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Buster's Garage is the official NASCAR viewing location of New York City
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Sports fans assembling in bars around the city to watch their teams compete is nothing new. But until recently, NASCAR-loyal New Yorkers have had no official gathering place to cheer on their favorite drivers. Now there is a downtown destination spot to watch the fast-moving action, a bar and restaurant where you can view the explosive, high-speed sights and sounds of stock-car racing.
Buster's Garage -- located at 180 West Broadway between Leonard and Worth Streets -- opened just last September. The Tribeca bar offers a menu of entrees featuring everything from nachos to grilled swordfish, and 10 TVs to watch the latest games, from college football to the NBA. This spring, NASCAR -- stock-car racing's sanctioning body -- selected Buster's Garage as its official NYC viewing location, where there are now auto-themed parties to celebrate the second most-watched professional sport on television.
Visitors to Buster's Garage walk into an airy, wood-paneled room, the walls decorated with NASCAR posters and framed photographs of racing superstars like Jeff Gordon. The space formerly housed an auto body shop, so the owners of Buster's Garage creatively refurbished the three original garage doors with glass and steel, which now open onto a finished deck facing West Broadway.
There is a 40-foot-long dark wood bar, where patrons can grab a pint of one of the 12 beers offered on tap and sample traditional bar food like chicken fingers ($7), nachos ($6), and chicken quesadillas ($8). In a separate dining area, Executive Chef Matthew Miluk serves BBQ and Creole-inspired dishes like pulled pork ($9) and beef brisket sandwiches ($8) as well as more formal entrees like braised lamb shank ($21) and grilled salmon ($17).
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| Buster's Garage has 10 TV's for watching NASCAR, as well as other sporting events |
While enjoying lunch, dinner, or a late night snack (the kitchen stays open every night until 11 p.m.), you can also catch all kinds of sports action on the bar's plentiful TVs, which include three projection screens and two plasmas. A new upstairs patio, to open in time for the summer, will feature a raw bar of chilled oysters and clams.
For manager Debbie Dziena, part of the attraction of being located in Tribeca is the role that a popular sports bar and restaurant like Buster's Garage can play in restoring Lower Manhattan.
"We want to help rebuild the area," Dziena says. "I really would love to see this place become a kind of neighborhood bar."
The relationship between Buster's Garage and NASCAR began when Andrew Giangola -- Director of Business Communications at NASCAR and a Tribeca resident -- noticed the downtown bar as he was walking along West Broadway.
"NASCAR was looking for a venue to conduct viewing parties," Giangola said, "to give fans in the tri-state area a place to come and watch the races. Buster's had the automobile motif so the connection made a lot of sense to us."
Now, Buster's Garage hosts auto-themed parties to kick off the races. The bar is decorated with colorful NASCAR posters and banners. As fans gather around to watch the competition on the oversized projection screens, there are raffles where patrons can win tickets to races like the recent Pocono 500 at the Pocono Raceway.
"It's like a day at the race without actually being at the race," says Dziena. "We're giving NASCAR fans something they didn't use to have. They don't have to stay home anymore."
For more information about the next NASCAR party, visit Buster's website.
Buster's Garage, 180 West Broadway, (212) 226-6811
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