Name: The Globe

Location: 23rd between 3rd and Lexington

Date visited: April 17th, 2010

Bar number: 53

Price of Guinness: $7

There was a theme to this weekend. Cousins!! My cousin Jennifer and her awesome husband Matt were in town to celebrate Matt’s 30th birthday. Matt and Jen live near my sister Staci in DC, and came up to have a group birthday with a bunch of his friends because NYC was central to a lot of their homes. It was really great to see Jen, especially because I hadnt seen her since her wedding (actually thinking back on it, it was at Thanksgiving/Noah’s Barmitzvah) and Matt since he took me to see Phish a week later.

The Globe is a cool little lounge that really fits the Gramercy/Murray Hill vibe, and it was cool hanging out with people a bit older (some of them were pregnant, and I had to restrain myself from making as many pregnant/drinking jokes… such is life).

I went to go meet up with a friend after a few drinks, but it was definitely a cool spot and look forward to seeing more family as they enter the blog.

Bars left to visit: 147

Name: The Exchange

Location: 3rd Ave between 20th and 21st

Date visited: April 16th, 2010

Bar number: 52

Price of Guinness: IT FLUCTUATES DEPENDING ON THE MARKET!!!

Rating: 4/5

So I wrote a few weeks ago that I wanted to go to this new bar called The Exchange, and as the name would imply, it operates like the stock market. When certain drinks are in demand, price rises, and when no one is buying the price falls. Running throughout the bar is an updating ticker that scrolls the prices of the standard drinks, beers, wines, cocktails, and food.

So lets say you want a bud light. Bud light is normally $5, but if lots of people are buying bud lights, then the price rises in increments of .25 cents. But if lots of people aren’t buying killians irish red that night… then you can get a “deal” on killians.

When I heard about this place I had dreams of people holding money in front of the bartenders face screaming “CHICKEN FINGERS!! CHICKEN FINGERS!!” and then when chicken fingers went up in price I imagined a similar mob would run up and scream “POTATO SKINS!! POTATO SKINS!!” Im not really a finance guy, so a “beer market” would be the closet thing I ever could get to the actual stock exchange.

Sadly, this was not the case. But maybe thats because I went at a poor time: Friday night at 8 oclock. Right after happy hour ends, and before the night out starts. Also it didnt help that it was monsooning out. This led the bar to be kind of empty, and thus the demand for some libations was scarce and didnt cause the market to fluctuate as much as I wanted it to. But it was still cool to base my drink decision off a bloomberg type ticker.

I ventured to this bar with my cousin Adam, who lives in DC, and is the son of my uncle mikey and aunty suz, who previous shared a drink with me at Johns (post 24). Adam is what you would call a “high roller” and was in town for some business. He wanted to get his 15 seconds of blog fame and I was happy to oblige him at this cool spot.

We stayed for a few drinks, but it would definitely have been cooler if we didnt go after dinner and went at a more diverse time. Anyways it was a lot of fun and I will definitely be back. Sucks I didnt have a camera for this place.

On another note, its been a freaking hectic month of apartment related depression and thats why the blogging has been scarce this past few weeks. I will make it up with a plethora of posts. Promise.

Bars left to visit: 148

Name: Pig n Whistle

Location: Corner of 36th and 7th

Date visited: April 12th, 2010

Bar number: 51

Price of Guinness: $7.50

Rating: 3.5/5

I dont know if Ive introduced my friend Lynn to the blog yet, but she is very cool girl and a friend from Syracuse who lives pretty close to the city. She happened to have 2 extra tickets to the Knicks game on monday, and invited Wario and I to go. Im not a huge Knicks fan, but knowing I wouldnt be able to make Lynn’s bday party this weekend, it was good to see her and watch some “NBA” basketball (if you can call it that).

After suffering through the $10 beers at the garden, and subsequent Knick victory, we stumbled to the first non tourist trap bar in the Garden area, the Pig n Whistle. Which, as it turns out, is a pretty cool brew pub. They have a ton of beers on tap to the extent that when I asked the waitress how many they infact have she informed me it was “a lot” (I liked this waitress right up until she forgot to tell me that my coney island IPA would be 13.50 and not 6 dollars). We only stayed for a few drinks because it was getting late, but Pig n Whistle is a cool sports bar/brew pub that has some unique beers and isnt a complete tourist trap in the Penn area, so if you’re down that way and dont want to go to generic NYC bar, stop and and have a drink.

Bars left to visit: 149

Name: The Living Room

Location: 154 Ludlow Street

Date visited: April 10th, 2010

Bar number: 50

Price of Guinness: $7

Rating: 3.5/5

My mom will absolutely hate me for saying this, but the blog and my mom have something in common… they both hit 50 this year!! EH-OH!! Thank you, thank you, Ill be here all week, be sure to tip your waitresses. But seriously, the big 5-0  came last saturday at a little LES hotspot known as the Living Room, also known as hipster heaven. The living room doubles as a bar and an up and coming music  hot spot for the semi hipster crowd to venture too.

On this particular evening I ventured there to meet Blog favorites Alex, Tracy and Wario. But before I was at the Living Room I made a quick pit stop at Sidebar (#19, which I had previously visited with Alex, Tracy and Wario) for Amy’s roomamte, Jamie’s, bday party. While I love Jamie, sidebar after 9:00 isnt really my scene, and by not my scene, I mean I rather have the sarah palin network replace espn.

I showed up to the Living Room, and ordered a couple rounds with my friends, when all a sudden Alex and Tracy had to do their typical love-y dove-y haul back to Hoboken, and Wario and I were left to make hipster jokes by ourselves. Anyway, the Living Room is a cool spot, thats not crowded, has decent prices for the LES, and is a cool spot to enjoy some music. I will be back around that area sometime when I hit up Piano’s which is next door (a former piano store, turned into a piano bar)

Bars Left to visit: 150!!! (only 10 days off schedule)

Name: The Brass Monkey

Location: 5 Little West 12th Street

Date visited: April 9th, 2010

Bar number: 49

Price of Guinness: $8 bud lights

Rating: 3.5/5

If you’re a frequent reader of the blog I think you know quite well by now that I am really not a clubby kind of guy. But after running into fellow day 7 alumns Cassie and Megan a few weeks ago on the upper east side, they were chastising me for the blog not being “diverse enough” and claimed that I needed to branch out to other areas of NYC. Fast forward two weeks later and we ended up in the Meat Packing distract, an area of New York famous for its high brow clubs and lounges.

We ended up at the closest thing to a bar that the meat packing distract has, The brass monkey, which i would hardly classify as a bar, but I wouldnt necessarily classify it as a club, kind of a hybrid of the two. We ended up at the brass monkey because it is Megan, Cassie and Carolyns favorite bar, and they know one of the bartenders who makes them “that shot” which I experienced first hand. It goes down like water, but give it 20 minutes and youll have different thoughts.

Those thoughts changed into a lot of dancing, which you people may not know, but I am a phenomenal dancer, except that it only comes out when Im pretty drunk, like, at a meatpacking club till 4 am dancing, make best friends with my cab driver and pass out with the light on drunk. While I dont envision myself going out in the meatpacking distract all the time, it was a change of pace from the normal routine, and definitely wasnt the worst bar in the world.

Bars left to visit: 151

Name: Muldoon’s

Location: 3rd ave between 43rd and 44th

Date visited: April 9th, 2010

Bar number: 48

Price of Guinness: $5 during happy hour

Rating: 3/5

Sorry I have been away fro a few days, with Passover and apartment hunting, I took a little break from the adventure, but now Im back die hard 3 style…

Sometimes when I go to the bar, I mentally write down in my head what Im going to write about in the blog. Which got me thinking, what am I doing with this blog? Am I reviewing the bars? Am I cataloging what happened on my quest? Is it neither of those and I just kind of ramble? I dont really know the answer but Im gonna try to figure it out. Anyways, here is what happened when I went to Muldoon’s.

Muldoon’s is your typical midtown Irish pub, complete with a wide range of beers on tap, and decent happy hour specials. The big oak door makes it feel as if you’re stepping into someone’s house rather than a watering hole for the after work crowd. I stepped in at 5:15 on friday with half an hour to kill before I was supposed to meet a friend to look at apartments.

The Bartenders were hardcore Irish, and Im pretty sure that one was the mother of the other. They seemed like stereotypical Irish bartenders, who probably owned the bar because they liked to drink as much, if not more than the patrons. They were friendly though, and taught me to speak a little celtic (actually I just asked them what the word “Failte” meant because there is a bar by my house called that, and she nicely told me it means “Welcome”, a cheeky name for a bar).

If you like a bar with an authentic Irish feel, and decent happy hour specials muldoons is the place for you, although I recommend Blarney Stone half a block down, better drink specials and cheaper food, although it lacks a little bit of the charm of Muldoons.

Bars let to visit: 152

Name: Fat Cat

Location: 7th Ave and Christopher

Date visited: March 26th, 2010

Bar number: 47

Price of Guinness: $3 PBRs

Rating: 3.5/5

Sorry for the lack of posts, its been the Jewish holiday of Passover, and since not a ton of bars have manischewitz I decided to take the week off. Because I was taking the week off, I held off last weeks post till now. Deal with it. The good news is that come sun down on tuesday, expect some mayhem. Im gonna try to make it down to The Exchange Bar and Grille, a bar whose beer prices fluctuate like the stock market. Expect me to buy low and sell drunk. That will be a fun night. But first, let me tell you a little bit about Fat Cat

Fat Cat is an underground bar that is literally hipster heaven. The bar features a live band, multiple pool tables, shuffleboard, ping pong, scrabble, and chess. Its got a real dingy feel, probably because its underground, and is complete with furniture that Im convinced was assembled from 32 different yard sales. But that said its a really fun place. Its the opposite of pretentious, with tons of what I assume are NYU kids hanging out shootin pool and drinking cheap beer. Jeff and I had planned to go to this bar next door, 49 grove, for Amy’s friends Hannah’s bday (I would finally meet hannah the following tuesday for Amy and Jamie’s seder), but I soon figured out that 49 Grove is a more of a club and my black reeboks and 1 hour line, would not suffice, so Jeff and I walked next door to Fat Cat.

I havent blogged about my favorite bar of all time yet, Chucks, but this place had a chucks feel. Very down to earth, cheap beer, lots of kids just hanging out looking to have a good time. Except, in typical NYC fashion, this place had 6 foot ceilings instead of chucks which is in a 30 foot high warehouse.

Anyways, after a couple of beers, Jeff and I decided to sit down and play some chess. Needless to say, I whooped his ass, twice. Jeff takes like 5 minutes for each move, and I take like 3 and I still whooped his ass. He needs to go to www.chesshelpfordummies.com if he wants to compete with the big boys.

Well, that pretty much sums up Fat Cat, a really fun place to have some beers, play some games and meet some pretty cool people. If you like that sorta thing.

Once again, a reminder that come the end of passover, Im goin die hard 3 on this blog. Back with a vengeance!!!

Bars left to visit: 153

Name: Galway Hooker

Location: 36th street between Madison and 5th

Date visited: March 23th, 2010

Bar number: 46

Price of Guinness: $8 ($5 domestic beers during happy hour)

Rating: 3.5/5

Like most bars I frequent, when I visit them has a huge impact on how I perceive them (that sounded very Klosterman-esque, that dude loves the word perceive). When I visited Galway Hooker on a tuesday at 630, I got a very different crowd and atmosphere than I would have got had I visited at 11 on a Friday. From the vibe I got, Im glad I visited on an after work Tuesday, and not on a Saturday night.

The place was filled with the afterwork midtown crowd grabbing a drink with co-workers or friends or whatnot, and it was pretty tough to grab a seat. Pop-rock was playing on the stereo, and people were having a good time. There was a fancy pool table in the back that I saw people enjoying.

Galway Hooker is very dark, and is decorated in all black outfitted with neon red lights and trim, so it can get that clubby feel, and I was informed by my friend Katelyn that it does indeed get that way on the weekends when the open up the upper level which contains a dance floor and a DJ. But for a random tuesday it was pretty cool.

I had plans to meet up with my friend Katelyn, who works on the west-side in midtown. We enjoyed ourselves by downing some happy hour beers, talking about our “recent” college graduation, work, my sister (thats how I met her), sports, and the city in general. We were having a pretty good time and decided to move the part on over to “Beauty Bar” which is a nail salon by day, and a bar at night (you know, so the housewives can get drunk while getting their nails done). While this bar doesnt sound manly, it is pretty cool (a bit hipster-y I heard though) and is the white buffalo of bars for me to go to… I keep making plans to go there, and they keep on getting thwarted. Which is what happened to me and Katelyn on our walk over, we decided that it was getting late and that we would make plans for it to happen another time.

Overall, Galway Hooker is a nice spot to grab a drink at a kinda upscale bar with the after work midtown crowd, and nice place to get your drink on during the weekends. Its right next to Ginger Man (the brew pub, Bar #27) and was a good time.

Bars left to visit: 154

Name: Kings Head Tavern

Location: 14th Street Between 2nd and 3rd

Date visited: March 19th, 2010

Bar number: 45

Price of Guinness: $7

Rating: 1.5/5

I wouldnt say this is the worst bar Ive been to yet, cause Lord knows Ive stumbled into some douche-y bars in my travels around NYC, but this is the bar I felt I was treated worst at. But before I get to that, Ill tell you about how I ended up at Kings Head.

As you know, Syracuse was playing the evil Vermont Catamounts in the first round of the NCAA tourney on Friday night, so naturally I went up to East End Bar and Grille (Bar #1) to watch the game with essentially my entire graduating class that lives in NYC. I met up with the usual suspects: Wario, Alex, TRACY (no wet blanket friend to be seen this time though), Pat, Pats girlfriend Liz, and Pats friends from home who Ive met a few times, Tim C and Tim C. Whenever Cuse people are in the house we inevitably stumble down to Union Square, home of college bars and Wario’s hovel. Except we lost Wario, crazy ass alcoholic injun got up and disappeared. So we made it to Kings Head without him.

Kings Head tries to pull off this medieval manor, dark and ominous library feel, complete with framed portraits, cushy wooden chairs similar to the knights for the round table and actual leather-bound books. Except they then butcher that vibe by playing shitty loud techno music. Whatever. Atleast I could get a red-neck special for 7 bucks (shot of jim and a can PBR tall boy). I sauntered up to the bartender and paid with a 20. Then I sat there and waited for my change. It never came. The tall bartender tried to pull the double drop on me. Said she put it right on the bar. Said I took it, someone else took it, or it blew away. A likely story sweetheart. Except I watched her the whole time. She just went along taking other orders, never bothered to drop my change. Listen honey, its not like I need to scam you out of 10 bucks. I got other more profitable scams I can be running (I got 2 in case your interested, or zero if any law enforcement personalities are reading, Im lookin at you new cousin Steve). Anyway, she said she would need to inform the bouncer and he would handle the situation. I said I was fine with that and I would wait as long as it took. Well she got wise after that, said it was no big deal and paid me my $13 in change. I tipped her extra so karma wouldnt bite me in the ass, finished a few more drinks and headed home, ready to fight another day, and prep for the Sunday Cuse demolition of Gonzaga.

Moral of the story, if you like bartenders who think their hotness level is like a 9.5 and they can scam you but really theyre an 6 on the hotness scale and you like feeling like you stepped into Hanibal Lecter’s manor, Kings Head Tavern is the place for you.

Bars left to visit: 155

Name: Khao Sarn

Location: 2nd Ave between 34th and 35th

Date visited: March 19th, 2010

Bar number: 44

Price of Guinness: No Guinness here, they only served Domestic and South East Asian Beers (3 dollars during happy hour)

Rating: 4.5/5

What is the place you ask? Is it the name of the final bad guy in the Mortal Kombat series? Is Thai for “Uncooked grain of rice”? Is it the most famous shopping avenue in Thailand? Is it a hole in the wall bar/thai restaurant located a block away from my house that I have never heard of before? Well my friends, Khao Sarn is 3 out of 4 of those things, I just wont be telling you which three. Well actually I will.

Khao Sarn II is a little Bar/Restaurant specializing in Thai food located in Murray Hill. It is a very narrow place. So narrow in fact that in the 10 months Ive lived in my building, and passed it roughly 300 times, I had never actually recalled seeing it. Like platform 9 and 3/4 in Harry Potter, you have to know its there in order to go into it.

And thats exactly what Dave (fellow copywriter who sits next to me at work) and I did at 5:00 last Friday. Strolling down second Avenue we passed a few bars, but none caught our attention quite like the Exotic Khao Sarn II (although the sign makes Sarn II look like Saw II). When we entered at 5:15 we were the only people in the bar, with the exception of a red-headed girl sitting at the bar reading an acting book. As it turns out, this was our friendly bartender, Amanda, awaiting her first patrons.

After ordering numerous rounds of exotic beers from far off corners of the world, we struck up quite the friendship with Amanda. She is an actress, and we had her perform one of her monologues about a lady cop sleeping with her partner. We chatted about all sorts of things, and I commend her as one of the better bartenders I’ve met in my quest across 44 bars thus far (shes tied with the dude at Manchester Pub who was awesome and Irish).

Khao Sarn was a little bit dead at the time I was there, but from what I could tell, they specialize in fruity drinks with sexual names (singapore sling type drinks but they name them sexual things that I don think are fit to print here, my sponsors maintain that this is a family blog), pad thai, and exotic beers.

They also have a cool owner (dude is from Laos), who confirmed my story about the Lazy River Mountain of beer and drugs that I is rumored to exist in Laos. Basically, you start at the top of a mountain on a slow moving lazy river, and on your way down you can buy all sorts of food, drugs, and alcohol from these vendors along the river. I had heard it existed but the owner confirmed it for me, and now my next vacation will be to Laos (expect blogs).

Anyways, the moral of this particular blog is that hall in the wall places right next to where you live that you didnt know existed can be quite good. And Amanda was a nice bartender. And if you like dark beer, you should try some beer from SE Asia. And if you like sexual drinks try Khao Sarn II. Expect more adventures from me and Tuchman as the summer progresses.

Bars left to visit: 156