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