TAKE A ‘BAR’ EXAM!
W. Village pub swabs
Finally, a pandemic-worthy happy hour special: A swab and a beer.
The West Village’s Henrietta Hudson bar has found a way to make COVID-scared customers feel safe drinking indoors by requiring — and giving — free coronavirus tests at the door.
The bar — one of New York City’s three remaining lesbian bars — now requires patrons to get two no-cost schnoz swabs before entering, one for a PCR test and the other a rapid antigen test.
“Owning a business in New York, you can’t just sit back and pass blame, you gotta figure s--t out,” Henrietta’s Lisa Cannistraci told The Post of the pioneering initiative. She came up with it after the Omicron variant began sweeping the city last month and quickly moved to partner with the federally funded community outreach initiative City Testing Services, which provides and processes her patrons’ tests at no cost to the bar.
Tavern on the ‘screen’
Still, don’t expect to see scrubs-clad nurses administering the swabs. Working the bar’s new testing center is its own staff, seven of whom have now become certified nostril stirrers.
“I thought I was gonna have to sell it, but there was no hesitation,” said Cannistraci of asking her employees to start slinging assays. “We’re basically a pop-up testing station with in-house swabbers.”
City Testing Services did not return The Post’s request for comment.
The walk-in clinic (which also offers the ability to preregister online) has been operating outside the Hudson Street watering hole since Dec. 30 and is open to all, even those not looking to chase their test with a drink, Curbed reported.
For those who are looking to get Q-tipsy, though, the experience pairs wonderfully with the Cough Drop, a custom cocktail creation by one of Henrietta’s bartenders involving Jameson whiskey and lemon juice.
‘People are so grateful’
So far, just under 400 people have been tested at the pub’s new clinic, which holds slightly shorter hours than the 30-yearold bar (6 p.m. to midnight Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays). And not only have wait times peaked at just 40 minutes, but the tested can wait for their rapid results in outdoor cabanas while a cocktail waitress takes drink orders. (The PCR test results are sent to customers once they’re processed.)
“It’s the cutest thing. It feels like an amenity,” Cannistraci said of the set-up.
However, there’s “nothing gimmicky about it” she clarified. “It’s about care for the community. I just felt it was the right thing to do.”
And, as a result of customers feeling safer thanks to the test requirement, she said they’ve been staying longer, sufficiently offsetting revenue lost to her implementing stricter capacity restrictions at the beginning of the current surge.
“It’s not a perfect model, but we’re taking that extra step. People are so grateful,” she said, adding that she highly recommends other business owners consider hosting clinics as well.
“I’ve been around forever and I don’t ever make recommendations to other bars,” she said. “It has been wonderful for us.”