New Favorite Thing: Backyard Beach Bar on Suffolk Street

What has beach chairs, sangria, 5,000 lbs of sand, and lets you shower outside? Welcome to an unlikely tropical oasis on the Lower East Side.

If Jones Beach is too far, and the bocce courts around town are too busy, but you're still jonesing to stick your toes in some sand and sip at tropical drinks, look no further than… the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center?

Okay, so the days-old patio of the Suffolk bar doesn't have a catchy name, but here's what it does have: Beach chairs. Sangria. An impressive 5,000 lbs. of beach sand (apparently some of it shipped from Greece, though we're not sure why). Coming soon: Barbecues and outdoor showers, which should really round out the Spring Breakitude of the whole thing. Best part: The bar (whose offerings are curtailed by its beer-and-wine license) takes up 700 square feet of the back lot of a former public school on Suffolk near Rivington, according to Grub Street, who spoke to owner Drew Figueroa about the strange little island pop-up -- details, hours and address here. (And pick up a bikini before you go here.)

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