The Jersey City Independent"

Here in Jersey City, we’re used to being overlooked. The rest of the state often pretends like we don’t belong, while our big shadow across the river either dismisses us entirely as suburban or tries to pull us into its sphere as a “sixth borough.”

When it comes to finding out where to get tipsy, the same problems exist on the web, according to Jersey City resident Rob Healy. To help combat this lack of information on dives, wine bars and beer bars, the 32-year-old has launched a new bar directory website, the Jersey City Bar Guide.

“There are really no relevant local searches out there focusing on the Jersey City bar/nightlife scene,” he says. Web 2.0 directory sites like Yelp and Thrillist — or their predecessors like Citysearch — have mined this territory in major cities across the country, but “they could use a little brushing up,” Healy says.

“First off, they are very ‘city-centric.’ If you want a catalog of all the hot places in the Upper West Side, Midtown or the Lower East Side, they’re great — you enter 10010 and if you are looking for a new restaurant or a bar that serves the best gimlets, you’re pretty much set,” he explains. “The constant flaw I see with these sites through is that although they promise ‘local authority’ if you are to enter 07302 you get a load of financed results from Time Square tourist traps, the same caliber of bar from Hoboken and then you begin to see the Jersey City results.”

The Bar Guide, which formally launched in November, features user-generated reviews, ratings, member profiles and search filtering by neighborhood, type of bar, or amenity available (a pool table, for example). But the user-generated aspect of the site is coupled with a strong editorial hand (provided by Healy), which helps maintain consistency and also helps keep the information accurate. Bar by bar, he is providing a Bar Guide review of all of the properties in his growing database, and those compliment nicely the scattershot (but often entertaining) user reviews. And for a guy who lives Downtown, Healy is giving plenty of love to all of Jersey City, as he should. In addition to Bar Guide reviews of LITM and the Iron Monkey, he’s also already reviewed non-Downtown haunts like the legendary Astor Bar and Park Tavern.

Healy says the revenue model for the site is pretty straightforward: traditional banner ads, advertorial messages in email blasts, tasting sessions and tours/bar crawls. He says he’s also finishing up work on an admin console that will allow bar owners to log in to make edits to their establishment’s profile at any time to list inventory, promote special events or drink deals and add their own pictures.

The Bar Guide hopes to appeal not only to locals, Healy says, but also to the increasing numbers of out-of-town business people and those who work here but live in NYC.

“This group of people seem to gravitate to the chain type or large scale bars or they meet up with coworkers (who are probably living in a borough) back in Manhattan,” he says. “Jersey City has plenty of great sport to have a drink and chill out — why waste all that time and money going back into the town in which you work. I figure these uninitiated are either hesitant that there is a locals-only vibe in Jersey City bars, or they just don’t know how many good spots are out there.”