Thursday, Sept. 23rd, 2010—Bar 256

Day 256—Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
MacDougal St. Ale House (Originally headed for 124 Rabbit Club)
The PayPal donation bell has been rung and it arrived in my mailbox. Dan London sent me a crisp twenty dollar bill and it arrived today. I know Dan from his days at Hulu where I published my book, The Boy Who Would Be A Fire Truck.  Dan was the director of Search Engine Marketing there and he also interviewed me and did a great job. Here’s the interview: Dan London interview with me. These days Dan is a promoter, organizer and speaker at Fizzled Durham. You can read more about Dan by visiting his website right here: Dan London. Dan is pictured below enjoying a day at what looks like paradise (if only it was dark outside) with a perfectly placed bottle of Miller Lite sure to make Biff more than a little jealous. Thanks for the donation and all your support, Dan! I truly appreciate it!
I’ve been wanting to go to the 124 Rabbit Club for awhile, but I’m a little reluctant because it’s set up like a speakeasy and you have to find the bar and then press a buzzer to get in. The point being, they want it to be a somewhat hidden bar. What I’m afraid of is they won’t allow me to take pictures in there and do my 365 bar thing. But, what the hell, the only way to find out is to hop on over. Get it? Rabbit Club...hop...okay, whatever, let’s just go.

Okay, here we are at 234 McDougal Street. Let's go up and see which buzzer we need to press.

Shit, it's all residential names. Is there some secret code I don't know? Am I at the right address?

Yeah, I'm here, I wrote the address down in my notebook.

As I'm standing on the stoop, I see this place next door. Time to imporvise.

It's a nice dark basement bar. I think this will do. Let's settle in to bar number 256.

And what's looking even better than the bar is the lovely bartender, Gabby who's quick with a cold bottle of beer.

And I'm going to resist to use some Harry Nilsson reference about the lime in the beer.

Nate was seated next to me working on a crossword puzzle. I always respect a man who does the crosswords in ink. No turning back there.

Here's a shot of the lit-up, brick-walled bar from my perch.

There was a birthday party in progress at the bar. From left: The birthday girl, Liza, Lauren and Jay. And Liza wants everyone to know her name is Liza with a fucking Z! Let's all wish her a happy birthday: Happy birthday, Liza, with a fucking Z!

There's wooden tables opposite the bar that lead to a back room.

And back there are two proffesional styled dart boards.

Meanwhile, back at the bar...

Gabby is having a discussion with this gentleman. Let's see who he is.

It's the bars bouncer and doorman, Hansel. Hansel's an event host and you can read more about him here: Hansel.

There's a pool cue rack and stools in the front of the bar opposite the pool table.

And speaking of pool, Nate has switched over from crosswords to billiards.

And now it's time to walk out and close out another chapter on the 365 bar crawl. Goodnight, everybody!

Review
On a street lined with college and tourist bars, the McDougal St. Ale House stands out for not trying to stand out. It’s a low-key basement bar with no frills and no attitude. The pool table is king here and most of the action happens up front at the ample sized bar and wooden booths that line the brick walls of this Greenwich Village Tavern. There’s darts in the back, the bartenders are friendly and it’s a nice place to hang and have a beer or five.

There’s a full bar with a good botted beer selection and 12 beers on tap including: Blue Moon, Newcastle, Samuel Adams and Stella Artois. They have a seven day a week happy hour from noon to 7pm with three dollar well drinks and three buck pints. There’s also different drink specials every night of the week.

MacDougal St. Ale House
122 MacDougal St. (@Minetta Lane)
212-254-8569
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Bonus Photos

A nice fellow was seated next to me at the bar and he politely declined to be photographed, but offered up something interesting. He's a medical marijuana user due to insomnia. Here's a couple things he showed me.

It's fuzzy and you can't read it, but what do you expect of a medical marijuana I.D?

Here's the Medical Marijuana smart card that you get along with government grown weed.

And the back side of the card. "Remember what they say," we know you're stoned out of your gourd, but please make this extra effort. Dude!

And to go with the bonus photos, here's NRBQ with "Wacky Tobacky." Enjoy! And stay high and let your freak flag fly!