New York: Top 10 Places to Get Devoured by a Cougar

Ben Barna

April 24, 2009

New York: Top 10 Places to Get Devoured by a Cougar Growing up, my friends had very traditional pets: dogs, cats, Tamagotchis. My family, being the eccentrics that they are (re: immigrants) made sure that my brother and I had something a little more fierce to play with. Our pet cougar loved us for ten passionate years before his unfortunate death at the hands of a demented hunter. My mother, saint that she is, told her distraught sons that our dead cougar was going to "cougar heaven," a place where "cougars roamed free and never went hungry." Little did I know she was talking about New York City.

● Stone Rose Lounge (Midtown West) - NY’s reigning cougar sanctuary, where newbie Time Warner suits come to get served. Owner’s wife is Cougar Ultima Cindy Crawford. And the fact that I just referred to Cindy Crawford as a cougar makes me feel pruney.
● Nikki Beach A cougar oasis, if you will. No small coincidence that the first cougar I tamed was also named Nikki Beach (she was an amateur porn star). This is where you go to get your tiki torched.
● Geisha (Upper East Side) - Gogougar describes a geisha as a “subservient breed of cougar, and, as a result, a species that doesn’t totally subscribe to the whole Cougar ethic. She’s more interested in pleasing you, than she is in pleasing herself.” We describe it as a posh Japanese restaurant on the Upper East Side in which to get picked up by cougars.
● Bemelmans (Upper East Side) - The great thing about this Carlyle hideaway is that only the rich drink here. The great thing about cougars is that money is irrelevant to them. The great thing about divorces is that they breed cougars. You do the math.
● Cabanas at the Maritime (Meatpacking District) - Cougars love meat and they travel in packs, so the fact that you’ll find them in the Meatpacking District is self-explanatory. And the fact that this island-themed bar resides in a hotel is just lucky.
● 123 Burger Shot Beer (Midtown West) - The opposite of fancy, and that includes the women. Anyone who’s been here knows this place should be renamed 1234 Burger Shot Beer Cougar.
● STK (Meatpacking District) - From Yelp: “The bartenders were nice, and as I was facing them while stuffing my face, we were able to exchange knowing looks when the cougar beside me would lift her breasts and heave them onto the bar while the light reflected on her almost-plastic brown skin as she ordered a dirty, dirty martini.” So yeah.
● Plunge (Meatpacking District) - In the penthouse of the Hotel Gansevoort, Plunge has been code-named “Cougar Central” by, well, me. It’s not very creative, I know, but in terms of accuracy, it can’t be beat. Helpful hint: The pool is off-limits unless you or your cougar are guests.
● Rodeo Bar (Kips Bay) - Question: What is the only thing more cougar than Texas? Answer: A vaguely Texas-themed bar in New York.
● Schiller’s (Lower East Side) - A cougar’s weakness is your strength—it’s called cheap red wine, and this place bleeds it.