Friday, December 3rd, 2010—Bar 327

Day 327—Thursday, December 2nd, 2010
Revival
Okay, I’ve had to work late and I found a bar called Revival while Googling around that’s not far from where I live. Normally I would just walk there, but since it’s late, I want to make sure I get there while it’s still open and don’t have to search around for another bar at this hour of the night, so I’m going to run outside and yell...

TAXI!

And baboom, here we are!

You're welcome! Thank you. Wait, strike that and reverse it.

It looks nice in here. A nice underground, candle-lit oasis.

Bartender Nicholas was quick with a Red Stripe and a flip of the bird.

John (left) is the owner of this fine establishment and here he is with Pedro who told me his favorite Woody Allen movie is, "Take The Money and Run." One of my favorites as well.

The bar from my point of view.

Here's the drafts available on tap.

Happy hour!

A long shot of the candle lit wooden bar.

Here's the back room of the bar.

These two were chilling out back here with beers and I found out that both of their name's are Adam. So I present, Adam Squared.

There's a lounge upstairs, let's go check it out.

Up the stairs...

Very nice!

Comfortable couches and chairs up here, but since it's late it's deserted. Let's go back downstairs.

Nicholas is busy behind the bar.

Here's John with Sarah and Peter.

The fellow on the left chose to hide behind my business card as he's a wanted man. On the left is Alex who manages the bar Antartica. He invited me to stop by there and then we had a laugh when I told him I already did last July. Once again proving it's a small world on this bar crawl.

And a parting shot of owner John and I. Cheers and goodnight, everybody!

Review
Revival is an underground bar with an upstairs lounge and an outside terrace. The bar downstairs is dark an d candle-lit with a mural on the facing wall and a small back room with tables and chairs. There’s an upstairs lounge with make-out ready couches, chairs and windows overlooking 15th Street. The mood of the bar is chill with a handpicked soundtrack going on that runs the gamut from 60’s pop to punk to electronica. John the owner told me he takes pride in the music in the bar and says it’s anything you can imagine except for the stuff that’s on commercial radio.

There’s a full bar available with a decent selection of bottled and draft beers. Happy hour runs from 4pm to 8pm, Monday through Friday with five buck drafts, three dollar Bud and Bud lights, four buck well drinks and five dollar wine and cider.

Revival
129 E. 15th St. (Near Irving Pl.)
212-253-8061

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010—Bar 326

Day 326—Wednesday, December 1st, 2010
Valhalla
Another donation rolled in yesterday from Philadelphia, PA. Bruce Davis sent in a generous donation of twenty bucks along with this message: “Hey, Marty, I want you to take this 20 bucks and buy a few quality micro-brews with it. None of that piss-water Corona with my 20 smackers allowed! Love your site! Keep it going, even beyond 365, please.” Ha ha ha! I Iike a man who doesn’t mince words! Mucho thanks, Bruce and there’ll be no Corona or Budweiser tonight in your honor!

Taking on Bruce’s challenge I Googled NYC craft beer bars and I noticed a bar called, Valhalla. So I checked them out and they have a decent review in New York magazine and they have a shitload of craft beers on tap and in bottles. So it’s off we go in search of some non piss-water beer!

I’m on the escalator at Penn Station and these two fuckers have pushed their way past me as they run down the escalator. This is one of my biggest pet fucking peeves. People running and/or walking down the escalator at Penn Station. I know people are in a hurry here, it’s a train station in the heart of Manhattan and people are going to be running around and acting nuts. But if you want to run to catch your train and you’re running late, here’s a little clue...

Run down the fucking STAIRS! That’s what they’re there for! But nooo, everybody’s got to run down the escalator instead of the stairs. The escalator is for lazy people like me that really don’t give a flying fuck where they’re going or when they’re going to end up there. This is my 326th bar, do you really think I’m in a hurry to get there? Fuck no, so just let me relax on the escalator and run down the stairs to catch your stupid-ass train to Bumblefuck, New Jersey and leave me the fuck alone. My worst time on the escalator was one night a couple years ago when a fat woman who smelled like beef stew and linoleum with tons of bags shoved me aside and said, “Hello? I’m trying to get to my train!” And she screamed it in my ear that I have tinnitus in. I’m almost deaf in that ear, but loud noises really irritate it and her screaming into it really made it ring. I jumped away and she ran past me and it really pissed me off. Normally I can let things go, but sometimes when I get pissed I go a little nuts, so I ran after her and started screaming at her, yelling, “Hello, the stairs are for running down...Hello, you shouldn’t be running on the escalator... Hellooo, Hellllooooo...” She was running from me and people were staring at me like I was a complete lunatic and I ended up collapsing in laughter near Auntie Anne’s Pretzel stand. Oh, the fun one can have in Penn Station! Anyway, back to the bar crawl.

Okay, fast forward from my subway ride and walk to tonight's destination, Valhalla. Let's check it out.

Nice and dark in here. It's a little crowded, but there's a few spots at the bar. Let's go snag one.

And the beautifula and friendly bartender, S.J. serves up a bottle of Chimay.

Okay, Bruce, this non piss-water beer is for you! Cheers!

Here's some of the beers on tap and the bottles above show the monster selection in here.

And there's even more on the other side of the bar.

The tables up front have a nice street-side view.

Wooden picnic tables line the walls and lend themselves to the Nordic style of the place.

Chris and Catherine were enjoying beers at a table behind the bar and wished me well on my 365 journey.

A horny Viking goddess hangs over the bar and blesses all beer drinkers.

Fire!

Hellloooo!!

Jelena and Thiago were chilling out at the bar. Thiago told me he had read about the 365 blog in the Daily News back in March.

The wrought iron chandeliers provide the dim light in the bar.

I decided to try one of the flight samplers of beer and here's S.J. preparing it.

And here it is, I got the Around The World flight. This included Blue Point Pumpkin from America, Uniborne Apple Ale from Canada (Hi Lex!), Bitburger Pilsner from Germany, Fullers London Pride from the U.K. and Cautier Blonde from Belgium. Quite a trip! (And S.J. kindly wrote all the beers down, so she gets a co-writing credit for this post.)

And the flight is over, so crew prepare for landing at 16th Street. Goodnight, everybody!

Review
In Scandinavian mythology, Valhalla is a hall where there’s an ongoing party for dead Viking warriors and it’s ruled over by the god Odin. In Hell’s Kitchen it’s a bar where it’s ruled over by a bartender. The bar is dark, lit up only by dim wrought iron chandeliers and candles and the walls are wooden and a few wall mountings pay homage to its Viking namesake. Picnic tables line the walls and while the bar has a friendly vibe, people tend to stick to their own groups, sampling beer and enjoying the chill vibe in the bar.

There’s a multiple page menu to peruse and decide which type of beer you want to sample. Flight menus also offer several types of beer in five ounce sampling mugs. There’s a full bar in addition to the massive beer selection and an impressive amount of single malts. There’s also a small food menu including a Vahalla dog, chicken wurst, German frites, potato salad and Bavarian pretzels.

Valhalla
815 Ninth Ave. (@54th St.)
212-757-2747

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010—Bar 325

Day 325—Tuesday, November 30th, 2010
The Watering Hole
Another day and another donation rolls in to help me make it to the home stretch. Mark Aleks sent in a generous donation of ten bucks to buy a couple of beers tonight. He’s also sending something else that will possibly really help me out on the old bar crawl. Mark is affiliated with a company called, Zaca and they make an item called, The Hangover Topical Patch. It’s a patch that guarantees a hangover free morning. He’s sending me a sample and I’ll give it a test run next week on the bar crawl. I’ll have to have more than my usual three or four drinks to really test it out, but hey, this is all in the name of science! Thanks a lot Mark for the donation and for sending the Hangover Patch, I look forward to reporting on it. I have to confess to being just a little leery of patches though. I tried the smoking patch and it didn’t work. I could never get the fucking thing lit!

One of my favorite blogs, EV Grieve notes that the Nassau Bar may be in trouble and gives linkage to my post on that fine bar. Check it out here: Another bikini bar on the endangered list?

Okay, on to the bar crawl. I took a cab home from last night’s bar and as we were cruising down 19th Street I noticed a bar I had never seen called The Watering Hole. I made a mental note to check it out sometime and so tonight that’s where the crawl is going. I have to go because I want to get this note out of my mental, it’s itchy!

On my way to the bar I saw a statue of a baby Jesus in a pizza parlor and for some reason it really freaked me out. Especially since he's kind of dressed up like Freddie Mercury.

Lovely!

And we're here! Let's go inside and get watered down.

It's dark and festive all at the same time in here and plenty of seats at the bar. Looks like we're in for a good night.

And Dennis the friendly bartender promptly serves up a beer.

Cheers!

The view from my perch at the bar.

An electric snowman hangs on the wall. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere I go.

A vintage black and white shot of Grand Central Station hangs on the wall.

A nice leggy shot of Marilyn Monroe.

Tables and chairs are lined up opposite the bar.

Mbacke was the chef on duty for the evening...

And here's Kurt sampling some of Mbacke's fare. He declared it, "Delicious!"

There's a full dining area in the back of the bar.

And meanwhile, back at the bar...

Things have picked up. Pretty crowded for a Tuesday night. Let's go say hi to some people.

Josh and Karen were seated next to me and asked that I take a photo with one of their friends.

So of course I did. From left: Josh, Tanya and Karen. Nice people!

Here's Sean, who's the head bartender at Craft. He's holding a cocktail book that's a reproduction of a vintage publication from Cocktail Kingdom.

Here's Sean with Rufus and Richie who work in the kitchen at Craft.

Okay, somebody put on, "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey and it's time for one last look out the window and then get out. That song always gets me a little miffled. Goodnight, everybody!

Review
The Watering Hole is just as its name implies, nothing fancy or spectacular, just a nice neighborhood bar to have a drink or three. Maybe four. The walls are brick and lined with photos and Christmas lights and the bar is long and wooden. There’s tables and chairs opposite and in the front and back and the crowd is mainly locals from the neighborhood. The jukebox runs constantly, but it’s played at a conversational level and the bar has a friendly vibe to it.

There’s a decent selection of beers available and a full bar of liquor awaits you at The Watering Hole. Happy hour runs for four hours from 3pm to 7pm with four dollar well drinks, beer and wine to be had. After the happy hour if you need to soak up some of that alcohol, they do serve food. All the standard bar fare is here: Buffalo wings, nachos, burgers, sandwiches and wraps. But if you’re in the mood for a full dinner, that can be available too. Some of the dinner fare offerings are: Cajun Meatloaf, served with garlic mashed potatoes; a 14 ounce New York Cut Sirloin Steak; Sizzling Fajitas and Fried Catfish and Chips. Monday through Friday, from 11am to 4pm, there’s a burger special where you can get a burger and a beer for twelve bucks.

And if you’re into karaoke, that is big here and it happens Wednesday through Saturday from 10pm to 2am. If you’re not that into karaoke, simply go on a Tuesday night like I did.

The Watering Hole
106 E. 19th St. (Near Park Ave. South)
212-674-5783

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Bonus Booze Cartoon By Jaws!