The night of the “Love Island” finale last month, I stumbled into the Waiting Room, a cavernous cocktail bar on a quiet block in downtown Hoboken. On screen, the lusty contestants paired off; in the bar, the overwhelmingly female crowd erupted — jeering and howling as if they were watching a championship game. Aperol Spritzes flowed, charcuterie boards vanished, and every eye remained glued to the giant projection TV near the entrance until the winners were announced. “Normally we’d be a ghost town right now,” the bartender said.
The bar’s owner, Pat Light, a former Major League Baseball player who now runs several Hoboken bars, admits he originally removed most of the mounted televisions when he took over the space in late 2023. Seeing the need for more cocktail-focused concepts in the area, he spruced up the interior and revamped the drink menu with modern classics like the Paper Plane and Pornstar Martini to attract a more discerning crowd.
In the craft cocktail world, televisions have long been a pariah — frowned upon as distractions that disrupt a bar’s carefully curated mood. But many bar owners and beverage professionals are reconsidering that stance, finding ways to integrate screens into their bars without compromising the experience. The stigma seems to be fading in certain circles, especially in higher-end hotel bars that cater to a more diverse clientele.
“While televisions in cocktail bars have traditionally been associated with sports, that’s only one side of the story,” says Light. “Reality television has become a cultural staple, and we’ve embraced that trend.” The Waiting Room has hosted a series of watch parties throughout the summer in conjunction with a local women’s social club, For The Girls & Co. Hosting these events, Light says, also helps introduce the bar to local women in the area. “It creates a shared, social experience that’s surprisingly well-suited to a cocktail bar environment,” he says.
Destigmatizing Screens in Bars
Since Sasha Petraske posted his “house rules” at Milk and Honey 25 years ago, cocktail culture evangelists have dedicated themselves to not only improving the quality of the drinks, but also curating ambience that encourages guests to focus on what’s in the glass. Most bar industry luminaries, including Petraske himself (who never had televisions in any of his bars), would agree: Screens kill the vibe.
“A cocktail bar is about intention. Everything from the lighting to the music to the way drinks are served is curated to create a specific atmosphere,” says Jason Hedges, director of beverage for LT Hospitality, who oversees the bar programs across three venues inside New York City’s Kimpton Hotel Eventi. “Introducing TVs into that setting shifts the focus outward, toward passive consumption, rather than inward, toward conversation, craftsmanship, and connection.”
Others, like Fiona Hynes, corporate director for food and beverage for the Arlo Hotels in New York, Chicago, and Miami, have warmed toward tactfully deployed TVs. “When you’re paying attention to every single shaker and cocktail glass that goes on your bar and sourcing all of these beautiful things, so much effort goes into creating what you want the vibe to be,” she says. “Then you turn on a TV and all of that changes.”
Still, she’s seen how selective TV use can draw new guests without alienating the existing crowd. “In these hotel spaces, we need to be everything for everybody,” Hynes says. “It’s a challenge, and we’re trying to do it in the classiest, most thoughtful way possible.”
Discretion Is Key
At Old Wives’ Tale, a speakeasy in the Wynn Encore Resort and Casino in Boston, a 75-inch Samsung Frame TV is recessed into a wall overlooking the cozy lounge area. The $3,000 flat screen is rarely turned on; most nights, it displays the set’s built-in artwork, such as a vintage world map, which can be easily mistaken for fine art or ephemera.
“The TV is only illuminated and broadcasting about 1 percent of the time in that space,” says Alec Kass, corporate beverage director for Carver Road Hospitality, who oversees the bar program at Old Wives’ Tale. “In the event that the Celtics are playing and someone wants to buy out the space to drink a whole bunch of Old Fashioneds while the game is on, they can use the TV however they like.”
“When we opened without TVs, it really hurt us. The market just didn’t respond, so we had to adapt and meet customers where they are.”
These buyouts can be lucrative — one recent group of businessmen ordered thousands of dollars of ultra-high-end whiskeys like Gordon & MacPhail “Rare Old” and Bowmore Aston Martin Master’s Selection, products that Kass says rarely sell on a typical night.
But TVs don’t fit every venue in the company’s portfolio. Kass and his colleagues debated for months about whether to install a TV behind the bar at Rosevale, their swanky New York City bar, and ultimately decided against it, concluding that it would alienate more guests than it attracted. “We still have the original TV we purchased three years ago and wheel it out occasionally for private events, like a watch party for the Tony Awards.”
At the Dead Rabbit in New York City, co-founder and managing director Jack McGarry added TVs two years ago, but only for sports featuring Irish teams such as Six Nations Rugby, Gaelic Games, or the final round of Rory McIlroy’s Masters win. “It’s done deliberately, on our own terms, and once the match is over, the TVs go away,” he says.
In Austin, where the Dead Rabbit opened a second location last summer, TVs turned out to be non-negotiable. “When we opened without TVs, it really hurt us,” McGarry says. Now, the bar shows almost all major sporting events. “The market just didn’t respond, so we had to adapt and meet customers where they are.”
Hynes stresses that guardrails are essential. “We avoid airing news, political programming, standard television shows, or movies, and we typically keep subtitles off — unless a guest specifically requests them — as they can be a distracting element,” she says. The sound never plays inside the bar, and violent sports like boxing and UFC are forbidden.
Widening the Tent
According to Light, airing the “Love Island” finale at The Waiting Room boosted sales by 50 percent compared to a typical Sunday. He’s still reviewing the data, but early returns suggest that semi-regular reality TV watch parties on otherwise quiet nights could significantly enhance revenue. “There is definitely an audience, specifically a female-driven audience, that comes out and enjoys a cocktail or two and a charcuterie board for these shows,” he says. “But it’s not strictly about numbers. We are building community and giving our guests what they want.”
Hynes agrees that the benefits go beyond the bottom line. “What matters most is creating an environment where guests feel at home and genuinely happy,” she says. One recent afternoon in Miami, a hotel guest asked her to turn on a telenovela — the type of program the bar would normally avoid airing. When she learned the guest’s cousin was appearing in that day’s episode, she made an exception.
“At the end of the day, hospitality is about making everyone feel welcome,” Light says. “Some guests want to engage in conversation over drinks, while others prefer to relax and catch part of a show. By offering TVs as an option, thoughtfully integrated into the space and easily hidden when not in use, we can serve both crowds.”
