Friday, October 8th, 2010—Bar 271
Day 271—Thursday, October 7th, 2010
Hop Devil Bar & Grill (Originally headed for The Summit Bar)
I thought I’d switch things up a little bit and hit a cocktail bar for a change of pace. Through the power of my good friend Google, I tripped across a place called The Summit Bar, which looks like a nice, comfortable place amidst the classic dive bars and some of the horrible frat bars in the East Village. The name refers to the Rat Pack, so let’s go see if this place swings, ring-a-ding-ding.
The Summit bar, the port of call for the evening.
It looks nice in here, but it's packed. Not a single seat at the bar to be had and too crowded to do my 365 thing in. I'll try this place again, but now...
Time for a lonely walk in the East Village in search of tonight's bar.
After walking around a bit I stumbled onto this place. I like the devil sign.
And there's seats at the bar. I think we've found tonight's destination.
And the lovely bartender Cecilia pours me a Cooper's Pale Ale, a beer I discovered through our Australian friend and commentator, David Brooks. Cheers, Brooksy!
Here's Julian, who's a waiter at the bar.
A shot of the bar.
They have an impressive amount of draft beers and they change them out every month, bringing in new beers to sample.
There's tables opposite the bar.
And larger, wooden tables line the colorful, back wall which is adorned with beer signs.
There's also a somewhat elevated back room.
The back room has tables and a big screen TV, mainly tuned to sports.
A cool Coney Island sign hangs back here as well.
A view of the bar from the back room.
Here's Roshni, Michael and Kate who were enjoying the evening at Hop Devil.
And here's Kate with Sam up at the bar.
Bob and Jenny were seated next to me at the bar. They're visiting New York from Minnesota.
It was a dollar to change the board in the middle of the bar. The deal is, you pay the dough and you can write whatever you want. Then the price goes up a buck for the next person to change it.
So I got in on the game, see, Motherfucker?
And there it hangs, allow me to enjoy this moment of glory!
The night is winding down and time to head out the door.
And look what I spy on my way out the door! Hey, Daddio! And, Goodnight, everybody!
Review
Hop Devil Grill is a nice, somewhat low-key bar and restaurant with a Tex-Mex atmosphere and menu. The bar is low-lit with an impressive amount of drafts on tap. The staff are friendly and if you’re lucky they’ll share some frittes at the bar with you. The music is played at a conversational level and the crowd is mainly locals looking for a good meal and a chance to try sample some new beers from the massive beer menu.
It’s a full bar, but the emphasis here is beer and tequila. There’s two dozen ever-changing beers on tap that range from craft to imported. The bottled beer selection takes you round the world with choices from Australia to Japan to Belgium to Germany and back to the good old U.S.A. There’s a huge selection of tequila and a decent wine list as well.
The food menu stays true to the Tex-Mex theme with 8 styles of tacos, a variety of gourmet burritos, fajitas and five choices of quesadillas. They also have five kinds of burgers and appetizers including: chicken wings, bbq pulled pork sliders, chili cheese fries and a Coyote Loco Sampler which is guacamole, Colorado bean dip, chili con queso and spinach dip with crispy tortilla chips.
Hop Devil Grill
129 St. Marks Pl. Near Avenue A.
212-533-4468
21 Comments
Reader Comments (21)
I see pictures! YAY!!! Hey, are those little dioramas under the bar where your feets go?
@Biff: Yes, the pictures are back in the comments window! Hurray! And I'm not sure what a diorama is, but I should've ordered one.
Good to get your site up there, and a clever idea too. Saw that big bottle of Bastard Ale up there. Cecilia is such a pretty gal,,,,as are all here. Hey even Boris gets represented up there. A really good bar and great rebound, thank you Ricky for that Lonesome town and lastly Bob and Jenny, I know who they will be rooting for monday night.
That's a great spot, I love coming in and seeing what's on the board. Place fills up with yuppies on the weekends, good choice going on a thurs
Ah, yes, beer and tequila...thanks to those two beverages I had some of my most interesting encounters with the little pink oompa loompas way back in the day....well, I hope all you New Yorkers are satisfied, Looks like the Yankees are handing the Twins their collective asses. Game three of the playoffs coming up and a lot of glum faces here in the Twin Cites. One thing about Minnesotans, they tend to be absolutely insufferable when they DO win the World Series...in '87, the first time they won one I took a walk down to Hennepin Ave just after it happened...and I heard the strangest thing... this erie sighing noise...like wind through the trees on an autumn day that was getting steadily louder...it took me a minute or two to place it...it was the sound of the entire city of Minneapolis simultaneously losing its mind...thousands upon thousands of sports fans leaning out their windows and screaming their heads off. After about five or six minutes of this, four guys dressed in gorilla suits came rampaging by and overturned a Volvo while I stood there and watched! I ran for my life, got back in my apartment and locked the door!
Yay I finally caught back up! Hate not being on here daily. Love all the old signs. Nice relaxed feel to the place. And love your sign!
@kari: Nice to see you back in the comments corner! Glad you liked the sign, I hope it's still hanging there right now.
Yay "Boris" has a pot to piss in!
@Gidget: Ha ha ha! Good one! Welcome back!
What an incredibly cool place the Hop Bar is and they serve Mexican food as wel...that is even better!
Loved the smiling faces around and behind the bar and hiw cool that you could make your own sign for a dollar.
Great bar to happen upon Marty!
The king of the bounce-backs strikes again! Nice find, friendly people, good beer and it's not packed to the gills. And Boris makes a guest appearance! Perfect! Loved the sign too, see, Motherfucker? LOL!
Love the Boris bucket! And I dig all of their other decorations as well. Hop Devil rocks! I'd love to stop in and try me some of that bar food. I don't care what anyone (or my intestines) says, chili cheese fries are GOOD FOR YOU! Dioramas are little boxes that contain scenes depicting some historical thingamabobs. You know, like you made out of a shoebox in elementary school. And the Natural History Museum has big giant ones. Looks like in the feetsies area they have some of those all back-lit with red light. Ooh! It'd be funny if they all contained scenes of prostitutes doin their thing and called it the red light district! HA HA HA! I should direct! Anyhoo, like the place and I like the menu, although I'm pretty sure they stole that Coyote Loco name from the sequel to Coyote Ugly in which all of the stars went koo-koo and as a result actually learned how to act.
@Gidget, haha, "did someone order a piss pot for a... Boris????"
@Jaws, did he make that outfield catch thats on the screen?
@marty, good job champion!!!....& thats not cause you have a head on ya like a spark plug either!!!!....lol ...
@Fitzy: No wonder everyone calls me Sparky!
@365: I've been checking out the Hop Devil for some time now. Apparently they do a mean jug of Sangria too as well as $1 tacos and weeknight specials. I'm more than impressed with that line up of beer taps. Glad you went there. I think I mentioned it to you a while back...meanwhile, I've just been given a Saturday off work!
@Tim Clack: And they change out the beers every month so there's a new variety all the time. Saturday off work = massive boozing!
@365: I'll make an effort. Raining like crazy....thinking red wine.
@Tim Clack: One of my favorite Beatles songs is "Rain." I'll post it when I get home. You should take some blotter acid with that red wine to fully enjoy the video.
Great stop Daddio!
Glad to have made an "appearance."
(now if I only had a window to throw it out of)
Looks like a fun place!
When I saw the "Coop" looking Devil on the sign, I figured you found a winner.
You did.
Love the Chalkboard, Motherfucker!
Just catching up on your blog after a week off work (I wouldn't read this shit in my own time)!!
Nice work on the Pale Ale - I must admit with the weather warming up here in Adelaide over the past few days, I've sunk quite a few myself. We had on of the major car races in Australia here yesterday - the Bathurst 1000 - great way to spend a Sunday - watching the race (go holden!) and having a few Pales.
Love the sign! I would have given her $10.00 to make sure that if someone changes it, you could have it changed back!
Boris rhymes with clitoris. Just sayin'.