Hoop Dreams

We have a theory about drinking at bars during March Madness.

It goes like this: the amount of effort it takes to acquire a seat during a game (wheedling, elbowing, making the friend that nobody likes get there early, etc.) is directly proportional to how much said game will stink. As in Duke will win. And your wings will probably be cold.

We have an alternative.

Throw your pom-poms up for Elite Eight-Top, a chance for you and seven pals to enjoy gratis cocktails in the hidden haberdashery below The Ainsworth before enjoying a regional finals game from the comfort of your own private table.

Just enter right here.

Your evening begins with a one-hour open bar in The Ainsworth’s Windsor Custom, a clandestine atelier where they stitch custom suits and shirts with top-notch fabrics from spots like Loro Piana and Thomas Mason.

Have a scotch. Play a little pool. Perhaps get fitted for that linen two-button you’ll need when the mercury rises.

Afterward, adjourn to The Ainsworth’s handsomely woody upstairs bar, where your table awaits with buckets of beer, appetizers and a commanding view of Dick Vitale’s cartoonish visage on flatscreens of copious dimensions.

There’s a method to this madness.

Meet your guide

The Editors

Sometimes our crack team of editors collaborate on stories. Given that our crew has written for the likes of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vice, Men’s Journal, the New York Daily News, The Paris Review and countless other outlets, this is a good thing.