Sophie's East Village Dive Bar Hours and Pool Nights

Sophie's at 507 East 5th Street is the East Village dive bar that pairs a pool table with a jukebox and a no-nonsense neighborhood room, and it has been the block's holdout against gentrification rather than a new arrival. The address matters here: East 5th sits between Avenue A and Avenue B, close enough to the Alphabet City strip that a night can start here and walk anywhere.

It opens at 3 PM every day and closes at 4 AM every day, the same seven days a week rather than a weekend-only long night. It holds 3.9 out of 5 from 442 reviews. The price signal is a single $, and the kitchen side of the listing reads Cuban with bottled beverages, so treat it as a drinks room with a pool table rather than a dinner plan. The one caveat worth knowing before you go is service: recent reviews describe sharply uneven treatment from staff, while long-time regulars still call it a solid neighborhood staple.

Address: 507 E 5th St, Manhattan (East Village, between Avenues A and B)
Hours: 3 PM to 4 AM, every day of the week
Rating: 3.9 of 5 from 442 reviews
Price: $ — a cheap night out by Manhattan standards
Inside: pool table · jukebox · no-frills room
Food: Cuban and bottled beverages on the listing rather than a full kitchen
Phone: (212) 228-5680
Best for: a late, low-key round of pool rather than a first date

It is a dive bar in the working sense of the word: a single room, a long bar, a pool table that anchors the back and a jukebox doing the music rather than a DJ or a playlist. Nothing about the room is staged for photographs, and that is the appeal — the pool table is the social centre, so a game is the easiest way to join a conversation.

Reviews return to the same points: friendly staff in many accounts, cheap drinks, and a crowd that treats the place as a neighborhood fixture rather than a destination. The pool table and the bar split the room's attention, and on a weeknight the table turns over slowly enough that a queue forms behind it. Arrive before 8 PM if the table is the reason you came. The bar is the other half of the room, and the drinks list stays short on purpose: beer, shots and bottled options rather than a cocktail program, which is why the tab stays low across a long night.

The hours are unusually flat: 3 PM to 4 AM Sunday through Saturday, with no late-week variation and no early close. That makes the afternoon the underrated slot, since a 3 PM start means the room is open before most East Village bars unlock their doors.

A 6 to 8 PM arrival gets you the pool table without a wait and a bar you can actually order at. After 10 PM the room fills, the jukebox gets louder and the table becomes a queue. The 4 AM close makes this a legitimate last stop, and because the same hours run every day, a Monday night out is not a compromise here. Rely on that rather than on a holiday schedule you have not checked. Weeknights and weekends behave the same here, so the decision is about the hour rather than the day, and a 3 PM start is a genuinely different proposition from a 10 PM one. Order at the bar on arrival, since there is no table service and the queue at the counter grows with the crowd.

Sophie's is the pool-and-jukebox end of the East Village, and the useful comparison is against the other dive bars within a few blocks rather than against a cocktail room. A dive bar five minutes away leans on darts and sports with a 4 AM close, and a second one nearby runs frozen drinks and fried chicken, which is the version to pick if you want food with the round of pool.

The Bowery side of the neighborhood adds a pool table route that starts at 4 PM, and a Lower East Side room keeps a leopard-print table with pickle martinis for a younger crowd. Choose Sophie's when the plan is cheap drinks, a jukebox and a table you can actually reach, and treat the alternatives as the backup when the table is taken. A short walk covers all of them, so the realistic plan is to pick by table availability rather than by reputation, and to keep a second address in reserve.

Where is Sophie's in the East Village?
507 E 5th St, between Avenues A and B in Manhattan.

What are the hours?
3 PM to 4 AM every day, with the same window seven days a week.

Does Sophie's have a pool table?
Yes, a pool table and a jukebox are the two things the room is built around.

Is it expensive?
No. The price signal is a single $, which is cheap for Manhattan.

How is it rated?
3.9 out of 5 from 442 reviews.

Do they serve food?
The listing carries Cuban food and bottled beverages, so plan it as a drinks stop rather than a full dinner.

Is it good for a group?
The pool table makes it work for a small group, though the room is a single dive bar rather than a reserved space.

What is the crowd like?
A neighborhood mix that treats it as a local room rather than a see-and-be-seen one.

Should I expect table service?
No. It is a bar-counter room where you order at the bar.

Is there a cover charge?
No cover charge is listed for the bar.

Can I bring a group on a Friday?
Yes, but the room is one open dive bar with a single pool table, so a large group should expect to stand.

Is it cash only?
No cash-only policy is listed, so card payment is the safer assumption for a bar tab.

Stay inside the neighborhood. A dive bar you have probably seen on screen keeps its horseshoe counter with beer and shots in Alphabet City, one with darts and late hours takes outside food, and a third runs frozen cocktails with fried chicken for the night that needs food with the drinks. The Bowery pool table route starts at 4 PM and ends at a 24 hour bar, and a Lower East Side room pairs a leopard-print table with pickle martinis for a 21+ crowd. All five sit within a short walk or ride of East 5th Street.