Thursday, May 6th, 2010—Bar 116
Day 116—Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
Bar Breton
Ding, ding, ding! The PayPal donation bell has once again sounded and my pockets are grateful!
First off, Natalie Clark sent in a generous donation of 10 dollars all the way from Australia. Natalie had a question about a piano bar she had been to last time she was in New York. She’s going to be spending her honeymoon in New York this October and wanted to take her future husband there. She went there after a Broadway show, so I’m willing to bet it’s Danny's Broadway Piano Bar, which is a popular piano bar in the theater district. She wrote back and said that may be the one. I’m hoping I can join Natalie and her soon-to-be husband when they get here in October and buy them a beer back for the nice donation. Thanks Natalie!
Second up is my old pal, James Mollo. James sent in a very generous donation of 37 dollars with the stated purpose saying: “You've been to bars in airports and train stations, how about one at the bus terminal? Doesn't the bowling alley there have a bar?” Then he followed that up with this email: “Forget what I suggested about the bowling alley bar, it looks like an upscale hipster shithole.” Ha ha ha! Now I’m curious and I’ll check out that place soon, James, we’ll see if it’s really an upscale hipster shithole in person. Thanks for the donation, my friend!
Okay, time to crawl. Usually I pick the night’s bar during my dinner time at work, but tonight was so busy with problematic bullshit, I didn’t have time to find one. So I decided to just walk out and go down Fifth Avenue on my way home and stop at the first bar I see. So put on your traveling shoes and let’s go!
Okay, here we are on 30th St. headed towards Fifth Avenue. Where is everybody, it looks deserted out here.
Am I the last living soul in New York City?
Aaaaahhh, it's the nuclear window of doom, run!
Okay, it looks safer here at Fifth Avenue, there's actually people here. Let's go find a bar, I'm thirsty!
This sign was in front of a deli. The special is that you get to make your own pasta. Well, fuck that, if I'm going to do that, I'll just get a can of Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee and stay home.
Hey, hey, look at this Bar Breton Restaurant. Looks like we've found tonight's spot and none too soon. I'm tired and ready for a beer or three.
The bar is small, but people are laughing and it looks like a friendly place.
And I was right, before I even sat down I met Allison and John. John works and lives nearby and comes here about once a month. This was Allison's first time at Bar Breton. Both were friendly and interested in the 365 Bar Crawl.
And before I could sit down, bartender Brett was serving me up a glass of Blue Moon.
Cheers!
Red booths line the walls and there's tables in the back for diners. I'm a drinker, so I stayed at the bar.
Every table has a wine list. Looks like a nice selection.
John, Allison and Brett at the bar.
There's no bottled beers available, but a decent selection of draft beers can be had. John suggested the Blue Moon and it was great!
Here Brett learns all about shingles (you had to be there!)
Fire! (See Zioum Zioum, I haven't stopped!)
The bar keeps restaurant hours, so I had to order a double at last call to make my three drink limit. Goodnight, everybody!
Review
Okay, this is really more of a restaurant than a bar, but I had a good time just as well. As I always tell people, it’s not the bar, but the people there, and even though I only met three people here at the bar tonight and it closed early (the bar is on restaurant hours, not bar hours, but I still made my hour and three beer quota), I still had lots of laughs and good times with bartender Brett, Allison and somewhat regular patron John. The topics of our conversation ran the gamut from shingles (the skin disease, not the roofing kind), to herpes, to chicken pox, to tattoos to music, to NY1 and beyond. I had a great time at this unplanned bar stop.
While I hung out at the bar, this place is known more for the restaurant portion of the place. I didn’t eat there, so I can’t give it a fair review, but here’s what New York Magazine has to say: New York Magazine Review of Bar Breton. It’s a critics pick and the food I saw being served looked delicious, so I will check it out on a non bar crawl expedition one of these nights.
Thanks again to Brett, Allison and John for lively conversation and lots of yuks! Cheers!
Bar Breton
254 Fifth Ave. (Near 28th St.)
212-213-4999
19 Comments
Reader Comments (19)
Sounds like fun conversation! When you get back this way, we can talk about leprosy! ;-)
Considering your topics of conversation, I guess it's probably best that you didn't try to eat. Bar Breton looks like a nice place, I'll have to stop by sometime. And I'm with you on that build-your-own-meal shit. Why even go out?
Build your own scares me.. like they hire talentless losers who cant cook but still want to make a buck...
and i am a fucking snob with eating out anyway.all the restaurant work i've done has made me look in corners before i eat.
i made the mistake once of eating at one of the highest rated chinese resaurants in my old area of seattle.. i ordered first, then went pee.. i hadnt seen cockraches that big since i lived back east..all over the fucking toilet.. just walking around it and in the sink..
joe had no problem eating his food though....
I sat in the car...
so with build your own places with losers who cant cook i am not expecting cleanliness..
but the bar you ended up in was cute:)
yeah! so cool to get the fire one in honor at this Bar Breton since my origins are from Bretagne!
I'm Bretonne (we say Breton for men, Bretonne for women) but from the oldest viking scandinavia origins! indeed the story tells that vikings went to invade the Bretagne, they killed children and raped women but Bretons were mad warriors too and they kicked their ass out! so I'm the descendant of this big sex party, half Breton-half viking !! LOL !
Excellent wine list ! I guess the first number is the price of a glass and the second is the price of the bottle? right? if right, a little expensive but I know it's expensive to import french wine...
The Grimbergen is a yummy regular beer, and yuuum there is cider !!! I love cider!
Do you know if they serve Kir Breton ? It's a regular Breton drink
I'd be willing to bet they serve that there, Zioum Zioum. You and Jason should go there for dinner while you're here!
sometimes the little bars can have big fun, looks like you had a good time! and a cute bartender too!
Yea Rita is he is really cute....might be the cutest boy bartender yet:)
Looks like you had a Charlton Heston moment there on fifth avenue Marty, as in 'The Omega Man'..."There are NO PHONES RINGING DAMMIT!!"...and Gidget, were those cockroaches singing and dancing and doing little choreographed Esther Williams numbers in the toilet like in the movie 'Joe's Apartment'? Got my own little wine review here for you all, for the first time in my life I got my hands on a bottle of genuine dandelion wine from a small North Dakota winery. Always promised myself I'd try some once before I die. Tart, dry and very tasty...reminded me a little of Leibtfraumilch or the Black Cat wine I was always quaffing when I was stationed in Germany. Yum!
@Jaws.. never seen the movie.. I am sooo afraid of bugs i practically barf when they are around.. in fact there is a spider in my bathroom right now so i have to go use the upstairs one..
Looks like a really great place!! The Blue Moon beer looks perfect and I love pasta!!
Good to see FIRE back. Fire...good! LOL!
I think it's time for a good dive bar.........You know.....the kind of place where i could be found! Cheers!
Hey! When are you going to sushi samba on 7th? no more donations till i see a review about that place.
Sushi Samba? I'll review it. Overpriced sushi and pretentious assholes for customers. There. Now you know. Now make that donation bell ring, dammit.
Is there a bar at Sushi Samba? Does Nick Beal own the place? Why does the above commentator hate it so bad? Questions, questions!
already donated a 20 weeks ago. no more $$$ until he gets to there.
There is, in fact, a bar in Sushi Samba. That's where the pretentious asshole customers go to unwind before eating overpriced sushi.
Okay, Sushi Samba Hater, what the hell did they do to you in that place? And thanks for the twenty bucks, Nick!
I love sushi, and I am both pretentious and an asshole, but never simultaneously. I'm for sure going to try Sushi Samba next time I'm in town to see if they can merge the two! I heard they have great food so it should be a win-win. TO SUSHI!