Sunday, Sept. 26th, 2010—Bar 259
Day 259—Saturday, September 25th, 2010
Traffic Bar & Lounge
It’s Cheeseburger Saturday Night and I’ve found a place that will offer us a slight variation on the theme. I found the menu for Traffic Bar and Lounge at their website and they have something called “Cheeseburger Rolls.” Sounds interesting, so let’s go play in Traffic.
Down in the subway we go...
And through the magic of the internet we are instantly transported a few blocks away from the bar at the corner of Lexington and Lew Rudin Way. Who the fuck is Lew Rudin?
And here we are at our destination, Traffic Bar & Lounge.
Nice bar and there's a seat at the end with my name on it.
And Luthor, the friendly and hospitable bartender delivers an ice-cold Corona.
This lovely quartet of ladies were seated behind me at the front table in the bar. Clockwise from left: Brittany, Jamie, Mitzy and Kate. Cheers, ladies!
There's tables and chairs opposite the bar.
Here's a mirror shot of the bar. Lot's of TV's for Gene in here!
There's a working traffic light at the bar. When it's green, there's a drink special going on.
As you can see, it's a well-stocked bar.
Here's Luthor with Alexandra and Victoria. Alexandra is a waitress at Traffic and Victoria is the hostess.
Everybody at the bar were playing napkin haiku. Here's a pile of some of the finished pieces of prose.
Here's Lloyd, busy in thought, writing his haiku. Five, seven, five, Lloyd.
And I had to get in on the action. My napkin haiku read: "Ah, beer number one, Bar number two fifty nine, The bar is Traffic." Poetry in motion!
And on the pile it goes.
George and Stuart were here to cheer their hometown Indiana football team on the big screen.
The bar is filling up downstairs, let's go see what's happening up on the top level.
The bar upstairs is set up the same as the ground level.
Here's the top staff on duty, from left: Stephanie, George the manager and Brandi.
Okay, time to order those cheeseburger rolls.
And quicker than you can say, "starvin' like Marvin," Lloyd delivers the rolls.
Goddamn, they look delicious!
They come with a sauce made of Russian dressing and they're great! They're like a cheeseburger in an egg roll, genius!
And I thought it only appropriate to take a photo of traffic from my cab ride home. Goodnight, everybody!
Review
Traffic Bar & Lounge has two floors with a bar and lounge area on each floor. There’s a working traffic light and when it’s green you know there’s a drink special going on. Hint: It’s almost always green. The two levels are almost identically put together with a decent sized bar upfront and a lounge area in the back.The bartenders and staff are friendly and the crowd changes as the day unfolds. It’s got a sports vibe going on in the early afternoon and evening and then as night unfolds around 10pm and beyond it gets a little more clubbish. In other words, a little something for everyone.
There’s a decent selection of bottled and draft beers and there’s a ton of signature cocktails including: The Traffic Jam which is, Bacardi Dragon Berry, cranberry juice, orange juice and a Bacardi 151 soaked orange wedge; The Cucumber G & T which mixes Hendricks Gin, tonic and muddled cucumber, The Honey Deuce is Grey Goose Vodka, Chambord and lemonade and The Midnight Manhattan which is made with Woodford Reserve Bourbon, cranberry juice and a splash of sweet vermouth.
They have a large menu of food featuring: three styles of chicken wings, six choices of sliders and a tapas menu including: Swedish Meatballs, Baked Macaroni & Cheese, Chicken Quesadillas and Traffic Bites which are homemade crispy macaroni and cheese bites served with a creamy marinara sauce.
The bar has a Happy Hour that runs Monday through Friday from 3pm to 8pm with different drink specials on each night. There’s football specials on Sundays from 11am to 4pm including: Twelve dollar pitchers and buckets of five beers for thirty dollars.
Traffic Bar & Lounge
986 Second Ave. (Near 52nd St.)
212-813-1595
---------------------------
Bonus Art
Speaking of traffic and cabs, Jaws sent in this piece of art showing off his dream cab.
Bonus Photos
It was the last night in town for Lex, our 365 Canadian correspondent and she sent in these photos and captions from her Saturday night at the Rum House which is closing soon. Have a safe trip back to Canada and hurry back to New York soon, Lex. Great to have you on the 365 team! And say hi to Morley!
This is Matthew in between Mary Ann and Morley. He saved our butts with some (scarce) chairs. He's a regular and will miss this place. I'm here for my farewell Manhattan. Patty isn't here tonight, but Thai served us some mighty cocktails. Cheers!
Thai the drink guy. Nice rhyme!
Casey. Actor. Been coming to the rum house for ten years. He's gonna miss it! His table got stolen tonight by some parade dudes who hung a German flag from the light fixture.
Me and the German guys from Hanover. Karl, Axel and company.
23 Comments
Reader Comments (23)
Never seen so many beautiful ladies in one bar. Yeah those rolls are unique and look damn good too. You picked my favorite Four Seasons song,,,,"Lets hang on",,,,though I ended up marrying "Dawn". Hi Lex,, Mary Ann and Morley,,,looks like they were having a great time. Do you prefer (if you had a choice) going to bars in the afternoon or late at night? I see on weekends the crawl is bright. I think its because on weekends it gets too crowded late.
Great crawl and I'm with Al, lots of good lookers on this one! And the cheeseburger rolls look damn tasty! And a great bonus section, nice work Jaws and a wonderful post by Lex the Canadian correspondent! Cheers to her and Mary Ann and Morley!
@Al: You're right about the weekend bars, it gets too crowded late, so I go early. Plus it gives me the night off a couple nights a week and I can watch a movie or do something else. And that's my favorite Four Seasons song too, always liked the fuzz-tone bass in it.
I hope the cheeseburger rolls are a few steps up from hot pockets ;)
@kari: Ha ha ha! They were definitely a higher grade from Hot Pockets!
Woah! Babe city on this stop Marty! Rowf! Haven't seen a mirror like that since I gave up acid decades ago! Like my new cab? Everything you need for rush hour...folding headlights with twin machine guns & oil slick spray for rush hour, pop up bullet shield for when someone hires me to go on a crack run without telling me what he's up to...why should James Bond have all the fun. Have to watch it though, a glove compartment full of moving violations and court summons I can do without!
there are a lot of cute women in this post, but luthors not too shabby as well! those rolls look yummy! love the cartoon jaws! and goodbye to lex, mary ann and morley!
@365: Wow there were some classy gals playing in traffic last night! Hot dang!!
Nice bar. Very new/contemporary but not too pretencious (spelling?). Have you ever tried a pie or sausage roll Floater? I couldn't imagine you'd have meat pies in the U.S but you put the pie/sausage roll in a bread roll with tomato sauce....hearty, stick to ribs kinda tucker. You'd love em'. If you get yourself down here I'll take you to some of the best Pie shops around.
@JAWS: Once again you've completely blown me away with how much of a funny bastard you are.
Fucking hilarious my friend. Has the cab got an air horn that plays La Cuckuracha?
Good to see those Vikings get up this week....
GO NY JETS!!!
A little too fancy for me ... but the tv's make up for it :)
@ Tim Clack; Naw, the horn doesn't play La Cuckuracha...it plays Shirley Bassy singing the theme song from 'Goldfinger'. Say, why can't the Minnesota Vikings eat cereal for breakfast? 'Cause they choke when they get anywhere near a bowl!
@clacky, good call on the floaters....& naa i never found a Servo/bakery/whotever when i was over there that sold meat pies.... i was really only in South Dakota/Nebraska though.... but did a huge road trip down to New Orleans & never seen one in my travels...it was a shame, good hang over tucker....but i'm sure there will be plenty of other gear that will temp the taste buds as marty demonstrates each post.......
@Jaws: Nice one! That certainly was the case last season. Looking back the Vikes could have won the NFC championship...
I'd have the Macarena as the horn in my car...that way I could annoy the fuck out of everybody on the road.
@Jaws, you funny bugger!!!!!...now thats the cab i want to pick me up from the airport....EVERY airport in my next years visit.....& great call on the Vikings...go the Saints!!!!
@clacky, did you catch any of the "aerial pingpong" (AFL) grandfinal on sat? 68 all!!! hahaha! so they have to front up again next sat!!!.....but have you ever seem 100,000 spectators totally dumbfounded & sitting in silence when the final hooter went....now that was coool.....i dont follow the game, but did watch the 1st 3x 1/4's & it was'nt too bad....
@marty, how awesomely hot is Mitzy!!!!......must be something about "itzy" in the name....hahaha!
funny bout the blokes cheering on Indiana, same game is on the tele down here this morning.....
put this bar on the must see list for me marty, great joint & Brandi & staff looks very customer friendly....good job mate!!!!
have fun with ya new Aussie mates tonight too big fella, just try & keep up best you can ol' matey!!!...let us know where bouts in Oz they hail from....
cheers big ears!!!!!
@Tim Clack: I definitely need to try the meat pies, maybe we can find some when you're here.
@Fityi: I could not keep up with them and had to leave early after about 10 beers and two shots of tequila. They were just getting started. You Australians know how to drink and put the rest of us to shame. I'm going to go pass out now. You can read all about last night tomorrow, or something like that.
@marty, hahahaha, now thats funny!
I'm on the Bus typing this!!!
@Fitzy: Yeah I watched the last 1/4 of the AFL GF. Totally agree. It was probably the most surreal thing I've seen in sport in ages...to bad my new temp job that I'll be working requires my services on sunday for the NRL GF....by the way...It was Indianapolis, not Indiana....dunno about the Saints this year though.
@365: Don't sell yourself short mate. At least you're a professional drinker....you haven't missed a posting yet but we Aussie do tend to get a bit excited during "holiday mode".
Prediction...New York Jets to play Superbowl in Feb. Not sure who'll they'll be up against maybe Green Bay? Philadelphia? Vick on fire!!!
Nice haiku! And I like the menu and drink options here, but I couldn't help but notice that blow-up Miami Dolphin out front. So, I guess I could go drink here, but I'd have to tackle that Dolphin first. I know usually people do that sort of thing AFTER drinking, but I like to get it out of the way early. GO BROWNS!
Oh, and @Tim Clack: I hope you're wrong about the Jets. Sorry New Yorkers (especially you, Marisa Tomei of Jets fandom - hubba hubba...), but Braylon Edwards is a Jet and he's a royal jackass and I pray he's never rewarded for his buffoonery with a ring. Ryan should've benched him this week. And Sanchez can suck it. Uh, I think that's all.
GO BROWNS!
It appears I'm too dusty to go to Traffic. Hey, where were all the low sparked high heeled boys??
@Shannon: Ha ha ha! That's my favorite Traffic song!
What a cool looking bar I like it! Great choice Marty and the food looks delicious.
Cheesburger rolls look Goooood !!!!!!
I always wanted to be a Taxi Driver or Bus driver or Truck Driver !! But I don't have any driving licence yet! Cabs in France are ugly... only a car with a taxi sign on the top of the car...
@Jason, I miss yelling "I waaaant a yellow cab!!! Buy me a yellow cab maaaaan" in NYC streets !! Even if I'm sure you were tired of me yelling that! haha