Sunday, November 7th, 2010—Bar 301

Day 301—Saturday, November 6th, 2010
Choptank
Live, from New York, it’s Cheeseburger Saturday Night! With special guests Clacky and Shannon from Newcastle, Australia. Featuring the ready for prime beef player, Marty Wombacher. And now, tonight’s guest host in Greenwich Village...Choptank!

It's Shannon's birthday, so we had a pre-dinner party at my place. In addition to being a great chef, Clacky is an ace photographer and set up his camera on a tripod to take a shot of the three of us.

And we had to get a shot of us giving you the one-finger salute.

After a few beers and some popcorn we made our way to Bleecker Street and found ourselves in front of Choptank, tonight's destination. However, like an idiot, I forgot to take a photo of the place. Luckily I found this one on the internet, but there was no photo credit. So thank you to whoever took it!

There's more than one bar in here. Here's the front bar.

And there's a marble-topped wooden bar in the back.

The motto here is "Be Nice or Leave," so we decided to settle in here.

Here's Clacky and Shannon relaxing at the bar.

Joe the bartender serves up three cans of Genesee Cream Ale.

Cheers!

Banquettes and tables line the walls opposite the bars.

Fire!

Stephen and Linda were seated next to us at the bar. They're a friendly and very cool couple and they have one of the most unique marriages ever. He lives in Boulder, Colorado and she lives on the Upper East Side here in Manhattan. They only spend the weekends together! It sounds like a genius idea to me!

We had a nice conversation with them and Tim and Shannon posed with them before they left.

The bar has a good selection of craft beer and Clacky chose one called, "Purple Haze" to go along with his purple, "Down Under" shirt that he bought at the 365 Bar Store. "Boris" maintains the store and designed the logo and all of the shirts. Check it out, you don't need to be Australian to buy one!

Fresh potato chips are placed in front of us and we're reminded we came here not only to drink, but to eat as well.

We  check out the menus and place our order.

Clacky gets his camera ready to snap some shots of the food. His photos are vastly superior to mine, so some of them will be interspersed with mine.

Shannon ordered the cheeseburger. Clacky took the shot, but didn't quite get the cheeseburger in it. I think that Purple Haze he's drinking has kicked in. (Photo by Tim Clack.)

So I stepped in and snapped a shot of it. Looks pretty fucking amazing, huh?

Tim got a rock shrimp taco, the food here is great! (Photo by Tim Clack.)

Since Shannon got a cheeseburger, I decided to go with the Choptank Dog. It's an all beef frank topped with crab dip, cheese, old bay chips and scallions. And it costs just five bucks! (Photo by Tim Clack.)

I devoured it in about one bite. (Photo by Tim Clack.)

Here's Clacky and Shannon tucking into their dinners.

Clacky samples Shannon's cheeseburger as the woman at the end of the bar appears to be suffering from a sudden migraine headache attack.

Clacky took the last shot of the evening and sent in this photo caption: "Some homeless dude giving me the one fingered salute....wait a minute...it's Marty saying...Goodnight everybody!" (Photo by Tim Clack.)

Review
Okay, I slept in and now I’m running late and have a lot of stuff to do before my Sunday dinner, so I don’t have time to write a review. Here’s one from New York magazine.

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New England has largely dominated the flavor of New York’s burgeoning fish-shack category, but regional diversity comes with the opening of Choptank in the former Bar Q space. Named for a river in Maryland where the owners and the culinary consultant, Kevin Patricio, grew up, the joint references the Chesapeake Bay region with crab chowder, Old Bay seasoning, and Baltimore’s Ostrowski’s Polish Sausage, served with soft pretzels and mustard. Although chef Matthew Schaefer’s menu focuses on seafood, there are meatier, southern-inflected options, like a Virginia-ham plate and fried chicken. — Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld

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Thanks to Clacky and Shannon for a fun night on the crawl. Happy birthday to Shannon, and thanks for the great photos, Clacky!

Choptank
310 Bleecker St. (Near Grove St.)
212-675-2009

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Bonus Photo From Tim Clack In New York City!
After dinner I went home to catch up on some much needed sleep and Tim and Shannon went to climb the Empire State Building. Here’s a beautiful shot of New York and a caption from the top of the Empire by Clacky.

Kong's final resting place (by night). Kinda looks like Port Macquarie, hey Fitzy?!

Saturday, November 6th, 2010—Bar 300

Day 300—Friday, November 5th, 2010
McCoys
Tonight’s a special night, it’s the 300th bar I’ve been to in a row. I thought about what kind of bar to go to and as usual kind of waited till the last minute to pick one. I decided on a bar called McCoy's in Hell’s Kitchen. This whole thing is about bars and McCoy’s appears to be just that: A bar. Nothing too special, kind of dark and a nice place to have a beer or four. Plus it’s a pick from 365 commentator Al Rizo and those always seem to be great places. Al is the co-pilot here and he sure can sniff out a great bar. Let’s go see what he sniffed out at McCoy's.

It's Friday night and there wasn't a chance of getting a taxi, so I sucked it up and walked the 21 blocks to McCoys. I passed this deli along the way and it's my kind of place. They have a lotto beer here. (Rimshot.) Plus an ATM shot for Joey D!

Here we are at McCoys bar in the heart of Hell's Kitchen.

The sign outside announcing their happy hour and other specials inside.

There's a trifecta of shamrocks outside on the wall and what I assume is a barrel of fun. Let's go inside.

It's packed inside and really loud. I found one seat at the end of the bar. It's nice and dark in here, another great pick from Al!

Shane was the only bartender on duty and even though he was busier than fuck, he agreed to pose for a photo. You can see the, "let's get this shit over with" look on his face.

Here's my view from my seat at the bar. It was so crowded and noisy I decided to skip the meet and greet photos and just take some shots at the bar and relax somewhat. It's been 300 bars and I feel I can take a little break from socializing for one night.

It's a great bar, but they could ditch these big screen TV's in my opinion.

Wow, people keep streaming in, it's really crowded in here. Oh well, it is Friday night after all.

Vintage black and white photos line the wooden wall opposite the bar.

A shot of the bar with lots of empties on top of it.

Sports pennants and knick-knacks hang over the top of the bar.

A photo of two midget baseball players hang on the wall. I like that.

The backroom has booths and tables and it's packed back here too.

The jukebox is legendary here and has such varied artists as: The Pogues, The Clash, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Warren Zevon and The Kinks among others.

A shot from the other end of the crowded bar.

Back at the bar, I had several beers and thought about all the different nights out I've had on this bar crawl. Tonight I just met Shane, but most nights I meet at least four people and talk to them. Take the average of four (most nights it's more) and that's over 1200 people I've met on this journey so far. Crazy.

300 bars down! Thanks so much for everyone who comes here and checks this out. It really does mean a lot to me. And I truly appreciate all you people that leave a comment, it's added a nice social community touch to the site. Cheers to all of you and goodnight everybody! 65 more to go!

Review
McCoy’s has been on the block in Hell’s Kitchen since the 1800’s and is one of the oldest bars in New York City. The front room is narrow with a long wooden bar taking up most of the space. There’s a window side booth up front and more booths and tables in the back. The jukebox is also in the back room and has one of the most eclectic selections in town. And you can even suggest they add a song to the jukebox here.

There’s a large selection of bottled and draft beers including: Guinness, Brooklyn Lager, Yuengling and their very own McCoy's Irish Ale. Happy hour runs from 4pm till 7pm with four buck beer and shots and various daily specials. The pub grub here includes such offerings as a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich, burgers, wings and popcorn shrimp. And the kitchen is open till 4am for all you midnight tokers.

McCoys
http://www.mccoysnyc.com/
768 Ninth Ave. (Near 51st St.)
212-957-8055

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Bonus Photos From Tim Clack In New York City!

365 commentator Tim Clack and his girlfriend/almost wife Shannon are in town and here’s a few of the photos he’s taken during their vacation here along with his captions. Thanks for sending these along Clacky and it’s been fun hanging out with the two of you.

Some bright lights at Times Square.

Robert Cray band at BB King's nightclub.

Physical Graffiti on St Marks Place.

Some big arse buildings!

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Once again, Thanks to my co-pilot Al Rizo for a great suggestion! Al artwork by our own in-house artist, "Boris."

Friday, November 5th, 2010—2010

Day 299—Thursday, November 4th, 2010
Coal Yard Bar
About a week ago I read a post on the fine EV Grieve blog announcing that a new bar was opening in the East Village called Coal Yard Bar and that  the owners were the same people who own the International Bar that I visited last July.
That bar is certainly one of the top ten bars in New York I’ve been to, so I’m curious to see what the Coal Yard Bar is all about. So what do you say that we go check it out?

Here we are, let's go in and see what's happening, it looks nice from the outside.

Wow, nice and dark in here and it feels like a bar that's been on the block for years.

And friendly bartender Johnny serves up an ice cold Rolling Rock for three bucks. There's happy hour prices in here all night long.

And here's a pretty and familiar face, Elaina was the bartender on duty when I went to the sister bar, The International, great to see her again!

The bar's been open about a week, but tonight was the official grand opening night and here I am with the beautiful owners of the bar, Molly and Shawn.

Molly got shots for some of us up at the bar. From left: Yours Fooly, Shawn, Molly, Fernando, Roger and Lauren giving the double-fingered salute. Cheers!

A shot of the dark bar in all its glory.

Kristen and Julie were enjoying the opening night's festivities.

A shot of the top of the maple wood bar.

There's a nice-sized window up front where you can gaze out onto the East Village.

Boo!

The liquor bottles behind the bar are lit up in a nice shade of magenta.

Vintage beer signs dot the walls of the bar.

Molly introduced me to her friends, Cal (far right) and head of security, Big Lee giving the middle finger salute that's become so popular on the 365 crawl.

Like the International, the Coal Yard has a great jukebox with selections including: Roger Miller, The Velvet Underground, Dolly Parton, Led Zeppelin and Bo Diddley.

When asked to have his picture taken, AJ said, "Why the fuck not?" I like his attitude!

Meanwhile, Elaina's taking care of business at the bar.

There's tables in the dimly-lit back room.

There's a long wooden railing opposite the bar to rest a drink and an elbow on.

Fernando and Jason were hanging out by the front door. Both men are musicians and they introduced me to another musician who's name is...

Marty! We'll call this shot, "Marty Squared."

Hey, these two look familiar...

By cracky, it's Clacky and Shannon from Australia completing a trifecta of one finger salutes! Goodnight, everybody!

Review
Molly and Shawn, the owners of Coal Yard Bar deserve a medal for reviving the International Bar in the East Village in 2008. It’s one of the best bars on that block and beyond and now they’ve taken the old rule of, “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it,” and opened up a sister bar, The Coal Yard Bar. Walking into the bar you immediately feel at home and although the joint is new, it feels like it’s been on the block for years. The dark-grained wooden half moon bar is impressive and dominates the front of the bar. It was made and crafted for the bar and owner Molly told me they wanted it to have the finish of a Les Paul guitar. To just imagine a bar with a Les Paul guitar finish is a genius thought and they’ve pulled it off here.

There’s a full bar and well drinks are just four bucks. There’s a decent selection of draft beer and there’s also cans and bottles available. Rolling Rocks go for three bucks a can, so that’s what I had. Happy hour runs from 3pm to 8pm with a dollar off everything, so you don’t need to come here on payday to enjoy a night of drinking.

In the 1850’s coal yards dominated this area, and now there’s a new Coal Yard on the block that feels like yesterday’s dive bar. And that’s a good thing.

Coal Yard Bar
102 First Avenue (@6th St. )
212-677-4595

And in honor of tonight's trifecta flip-off, I present the "365 Flip," artwork by "Boris!"