Wednesday, Sept. 15th, 2010—Bar 248

Day 248—Tuesday, September 14th, 2010
Triple Crown Ale House
Okay, it’s been one shitty, piss-poor night at work. I’m not going to get into it, because I know better than to blog about work. I don’t feel like getting dooced in this shitty, fucking economy. (How do you like your job, Frank? Inside joke alert.) Anyway, I’ve got a headache, my eyeballs hurt, my toes are weary and I’ve got a spasm going on in my left shoulder blade. Some nights I really don’t feel like doing this bar crawl, but there’s no way I want to start it all over. And quitting is out of the question. But I do, however feel like getting really fucked up. So I’m going to go to the Triple Crown Ale House for the simple reason it’s about four minutes from where I work. I’ll prove it to you, just look below this sentence.

See, we're here already, time for a drink or seven.

It's kind of crowded at the front and I'm in no mood to be mingling with a lot of people.

This spot at the back looks perfect to throw back a few well-deserved drinks.

And Noel the bartender brings the first of the many well-deserved drinks.

Here's to winning the lottery, cheers!

Here's the lit up bar at the Triple Crown.

A row of booths line the wall opposite the bar.

Here's a shot of one of the booths. It makes me think of Frank Booth.

The front table has an open=air view of 7th Street.

Here's a longshot of the wooden bar at the Triple Crown.

This fellow was just finishing his dinner and was seated next to me.

His name is Uri and he's from Tel Aviv, Israel. He turned out to be a real interesting guy, he owns a restaurant and he's a professional photographer. Here's the restaurant's website: Porter and Sons.

There's a dining room in the back.

And lots of TV's (you'll love it here, Gene!)

Condiments!

Horse-racing photos hang on the walls, hence the name the Triple Crown.

Noel at work at the bar with the other bartender who's name I didn't get because by now I'm on about my eighth drink.

Uri takes another shot as I drink a shot.

Somewhere along the evening I drifted off into vodka to forget my horrible workday. Goodnight, everybody!

Review
I’ve said it before in reviews of bars along this stretch of Seventh Avenue, they’re not bad bars, but they all somewhat lack a distinct personality or charm. The Triple Crown is no exception to this rule. But if you’re going to a game or show at Madison Square Garden, or if you want to throw back a few before your train ride back to Jersey, it’ll serve your purpose well. Like two of it’s neighboring taverns, it’s got a horse theme to it and lots of polished wood and a very large bar. There’s large wooden booths lining the wall and a large dining room in the back.

It’s a full bar with a Happy Hour running Monday through Friday featuring four dollar drafts and six buck well drinks. Wednesday is Ladies Night and women can drink six dollar Cosmopolitans and Martinis all night. The kitchen is open late (till one am weeknights, four am on the weekends) and some of the items available include: Pasta With Spicy Sausage, Bangers And Mash, Leg Of Lamb and Beef Goulash.

There’s outside tables for seating and people watching when the weather permits. And it’s only about four minutes from where I work.

Triple Crown Ale House
330 Seventh Ave. (at 29th St.)
212-736-1575

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010—Bar 213

Day 213—Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
Russian Vodka Room
Okay, first off, daily commentator, artist and writer, Jaws sent in a picture of himself wearing the 365 shirt with the red logo designed by “Boris.” Check out Jaws below:

What a handsome devil! In addition to being an artist (he did the graphics on the photo he sent in), Jaws is also a writer and has published three books. Two of them are tales from his cab driving days and when he toiled in customer service. The third is a collection of his graphics and drawings. It’s hilarious stuff and I highly recommend all three. You can check them out right here: Jaws the Cabbie.

If you’d like to check out the 365 Bar Shop and check out the custom design t-shirts and merchandise it’s as easy as clicking here: 365 Bar Shop. Our resident artist, “Boris” set the whole thing up and maintains it. “Boris” is also available for freelance artwork, so if you’d like your website spruced up, if you need a logo, CD or book cover or just about anything, “Boris” is your go-to guy. Just send me an email and I’ll forward it along.

There’s a couple more bonus photos, down under the main post and once again, down under is a fitting place for them because they more Australian photos. 365 commentator Tim Clack took a couple photos of the oldest brewery in Sydney. Check them out, they’re down under the review and a couple of great shots. Thanks for sending them in, Tim, mate!

Okay, tonight while Googling around I found what appears to be a very cool bar. It’s a place in midtown called the Russian Vodka Room and it’s bound to be a dark bar, because there’s no windows in the joint. But there is an in-house piano player and I bet there’s no TV’s anywhere. Let’s go see if my hunch is correct.

Here we are at the window-less bar. I love it already.

It's perfect inside, a nice dark and friendly vibe. And there's a seat at the bar.

And the beautiful bartender, Irina serves up a 2 ounce shot of pineapple infused vodka.

Budem zdorovy!

Azfar was seated next to me. He's a nice guy and was in town on business from Cleveland. I told him the bar crawl had traveled to Cleveland. He said he comes to New York frequently, so you may see him again on the crawl.

Quite a selection of booze at the bar. The large bottles in the back are the infused vodka.

There's tables and banquettes in the front of the bar.

The bar is wooden and somewhat octagon in shape, although there's not quite eight sides.

Here's an example of how dark it is in here. Here's the lounge area taken without the flash.

And here's the same shot with the flash.

There's nightly piano music at the bar, but it's kept at a conversational level.

Here's Irina at work mixing up another drink for me.

She adds the finishing touches and...

Voilà, a G3 martini.

Russian artwork hangs on the dark wooden walls of the bar.

And here's some more vats of the infamous infused vodka.

Here's Irina taking a little break behind the bar.

Next she served up a four shot tasting which was on the house. I love this place!

Cheers from Irina and I and goodnight, everybody!

Review
I think I found the perfect bar. Nice and dark inside, no windows, no TV’s and no pretentious attitude. The bartenders and waitresses are pretty and friendly, there’s live piano music every night of the week and the crowd is a mix of tourists, local business people and perhaps a thirsty international spy or two. The main room houses the octagon shaped wooden bar. There’s tables and chairs in nooks in the front and behind the piano is a lounge area with couches and tables to relax and enjoy your flavor-infused vodka.

The Russian Vodka Room lives up to its name. There’s over 40 varieties of vodkas and 10 flavor infused vodkas including: apple cinnamon, garlic, pepper and dill, horseradish and strawberry among others. There’s eight selections of rare scotch whiskies available and ten types of cognac. They have five choices of flavored martinis and specialty cocktails include: the Russian Breakfast which is, garlic, pepper, dill vodka with beef broth and tomato juice; the Red Bastard which mixes horseradish vodka and spicy bloody Mary mix and the Mintini which is a mixture of mint infused vodka, fresh lime and gingerale.

You’re going to need something to soak up all that booze and there’s plenty of items on their dining menu to do just that. There’s a large appetizer/small plate selection, including: Herring with potatoes, Duck Liver Pate, Beef Carpaccio with spicy mayonnaise and Smoked Trout with picante salad. Some of the main courses offered are: Chicken Schnitzel with truffle, Beef Stroganoff with kasha, Lamb Shanks Braised In Red Wine and Roast Duck with apples. There’s five different kinds of caviar and dessert is also available and if I go back I’m trying the Farmer's Cheese Blintzes with chocolate.

There’s a daily happy hour that runs from 4pm-7pm with $3.50 house-infused vodkas, $5 flavored martinis and $4 beers. Byla ne byla and cheers to the Russian Vodka Room.

Russian Vodka Room
265 W. 52nd St. (Near Broadway)
212-307-5835

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Bonus Photos!

Aussie mate, Tim Clack sent in these photos of Sydney's oldest brewery. Here's the photos and Tim's captions.

This place is the Lord Nelson Hotel Brewery located in the Rocks in Sydney. The Rocks is pretty much the oldest part of the city which is under the south side of the Harbour bridge. It used to to be a bad ass area full of hookers and sailors and has hosted the odd underworld murder in it's time.

I'm sure it packs out on the weekends but at Monday lunch its a haven for kicking back and enjoying a few of their specialty house brews.

Thanks for sending in the photos, Tim, very cool! And now in honor of the Russian Vodka Room...

Monday, August 9th, 2010—Bar 211

Day 211—Sunday, August 8th, 2010
Whiskey Trader
Okay, this is the last night my folks are in town, so one more daytime stop on the 365 crawl. It was a nice change yesterday drinking at the Southwest Porch outside in the Bryant Park, but the sunshine zapped me and now I must retreat back into darkness. I saw a bar yesterday about a half block from my folks hotel and it’s a basement bar and looked dark. It’s called Whiskey Trader, so let’s go check that out and get back into the dark. I almost got a tan yesterday and that’s some scary shit!

Here we are at the Whiskey Trader. Goddamn it's bright out here!

Aaahh, but it's nice and dark in here. And plenty of seats at the bar.

And Jim the bartender is a super-friendly guy and quick with a cold beer.

Let's go see who's down at the end of the bar.

Emily was enjoying an early afternoon glass of wine.

And Danielle was wasting no time draining a bottle of beer. Cheers, ladies!

There's a tradition at the bar that people send in money and they put it up behind the bar. Funny money runs the length of the wall.

Jim points out a bill that was sent in from Israel.

Some of the daily drink specials.

There's wooden stools and tables opposite the bar to relax in and enjoy your drinks.

Here's some of the draft beer available.

Travis and Erin were seated next to me at the bar. They took the train in from Stamford, CT. for the day.

There's original artwork on the walls.

It's an ongoing work and the artist comes in when it's closed and adds to the paintings, so they're ever-changing.

It adds a nice dimension to the bar.

This group was down at the end of the bar. From left: John (a.k.a. Mini Me), Mohammed (a.k.a. Elvis), Makeda and Luis (a.k.a. Vin Diesel.)

Here's some lit-up bottles of Tequila behind the bar.

Popcorn!

Makeda and Luis put some tunes on the internet jukebox.

Meanwhile Jim holds court at the other end of the bar.

And I have one last beer before heading off to see my parents.

And here they are waving goodbye to all of you. They appreciated all the nice comments and i had a fun visit with them. And now...goodnight everybody!

Review
The Whiskey Trader is a dark combination of a lounge and sports bar. There’s five plasma-screen TV’s with Direct TV so that virtually every sports game can be seen. Requests for games are taken on a first come, first serve basis. There’s a small elevated lounge in the front and a sunken one in the back with a fireplace, but most of the action happens around the large wooden bar in the middle. The male and female bartenders are friendly and as the night wears on, some of the female bartenders are known to get up and shake it on top of the bar. The crowd is a mix of local business people and tourists and the internet jukebox blasts tunes till four in the morning.

There’s a full bar with a good selection of draft and bottled beers. They feature a daily happy hour from 4pm to 7pm seven days a week with drink specials including three buck Bud LIght pints, five dollar Cosmo, Appletini and Peachtini and five dollar selection of varied shots. On Monday and Tuesday all Stoli flavor drinks and shots are just five bucks.

There’s no food but there is free popcorn at the bar!

Whiskey Trader
71 W. 55th St. (Near Sixth Ave.)
212-582-2223