Day 179—Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
Ipanema (Originally headed for Fedora)
What's that ding-a-ling? No, it's not Chuck Berry, it's the PayPal donation button which has been dormant for a while. And the donation is from the very first person who donated here months ago, Rich "Happy Cappy" Caposino! Rich generously sent in twenty bucks with the stated purpose on the PayPal receipt being, "subliminal begging received." Thanks Happy Cappy, tonight's Blimpie sandwich and beers will be on you!
Today I wandered over to the Half Empty Glass and saw a post entitled, “Fedora” by Fat Al and there was a picture of two fedoras, prominently displayed. For a minute, I thought this hellish heat wave we’re having had driven Fat Al completely barmy and he was writing about hats. But then I saw a picture of a bar and it drew me in. It seems there’s a legendary bar in the West Village called, Fedora. Fat Al was reporting on this post that he saw on Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York that this place might be one more classic New York bar that is close to closing. I Googled around and I found out Fedora has been at the same location since 1952 and Fedora who owns it still bartends there today. Lets go see if she’s there tonight, this place sounds like a real slice of New York bar history.
Here we are, but the sign's not lit, that's not a good sign.
The door was open so I wandered in and found the legendary and lovely bar hostess, Fedora behind her bar. She was closing the joint early due to the heat and lack of customers.
But she was nice enough to take time to pose for a picture with me and invited me back. The bar crawl will continue with a full report and pictures from Fedora soon. Stay tuned.
And now time for a lonely walk to find another bar for tonight.
(And no, I never get tired of putting this video up.)
Stay! Good boy!
This place looks promising.
It's dark and the bartender is cute, I think we've found bar 179.
Marlies the pretty bartender serves up an ice cold Budweiser.
Larry's a regular who was seated next to me and said I could only take his picture if Marlies was next to him. I agreed whole-heartedly.
There's chairs in the front window for gazing out on 14th Street.
Here's a shot of the bar and Marlies perusing a flyer.
There's also a full bar in the back.
And a pool table is situated back there as well. Tesia is not only a pool player here, she's the manager. She's also a film director and writer, check out her YouTube channel here: Tesia DeCouto.
Jesus and the lovely Melissa were working the back end of the bar.
Here's Melissa with regulars, Gino and Hector.
And on my walk home I saw this sign, a good enough reason as any to bring back this well-worn topic: Fire! Goodnight, everybody!
Review
Step down into this dark, neon lit bar and you’ll find a mostly male clientele enjoying drinks and chatting with the friendly and pretty female bartenders who draw them in. The front of the bar is a long narrow space, with a dark wooden bar and stools in the front by the window if you’d rather gaze at 14th Street instead of the women behind the bar. It’s a Spanish-themed tavern and the majority of the patrons are locals from the neighborhood or guys having a drink or three after work. The music ranges from Spanish to reggae to hip-hop and there’s a pool table in the back. There’s also a second full bar in the back reserved for private parties.
It’s a full bar and there’s a long Happy Hour that stretches from noon to 8pm featuring two cocktails for ten bucks. The bar is open from noon to 4am. And the bartenders from Ipanema are lovely, stop by and see for yourself. ¡Aclamaciones!
Ipanema
252 W. 14th St. (between 7th and 8th Ave.)
212-807-0150