &ldquo;this group of six very different personalities and opinions,&rdquo; as Wyant calls them, the crew has built a roster of formidable bars that are also <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/travel-living/must-try-ny-eateries-2019">restaurants</a>, restaurants that are actually bars, and many a cocktail in between. Likely anyone who&rsquo;s drank downtown has sat on a stool belonging to Paradise Hospitality: whether at near-decade-old Boulton &amp; Watt, newcomer Mister Paradise, once-Cafe Orlin now-Paper Daisy, and shaken-and-stirred Drexler&rsquo;s.

But Pretty Ricky&rsquo;s is more flexible than its brethren. Perhaps that stems from its focus on beer, which simply emerged from Gleason&rsquo;s own proclivities as a brewer (&quot;it&rsquo;s a pleasure of mine&quot;), or perhaps it arrives from the physical space it&#39;s in: the former Spitzer&rsquo;s Corner. &quot;It was an <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/art/swiss-institute-new-location-nyc">institution</a> on this corner,&quot;&nbsp;adds Wyatt. But at the end of the day, &ldquo;Food brings people in and keeps people here. And we wanted a beer bar that looked nothing like a beer bar,&rdquo; says Gleason, &quot;and something that just screamed fun.&quot;

Downtown New York Hotspot Pretty Ricky's Has Something for Everyone

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