Tuesday, July 6th, 2010—Bar 177

Day 177—Monday, July 5th, 2010
Grassroots Tavern
Okay, first off, 365 resident artist, “Boris” has been busy putting some new additions to the 365 Bar Store. There are now black T-shirts available in men’s and women’s styles. Just check on the additional colors menu off to the right of the shirt. And in honor of those 365 followers in Australia, “Boris” has set up special, “I Follow Down Under” shirts. They come in four different styles and you have your choice of a regular logo, or if you really want to show you follow down under, there’s an upside down logo as well. The choice is yours! Check it out in the apparel section of the store here: 365 Bar Store. Great job “Boris!” And remember that if you need some artwork for your website, “Boris” is available for freelance work. In addition, “Boris” can create a logo, design a CD or book cover or create just about anything you need. Just send me your request and I’ll pass it along to “Boris.” And, as you’ll see in the next paragraph, it was nice timing for “Boris” to think up this special design for our Australian mates!

I was going to go to Coney Island today, since I have the day off work, but right now it’s 99 degrees here and there’s no way I’m going down in the subway where it always feels about 20 degrees hotter. I didn’t have to go any further than my email to decide what bar to go to instead of journeying to Coney Island (and don’t worry, I will be going there before summer’s over.) I got an email from Rohan, who lives in Melbourne, Australia and said he’d love for me to stop at Grassroots Tavern on St. Marks Place. He said it’s where he hangs out when he’s in town. So that’s today’s bar. See how easy this works? Okay let’s go get beat in the heat!

And we're off, it's hotter than shit out here, I pray the air conditioning is working at Grassroots.

Bank ads on pizza boxes. Is nothing sacred anymore?

Despite the heat, there's a lot of activity in Union Square Park. Artists selling their work and this heady chess game are just part of the action.

And after a sweat-soaked walk, here we are, the Grassrots Tavern on St. Marks Place. Love the neon sign!

And for once, since I'm not working and it's early, I can take advantage of the Happy Hour specials!

Aaahh, the air conditioner is working and the place looks great. Nice tin ceiling and there's plenty of spots at the bar.

Keith was the friendly bartender on duty. Rohan asked in his email to see if John still worked there and he does, but he had the day off today.

Seated next to me was Veronica Saddler, who lives in the neighborhood. Veronica didn't want her picture taken, but she volunteered to take a shot of yours truly. It turns out Veronica is a pinhole photographer (as is 365 commentator Jason Hwang) and here's her website where you can check out her impressive photos: Veronica Saddler Photography.

There's well-worn tables off to the side and in the back of the spacious bar.

Vintage dart boards hang in the back room of the bar.

Riian and Riley were beating the heat at the bar.

Whitney flashes the 365 card while hoisting his drink. Cheers!

And Chris joins the party just in time for me to snap a photo.

Here's some of the beers available. As you can see, you're not going to go broke drinking in here.

Vintage coasters and pitchers hang over the bottles of booze at the bar.

The sun sets on St. Marks.

Robert and Stephanie were enjoying drinks at a side table and were very enthusiastic about the 365 bar crawl project.

A perfect spot on a hot summer day, great suggestion, Rohan! Cheers and goodnight everybody! (Photo by: Veronica Saddler.)

Review
Sometimes it nice to get back to the basics and drink in a no-frills bar, with decently priced drinks and an old-school flavor to it. Grassroots Tavern lives up to its name, it’s an old school New York dive bar and it’s nice that it hasn’t been pushed off the block with a chainstore or bar. Grasroots Tavern has been a fixture on the block since 1974. The bar is long and wooden and definitely shows history of many pitchers of beer and drinks that have been hoisted from it. There’s tables to the side and a back room with functioning dart boards and an antique trophy case. There’s a good selection on the jukebox with artists ranging from Johnny Cash, to Neil Young, to John Lee Hooker to the Pretenders.

There’s a full bar and drinks are cheap. Budweiser and Michelob drafts are just three bucks and you can get a pitcher for nine dollars. Bottled Buds go for $3.50 and a bottle of Heineken or Corona will cost you $4.50. Happy Hour runs Monday through Friday with one dollar off pints and two bucks off pitchers, so this place is definitely easy on the pocketbook, which is a good thing these days. You can also get a heaping bowl of popcorn for a buck to soak up some of the suds.

And the air conditioner works, which on a day like this makes the joint a real cool choice. Cheers!
    
Grassroots Tavern
20 St. Marks Pl. (Between 2nd & 3rd Aves.)
212-475-9443

Monday, July 5th, 2010—Bar 176

Day 176—Sunday, July 4th, 2010
67 Orange Street
Okay, it’s the Fourth of July, most people don’t have to work tomorrow, which means it could be a little nutty tonight. And we all know how much I like crowded bars, not at all. Luckily, I got some insider information that a bar uptown in Harlem should be on the quiet side and I can enjoy my Sunday drinks in peace. And the reason this person knows is that she bartends there on Sunday nights. I met Marise last Wednesday at the Library. She was really nice and when she offered to take her top off for the photo I just about dropped my camera and every guy within earshot just about sprained their necks. I turns out she meant her sweater, but it was still a great bar crawl moment. She tends bar at a place called 67 Orange St. It’s way uptown in Harlem and it's going to be a bit of a journey, but since it’s a holiday, I’m not going to sweat it out on the subway. TAXI!

Well, that was easy enough.

And we're off.

And here we are, 67 Orange St.

And here she is, bottle in hand, the beautiful and friendly Marise!

Here she is posing at the bar. This is a really nice place.

And seated next to me is a friendly fellow who's name is...get this...Marty! it's dueling Marty's at 67 Orange St. Happy 4th of July.

The three of us have a holiday shot. Cheers!

There's candle lit tables opposite the bar.

And a small little lounge area downstairs to chill out in.

I decide to have four holiday drinks in here to celebrate the 4th of July. Marise mixes the first one which is called Ben Down. Which makes me think of the old blues quote, "I been down so long it looks like up to me." Or something like that.

And here's the finished product.

It's delicious! Marise is a talented mixologist!

Drink number two is a dirty martini, because that's what the other Marty is drinking.

We decided to name the drinks: "Dirty Martytini's." Cheers!

And now these two lovely women have joined the Martyfest. My problem here is I forgot to write down their names. I think they're names are Sarah and Michelle. But the booze is starting to kick in and I could be wrong. If you're reading this and I'm wrong ladies, please correct me in the comments section.

Here's drink number three.

And drink number four!

Happy fourth and thanks to Marise for being such a friendly and lovely bartender! A great night on the bar crawl for sure.

Check out the bathroom, it's superfly.

Crack is wack!

And the obligatory bathroom mirror shot. Goodnight, everybody!

Review
67 Orange Street is an intimate, dark, smooth and sexy little joint uptown in Harlem. The horseshoe bar seats about a half dozen and there’s candle lit tables opposite and an intimate downstairs lounge. The bartenders and staff are friendly and music is played at a level that you can enjoy, yet still be able to converse over. The walls are brick and the lighting is low, which is the way it should be.

This is a cocktail bar and the list of signature drinks is impressive. Some of them include: A Side By Side Car which is Landy cognac VS, green chartreuse, cointreau, fresh lemon and pineapple juice; A Cherry Pisco Sweet which mixes basol pisco grape brandy, cherry kijafa, fresh lemon juice, egg white and sugar into one delicious cocktail; The Baxter Street which is right gin, zen green tea liqueur, soho lychee liqueur, green tea and lemon juice and if you’ve got a sweet tooth, try out the La Josephine whiich is cafe boheme liqueur, 99 bananas liqueur and a dollop of whipped cream. There’s also a food menu available and some of the bites include: Deviled Eggs, Orange Roasted Duck Leg, Buffalo Sliders and Beef Ribs.

The name 67 Orange St. is taken from the address of Almack’s, one of New York City’s first black-owned and operated taverns. The spirit and spirits live on here. Cheers!

67 Orange Street
2082 Frederick Douglass Blvd. (At 113th St.)
212-662-2030

Sunday July 4th, 1010—Bar 175

Day 175—Saturday, July 3rd, 2010
Park Bar
Some days are weird and some days crash right into this bar crawl. It’s about 1:30 am as I type this. I passed out early and woke up early and decided to write the introduction now, since I’m sleeping fitfully.

Funeral days are never easy days. You see somebody all the time and you think you’ll always keep bumping into this person. And then the person is gone and you’re dealt a big mortality lesson. This has happened a lot to me in the past couple years. You get older and part of the penance for living long is watching others go. The population in my building has shrunk by five people in the last few years and it makes you wonder who’s next. And not in a Pete Townshend kind of way, whatever that means. Goodbye Ken, Goodbye John, Goodbye Bobbie, Goodbye Jack. I miss seeing all of you in the hallways here and asking what’s going on. You live and you learn that a big part of life is spent at the mailboxes saying, “How are you?” You answer, “I can’t complain but sometimes I still do.” I steal lines from Joe Walsh. You laugh and you think this is never going to end. It does.

Dennis and Deloy Stoll have been my downstairs neighbors for well over ten years. They’ve been stuck with having to witness me fall down the stairs in a drunken stupor, blare my stereo, cave their roof in when I forgot to monitor the roof overhang and listen to me pace around on the creaky floors in here in various fits of nervousness. I pace when I’m nervous. I’m nervous a lot. So I pace. The floors creak in here. One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor. They’re good people. They deal with me.

Last week Dennis lost a battle with cancer and he died. One less neighbor, one less friend, one less person. One more lesson in mortality. But life goes on and a funeral crashes into this bar crawl. I went out yesterday after the mass and had some drinks at a bar with friends from the building and neighborhood. It’s what I do and I think Dennis would be glad I kept this crawl going. So, here’s some photos, I’m not going to caption them because I think Dennis deserves a moment of silence here on the bar crawl. Plus, I’m too hungover to do it and this makes a good excuse for me not to have to write captions. I think that would’ve made him laugh. Hang in there Deloy and cheers to everyone reading this. Treat every day like it’s your last and live in the moment.

I don’t usually ask for comments because I appreciate you just stopping by here and reading what I’m doing, but if you could put in a cheer to Dennis in the comments section, that would be great.

TO DENNIS!



Review

I wasn’t in the proper frame of mind to give this place a review so here’s one from New York Magazine:

On a quiet block just west of Union Square sits this hotel-ish bar with a twist: There's no hotel attached! The wood-paneled walls, white-tiled floors and bartenders in pressed white shirts and black ties may say "old money club," but nobody's really fooled by what's essentially a neighborhood bar for the lower Park Avenue nouveau riche. Suave young turks in Hugo Boss suits and the ladies who love them sip pricey glasses of Veuve Clicquot in the intime setting. But if it's Saturday night, you may want to think twice about coming here for that round of kir royales—weekends can get annoyingly busy. — Charles Runnette

Park Bar
15 E. 15th St. (Near Fifth Ave.)
212-367-9085