Wednesday, November 17th, 2010—Bar 311

Day 311—Tuesday, November 16th, 2010
Fred's (Originally headed for The Dead Poet)
I’ve had more than one person suggest I try the Dead Poet in my travels, so I think I’ll go there tonight. What’s funny is I wrote a review years ago about this place for newyork.citysearch.com. This is before they started letting anyone who thought they were a critic post reviews up and they paid freelancers to write the review. I did a search and I found my  review on their site, although they’ve removed my byline and replaced it with, “by Contributor at Citysearch.” Thanks citysearch, you fucking assholes! Oh, I guess they have the right to take away my byline, I did get paid the princely sum of thirty bucks to write the stupid thing! Now they’ve gone all Yelp and let any jackass put a review up without paying them a dime. And before you say it, yeah, I may be a jackass at times, but at least I held out for the thirty bucks. Anyhoo, in the long run, what does it matter? Let’s go see if it’s changed.

Okay, here we are at the Dead Poet on the Upper West Side.

It's hard to tell from this photo, but the bar is packed and it's way too crowded to do the 365 thing in here. Time to improvise...

And take a lonely walk on this rainy-ass night.

Hey, here's a familiar place, let's take a break and have a beer in here.

And who's on duty, but Nas, the same friendly bartender who served us back on August 23rd. Hi Ryan!

Stephanie was seated nearby and she's also a bartender. She invited me to stop by the bar she works at, Reunion Surf Bar, but I remembered I had been there already. I told her I'd stop by on day 366.

I wandered around and stumbled upon a place called Fred's. Hmmm...that triggered a memory...

Oh, yeah, these people recommended Fred's when I was at Do Hwa about a month ago. They were nice people, so let's take their advice and check it out.

Wow, nice in here. All wooden and candle-lit, let's grab a seat.

And friendly bartender Brian is quick with a Corona.

A shot of the lit up bottles behind the bar.

The top of the bar is lined with pennies. And it's lit up by...fire!

A long shot of the bar in all its candle-lit glory.

The other side of the bar. Note the glasses of bar snacks in between the candles. Nice!

The amazing and unique feature of Fred's is all the dog pictures lining the walls. Most of them are from people in the neighborhood and it's been growing since the bar opened in the mid '90's.

You could spend all evening just walking around and looking at these photos, I did.

Here's a portrait of the black lab, Fred, whom the bar is named after.

Here's a doggy who claims to only dine at Fred's. Funny, I didn't see Gravy Train on the menu.

I think this is Gene Simmons' dog.

Meanwhile back at the bar, Brian is chatting with someone.

The gentleman Brian was chatting with is Ron, who's an actor and lives nearby.

Here's Cesar and Andre who had just gotten off work at the Five Napkin Burger. Hmm...I need to stop by there for a Cheeseburger Saturday Night sometime.

And for my final drink, Brian mixes me up one of the signature doggie drinks, The Hair of the Dog.

Arf, arf, bark, bark and goodnight, everybody!

Review
Fred’s is named after a female black Labrador retriever and just like the namesake, this bar offers unconditional love to the neighborhood regulars that frequent this doggone bar. The bar is a step and a half underground and the front room is dominated by a large wooden, candle lit square bar. There’s tables and chairs off to either side of the bar and there’s a few window seats up front that overlook Amsterdam Avenue. There’s a dining room in the back. The patrons are mostly locals from the neighborhood and it’s a friendly vibe with pictures of dogs lining the walls. Most of the dogs have been brought in by people that live nearby or have sent them in. Conan O’Brien used to live in the neighborhood and his dog is proudly plastered on the wall.

They have a full bar and a good selection of bottled and draft beer. Two of the signature canine cocktails are the Paw Punch and The Hair of the Dog. They also have a full menu with a late night kitchen that’s open weeknight’s till 11pm and weekends till midnight. The menu has such offerings as: Mom’s Meatloaf which is served with mushroom gravy, caramelized onion mashed potatoes; Twin Center Cut Pork Chops; Chili con Carne topped with monterrey jack and cheddar cheeses and a 14 oz. New York Shell Steak. And if you still have room you may want to try the Industrial Strength Fudge Brownie topped with the gelato of your choice and drizzled with chocolate sauce. Then you’ll probably want to roll over and play dead for a while. Good doggie!

Fred's
476 Amsterdam Ave. (@83rd St.)
212-579-3076

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Bonus Art by “Boris”

Inspired by the group of recent visitors on the bar crawl, in-house artist, “Boris” has come up with a new logo for an upcoming T-shirt and here it is:

Great work, Daddio! It’ll be available soon (just in time for Christmas!) and will be inscribed with the first name of everyone who’s visited me on the bar crawl so far. And remember, if you need any artwork or a logo for your website, “Boris” is available for freelance work. He also designs CD and book covers and just about anything else you need art or design-wise. Just send me an email and I’ll pass it along to “Boris.”

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Bonus art by Jaws

As stated in his comment above, here's a piece of art featuring the notorius Cedric! Maybe he'll be on Fred's wall the next time I visit, thanks Jaws!