sleeping in the shadow of the empire state
For day 14 of the January talking meme, 
d_generate_girl asked me to talk about Your favorite bars in NYC, as many as you'd like to talk about.
Sadly, my favorite bars are all gone (or I have aged out of them, i.e., Automatic Slim's, unless it's closed now too).
My favorite bar in college and my early twenties was the Stoned Crow down in the West Village. It was not my college bar - that was the Coliseum, on 58th & 8th, which still exists though it is no longer a place where you stick to the floor or find roaches in the toilet paper. Which it was in the early 90s. Ahem.
I just really liked the mellow vibe of the Stoned Crow - we usually went there after most of the raucousness of the evening was done, so it was a kind of a wind-down/after-party place, where you could have your last pint and a glass of water, and relax before going home.
Automatic Slim's, otoh, was the site of many a drunkfest in the early days - one of my good friends was good friends with one of the bartenders back then, and so we drank off the register (he was also friends with the bartender of the Brother Jimmy's on 92nd & 3rd? 93rd & 2nd? I forget, but that's where we used to have those fishbowl races, and I'm experiencing brainfreeze just thinking about it now). I spent many a Friday or Saturday night dancing on the bar at Slim's after super large shots of Wild Turkey (a beverage I do not recommend to anyone!), usually when either "Mr. Big Stuff" or "Don't Leave Me This Way" came on. I imagine they don't allow dancing on the bar anymore. I don't know. We stopped going there because suddenly there seemed to be a lot of fights breaking out and they got a bouncer and it just wasn't the same, so we moved mostly to Brother Jimmy's at that point, iirc, though for after work/happy hour stuff, we would go to Scruffy Duffy's in midtown (west) or O'Neill's on 3rd between 45th and 46th (I worked in the building next door to it for a couple of years).
If the Stoned Crow played mostly rock and grunge and alternative music, which it did, iirc (there was also for a time a poster of Kurt Cobain taped to the ceiling, so when I was drunk and unable to remember the name, I would say "Let's go to the Kurt Cobain on the ceiling bar!"), Automatic Slim's played - and still plays, as far as I know - 70s R&B.
When I first moved into this neighborhood, the bar around the corner was called Ship of Fools and it was a decent sports bar with comfy booths and excellent chicken quesadillas, though it also had the worst beer menu I ever saw.
When it closed, we discovered Swig, which became my favorite bar in my neighborhood. L and I went there often enough that they knew us and our drink orders, and it was a good place to go for happy hour or for afternoon drinking on the weekend or what have you. Unfortunately, it closed two years ago, and none of the bars that have replaced it, or any of the other places I've been since, have really captured that same neighborhood feel. We've got a lot of annoying and expensive gastropubs now, with $14 artisanal cocktails and no room to sit at the bar or move at all, and all I want is a pint of Blue Moon or a vodka tonic, and maybe the occasional lemon drop shot, and a decent burger or nachos plate. I'm not an artisanal cocktail drinker. I guess the closest is the Stumble Inn, which has good happy hour beer specials.
I also can't not mention the Hi Life, which I also loved, and which closed last summer, at least the UES location where L & I used to get happy hour cosmos and a steak dinner about once a month. The UWS location isn't quite the same. And also I can't walk home from it, so five $5 cosmos is right out. But it is more of a restaurant than a bar to me - at least, we never sat at the bar, always in the dining room, so it's a different experience.
I also like Phebe's down on the Bowery, for excellent food and good service, though again, you have to time it right so it's not completely packed. I am too old to be standing around with a drink in my hand anymore. I want to be at a table or at the bar, and hopefully the place isn't too loud to hear myself think. *hands*
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This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/902391.html.
people have commented there.
d_generate_girl asked me to talk about Your favorite bars in NYC, as many as you'd like to talk about.
Sadly, my favorite bars are all gone (or I have aged out of them, i.e., Automatic Slim's, unless it's closed now too).
My favorite bar in college and my early twenties was the Stoned Crow down in the West Village. It was not my college bar - that was the Coliseum, on 58th & 8th, which still exists though it is no longer a place where you stick to the floor or find roaches in the toilet paper. Which it was in the early 90s. Ahem.
I just really liked the mellow vibe of the Stoned Crow - we usually went there after most of the raucousness of the evening was done, so it was a kind of a wind-down/after-party place, where you could have your last pint and a glass of water, and relax before going home.
Automatic Slim's, otoh, was the site of many a drunkfest in the early days - one of my good friends was good friends with one of the bartenders back then, and so we drank off the register (he was also friends with the bartender of the Brother Jimmy's on 92nd & 3rd? 93rd & 2nd? I forget, but that's where we used to have those fishbowl races, and I'm experiencing brainfreeze just thinking about it now). I spent many a Friday or Saturday night dancing on the bar at Slim's after super large shots of Wild Turkey (a beverage I do not recommend to anyone!), usually when either "Mr. Big Stuff" or "Don't Leave Me This Way" came on. I imagine they don't allow dancing on the bar anymore. I don't know. We stopped going there because suddenly there seemed to be a lot of fights breaking out and they got a bouncer and it just wasn't the same, so we moved mostly to Brother Jimmy's at that point, iirc, though for after work/happy hour stuff, we would go to Scruffy Duffy's in midtown (west) or O'Neill's on 3rd between 45th and 46th (I worked in the building next door to it for a couple of years).
If the Stoned Crow played mostly rock and grunge and alternative music, which it did, iirc (there was also for a time a poster of Kurt Cobain taped to the ceiling, so when I was drunk and unable to remember the name, I would say "Let's go to the Kurt Cobain on the ceiling bar!"), Automatic Slim's played - and still plays, as far as I know - 70s R&B.
When I first moved into this neighborhood, the bar around the corner was called Ship of Fools and it was a decent sports bar with comfy booths and excellent chicken quesadillas, though it also had the worst beer menu I ever saw.
When it closed, we discovered Swig, which became my favorite bar in my neighborhood. L and I went there often enough that they knew us and our drink orders, and it was a good place to go for happy hour or for afternoon drinking on the weekend or what have you. Unfortunately, it closed two years ago, and none of the bars that have replaced it, or any of the other places I've been since, have really captured that same neighborhood feel. We've got a lot of annoying and expensive gastropubs now, with $14 artisanal cocktails and no room to sit at the bar or move at all, and all I want is a pint of Blue Moon or a vodka tonic, and maybe the occasional lemon drop shot, and a decent burger or nachos plate. I'm not an artisanal cocktail drinker. I guess the closest is the Stumble Inn, which has good happy hour beer specials.
I also can't not mention the Hi Life, which I also loved, and which closed last summer, at least the UES location where L & I used to get happy hour cosmos and a steak dinner about once a month. The UWS location isn't quite the same. And also I can't walk home from it, so five $5 cosmos is right out. But it is more of a restaurant than a bar to me - at least, we never sat at the bar, always in the dining room, so it's a different experience.
I also like Phebe's down on the Bowery, for excellent food and good service, though again, you have to time it right so it's not completely packed. I am too old to be standing around with a drink in my hand anymore. I want to be at a table or at the bar, and hopefully the place isn't too loud to hear myself think. *hands*
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/902391.html.
people have commented there.