Friday, Sept. 17th, 2010—Bar 250

Day 242—Thursday, September 16th, 2010
Perdition
Tonight is the 250th night out. Being a landmark night, I was trying to find some place special to go to when it dawned on me, I should just go to a bar that’s just a bar. No frills, no tricked out gimmickry, just a good, old-fashioned joint to hang out and have a beer or five. After Googling around I found a place that I think fits the bill. I found Perdition and it looks like they have a long, candle-lit bar with plenty of stools. I like the fact that perdition means eternal damnation and/or hell. It’s time to go to hell. Destination: Perdition.

And here we are at Perdition, ironically located in Hell's Kitchen.

The bar is long, wooden and dark. Perfect!

And friendly bartender Scotty serves up a vodka spiked lemonade.

Brian and Eric were seated next to me at the bar. Brian lives in the neighborhood and Eric was in town on business from San Francisco.

Some lit up bottles behind the bar.

The lemonade went down quickly and I switched over to beer. Here's a cheers from Brian, Eric and yours fooly.

Here's an original painting of writer Dylan Thomas.

A long shot of the wooden bar.

Here's Heather and Scotty holding up the end of the bar.

A shot from the opposite end of the bar.

In addition to the spiked lemonade, there's lots of specialty cocktails to be had and they're all written up behind the bar.

Here's Scotty in action at the bar, chatting it up with a customer.

The bar features original local artwork on the walls. This is a piece from Nadine C. Check out her website here: Nadine Paints.

And here's another piece of Nadine's artwork.

At the end of the night Scotty poured shots for Eric, Brian and myself.

And that's the end of bar number 250. Goodnight, everybody!

Review
If this is eternal damnation, I welcome it! Perdition is a nice, neighborhood bar, located in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen. The bar and tables are illuminated by candles and it’s a friendly atmosphere inside. The bar is long and wooden and there’s tables opposite the bar and up in front there’s a nice view of the street-side action. Local art adorns the wall and music is played at a conversational level with tunes varying from the Kinks, to the Clash to T. Rex to Oasis.

They have 20 beers on tap including: Old Speckled Hen Cream Ale (Hello Gene!), Bass Ale, Harp Lager and Weihenstephan Hefeweiss. The bottled beer selection includes: Duvel Golden, Corona, Chimay Blue Trappiste Ale and Miller Light (Hello Biff!) There’s also over 20 specialty cocktails and martini’s. And to soak it all up they have a small munchie menu with such offerings as: Empanadas, a BBQ brisket sandwich, cheese and refried bean quesadilla and buffalo wings. And they serve food till 3 am for all you late night/early morning tokers.

Perdition offers up a generous happy hour, Monday through Friday from 1pm to 8pm. Some of the specials include, three dollar beers and shots, four buck well drinks, five dollar glasses of wine and two bucks off all menu cocktails. Check their website for other daily specials.

Stop in, you may get eternally damned, but you’ll never be thirsty.

Perdition
692 Tenth Ave. (Near 48th St.)
212-582-5660

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Bonus Photo

Eric had Scotty take this photo from his phone using an App that makes it look like an old photo. One of these days I have to learn what an App is. It's a cool photo, though!

Bonus Photo # 2

Jaws just sent in this piece of art of his interpetaion from last night. Thanks Jaws!

And now, inspired by raginrr's "devil in disguise" comment: The Flying Burrito Brothers!

Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010—Bar 249

Day 249—Wednesday, September 15th, 2010
Tortilla Flats
Okay, last night’s post was a little flat, because I was knocked-out flat from a bad night at work. But tonight’s another night so it’s onward, upward and Ward I’m worried about the Beaver.

I found a place called Tortilla Flats online that’s supposed to have great margaritas and it’s a kitschy place that kind of reminded me of the Trailer Park bar which was bar number 47. Hard to believe I went there over 200 nights ago when it was winter. It seems like its only been 199. Anyhoo, this place looks kind of festive and I could go for a margarita or six, so it’s off we go.

And through the magic of the internet, here we are.

The bar is crowded, but I spy a seat right there in the middle.

Wow, look at all the tinsel hanging from the ceiling. It's as if a Christmas tree threw up in here.

Leslie the friendly and cute bartender on duty serves up the first margarita of the evening.

Here's the bar with the bottles lit up at the bottom instead of the top.

Homemade Elvis art hangs amidst the tinsel and lights above the bar.

Prath and Ryan were seated next to me at the bar and wished me luck on my 365 journey. Thanks guys!

Margaritas and tequila shots are house favorites, but there's also a decent selection of beer to be had.

Kitschy and nostalgic art hangs on every square inch of the walls.

Here's Elvis with his very own security camera attached. Thank ya...thank ya very much!

Here's the infamous Ernest Borgnine wall.

Not to be outdone, Elvis has his own wall as well. Thank ya...thank ya...oh shit, I did that already. Never mind.

Wednesday is hula hoop night here. If you can spin a hula hoop for two minutes you win.

She started out with a bang...

But in the end the hula hoop won. Maybe next time!

The host for the evening's festivities is...

John, who's also the manager for the evening.

Here's Dries and Cristina relaxing at a back booth. Cristina had recently won the hula hoop challenge. Congratulations, Cristina!

Meanwhile, back at the bar I met Shawn, the other bartender on duty.

Shawn suggested a shot of tequila and who am I to say no?

Glasses are clinked...

And the shots are had. Cheers!

Ouch! Where's that pickle juice when I need it? Goodnight, everybody!

Review
Tortilla Flats bills itself as a West Village innovator in eclectic and eccentric New York life. And when you’ve had a night devoted to honoring Ernest Borgnine 18 years in a row, you have a right to make that claim. The bar area is tiny with a wooden bar festooned with homemade drawings of Elvis and light and tinsel hanging from it. The bartenders are friendly and the patrons are mainly tequila shot drinkers from the neighborhood. There’s booths opposite the bar and tables in the back. The decor is all kitsch and kaboodle, leaning heavy on equal parts Elvis and Ernest Borgnine.

There’s a full bar here with 10 different brands of tequila. Margaritas can be had by the pitcher and there’s a good selection of bottled beer. As expected the menu is Mexican (expect most of the crowd to be facebook devotees--somewhat private joke alert) and in addition to your standard tacos, burrtos and enchiladas, some of the specialities include: Carne Asada which is grilled sliced steak with a spicy rancheros sauce rolled into two burritos; Flautas Camarones are deep-fried shrimp filled tortilla flutes; New Mexican Short Stack which is three blue corn tortillas, stacked on top of each other, with layers of black beans, ancho chili salsa and your choice of beef, chicken or veggies and topped with jack cheese and Pollo Verde which has fresh tomatillo, serrano chili and garlic salsa atop grilled boneless chicken breast with melted cheese.

Monday and Tuesday nights there’s bingo at the bar, Wednesday is hula hoop night and on Friday’s you’re invited to wear your pajamas for V.I.P treatment. I gotta stop by here this year for the Ernest Borgnine night. My name is Marty after all!

Tortilla Flats
767 Washington St. (@12th St.)
212-243-1053

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