Saturday, June 5th, 2010—Bar 146

Day 146—Friday, June 4th, 2010
The Papaya Dog in Penn Station
Okay, it’s Friday night and as usual I’ve kind of hit the wall this week from work and bar-crawling. I really don’t feel like doing the meet and greet thing in a bar tonight, but I have to do something. Last Friday turned out okay, but it started as a bit of a disaster, if you didn’t see that post, here’s a link: Last Friday’s post. I really just feel like having a few beers and chilling out, but that’s tough to do on a Friday night in Manhattan. Then I remembered a post on a website I just discovered, it’s called I Lush NY and it’s done by two guys, Todd and Adam and they write about bars and beers. I like the site and will be using it to discover places I didn’t know about (don’t worry guys, I’ll give you credit when I do) and tonight’s the first night they get some credit here.

I looked at their list of cheap bars and at the bottom was this post:

Papaya Dog (in Penn station)

32 ounce beers served in a big gulp...

what's it like? although papaya dog isn't really a bar, you will fine a lot of drunks here. This a great place to grab a giant beer to pregame before a night out on the town. i took my girlfriend here on my first date and she is still dating me true story.

That sounds perfect for tonight. And since they included it on a list of bars, so can I! Besides, it serves giant beers (I bet they’re cheap too), have great hot dogs (LOVE the Papaya Dog) and I have always bemoaned the fact that you can’t get a beer at one of them. So I thank Todd and Adam for sharing this information. I don’t know which one wrote this, but the fact that he took his girlfriend on a first date cracks me up! I need to drink with these people, maybe I can get them out on a bar crawl with me one of these nights. Anyway, Penn Station is minutes from where I work, so it’s off we go!

New York City on a Friday night, Penn Station is right over there.

Squeeze and Cheap Trick? I gotta get tickets for that!

I got tired of waiting to try to get a full shot of this sign without people in it, so here we are at Ylvania Station.

Everybody's in a rush here, I hope it's calm at the Papaya Dog, I just want to relax.

Hate, hate, HATE the Rachel Ray!

And here we are, the Papaya Dog, it seems calm in here.

They have several sandwich combos here.

But I came for the hotdogs which are the best in town, but then I found a special treat I ordered which I'll reveal later.

Beer! This is the only Papaya Dog in town that has beer!

"Bartender" Ramy serves up a 32 ounce beer along with my special treat, to be revealed later.

Lots of tables and few people, just what I needed for the night. Peace and quiet!

Here's the spot I chose to make my spot.

And now I reveal the special treat, a corn dog! i've never seen one for sale in New York. This is a nice relaxing night.

There's a flat screen TV in the corner for viewing pleasure.

The corndog is delicious!

And the beers are going down smooth. Here's beer number three. 32 ounces for four bucks, you can't beat this deal! A perfect Friday night. This is like my Fortress of Solitude.

I love my little spot here and I'm really relaxed and copping a nice little buzz.

Maybe a little too relaxed. Goodnight everybody!

Review
Okay, if you’re jonesing for a brew in Penn Station, skip the cheesy T.G.I.F. and head directly for the Papaya Dog. Some may argue that it’s not a bar, but it’s got beer, it’s got chairs and someone to serve it to you, so I declare it the finest bar in all of Penn Station. Maybe I’ll start some sort of petition to get Mayor Bloomberg to sign. Anyhoo, there’s decent seating, it’s a great place for people watching and photo taking and the perfect Friday night spot for me to kick back, have a few 32 ounce beers and a corn dog and chill right the fuck out.

Thanks to I Lush NY for posting the location on their site.

The Papaya Dog in Penn Station
Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue—Penn Station/Madison Square Garden
(between 31st and 33rd St.)

Friday, June 4th, 2010—Bar 145

Day 145—Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
The Local 269
Okay, tonight I was trying to figure out what bar to crawl to and it fell right in to my lap. Or perhaps I should say it fell right in to my email. Let me explain.

Months ago I met photographer Jason Kuffer on the 61st bar of this sudsy sojurn. You can read about it here: Bar 61. That was a great night and today Jason emailed me about an auction that’s going on at a bar in the East Village at The Local 269. It’s a punk rock auction presented by musician/author, Mickey Leigh and Erin O’ to raise money for the Joey Ramone Lymphoma Foundation. That sounds cool and I appreciate Jason telling me about it, it should make for a nice night on the town. But I’m wondering, how do you have an auction in a bar? I’m not sure, but we’re about to find out!

Here we are at The Local 269 on the corner of Houston and Suffolk.

Wow, the place is packed! Lots of people showed up for the auction.

I managed to wiggle in and get beers from the friendly bartender, Mickie.

I think I know who that fellow in the yellow t-shirt is.

It's the co-presenter of the punk rock auction, Mickey Leigh with his friends. From left: Yoaz, Mickey, Tina and Izzy Bella. Mickey is Joey Ramone's brother and recently wrote a book with Legs McNeil called, "I Slept With Joey Ramone." A great book and I highly recommend it. Mickey's friend Yoaz plays bass with the band, Ingrid and the Defectors. They're playing tonight at Kenny's Castaways on Bleecker, go check them out, I'd go but they go on at nine and I'll be at work. Sob! Let me know when the next gig is Yoaz and I'll try to make that one.

And here's Jason Kuffer! Jason's a great photographer and you can check out his photos here: Jason's photos. Check out his shots from the Joey Ramone Birthday Bash. Great photography, Jason!

Here's Jason getting a shot of Mickey Leigh.

The DJ for the auction was Steve Craig from 101.9 RXP. He played some great punk rock tunes and lots of Ramones classics.

Here's the lovely co-presenter Erin O' sipping a drink at the auction.

Kim, Jason and Morgan were seated at a table at the front of the bar.

Jason liked the 365 Bar Crawl so much he wanted to take a photo of me outside the bar, so I had him take one with my camera as well. Cool photo, Jason! I guess if you're named Jason, you're a natural born photographer.

Here's a shot of me taking a picture of Jason who's taking a picture of me. That last sentence just made me dizzy. I need to sit down...oh wait, I already am. Never mind.

Jason introduced me to Sarah, who's the Edito-in-Chief of Stay Thirsty. Check them out here: Stay Thirsty.

I found out how the auction worked. The items were placed around the bar and you put your name on a sheet if you wanted to bid on it. Some of the items up for auction included: A New York Doll's movie poster signed by photographer Bob Gruen, a gift package from CBGB's gift store, a Cyndi Lauper Barbie Doll and cool photos including this one of Joey Ramone at CBGB's signed by photographer Godlis.

It already had a bid on it.

Here's a great shot of Joey and Dee Dee Ramone.

Here's a photo of writer Legs McNeil and Marky Ramone and it's signed by the photographer, John Nikolai. Legs was the first person to publish my writing when I moved here to New York in 1993 when he was the editor of Nerve magazine. And I interviewed Marky Ramone for my magazine fishwrap back in the '90's, so I had to bid on this one!

I hope no one outbids me.

I got it! Now I need to get it framed and find an empty space on my walls to hang it.

The bar cleared out a bit as the auction ended and the band was setting up to play for the evening.

The band playing was The Joseph Walsh Quartet (insert Eagles and/or Rocky Mountain Way joke here.) They performed jazz and pop standards.

Great band, but they ignored my request to play, "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue." Oh well, you can't win them all. Goodnight everybody!

Review
If you didn’t know better you’d think The Local 269 has been a fixture in the neighborhood for quite some time. It is called the Local after all, but truth be told it’s a fairly new bar. There’s no tricked out gimmickry here, inside it’s dark (the way bars should be) and the space is intimate. There’s a bar that seats around 10 to a dozen and tables behind it. Mismatched chandeliers hang overhead in the dark brick-walled space. There’s a few small tables to sit at when the bar is full and the bartenders and staff are friendly. The crowd is a mix of punk rock, hipster and neighborhood regulars. Old school TV’s loom from atop the bar and there’s a stage up front. You’d expect the band’s in here to be punk rock and/or garage flavored, but Monday’s they have a jazz night and the night I was there it was the Joseph Walsh Quartet doing an evening of jazz and old school pop standards.

They have a decent selection of bottled and draft beers, drafts range from Guinness to Brooklyn Lager and if you’re in the mood to get buzzed in a hurry you can get five shots for ten bucks. There’s a nice Happy Hour here that runs daily from 4pm to 8pm with 2 for 1 beers and well drinks. The food is standard pub grub, but if you’re a grilled cheese fanatic you’re in luck. There’s three different varieties to choose from here. They also host a weekly jazz brunch.

Check out The Local 269, it just might become your local watering hole.

The Local 269
269 E. Houston St. @Suffolk
212-228-9874

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010—Bar 144

Day 144—Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
Jimmy's Corner
People keep asking me why I don’t have a page on facebook, well now I do! Thanks to Gidget and to “Boris” who are the co-administrators of the 365 Bars fan page. Check it out and become a fan here: 365 Bars on facebook.

Mucho thanks to Gidget and to “Boris” for doing this for me! As I’ve told you before, Gidget is the coolest DJ in the world and her show on Woody Radio is filled with fantastic music and Gidget is great on there. The chat room is a ton of fun too. Check it out here: Woody Radio, It’ll Make Your Rock Hard!

“Boris” who is co-running the page and runs the 365 Bar Shop is available for freelance artwork. He designed the bottlecap logo on the 365 products and also the 365 logo at the top of the page, if you need art for your website, CD or book cover or anything else, just contact me and I’ll pass it along to our resident artist, “Boris.”

Regular readers will remember my memorable three night stint with the Baltimore Bar Crawlers, Gene, Smoopy and Terry. While they were in town they went to 97,000 bars in three days and had 887,467 drinks between the three of them. When it comes to bar crawling, they are the real deal and I learned some valuable tips from them. They were whooping it up because Gene’s in the Air Force Reserve and was going to be deployed to Afghanistan soon. Well, I got an email from Gene yesterday and he said after some cancelled flights he was finally going to be taking off. You can’t drink over there and he sent me a picture of his last beer and here it is:
Gene, I’m honored that my website and book were part of your last sip of suds for a while. Be safe and hurry back and in October we will crawl again!

Okay, speaking of crawling, tonight we’re going to a legendary New York joint, Jimmy’s Corner. This place is a legend and it’s owned by a legend, Jimmy Glenn. If you’ve never heard of Jimmy Glenn, it just means you’re not a boxing fan. Jimmy was a boxer who retired from the sport after getting beat by Floyd Patterson and then became a manager and trainer. The bar is a tribute to his career and to the sport of boxing. And it’s also one of the last patches of Times Square that is a link to the old days when the area was seedier than the bottom of a bird cage. Sherman, set the wayback machine and let’s crawl to the past via Jimmy’s Corner.

Here we are, Jimmy's Corner deep in the heart of Times Square.

I"ve heard that Jimmy hangs out in here, so it's time to search the bar and see if I can find him.

And bingo! Here he is, the owner and legendary Jimmy Glenn. He's as nice as I read about and a great host at his wonderful bar.

The bar is a shrine to boxing and has a ton of photos of Jimmy and archival boxing photos. Check out this one of Jimmy and Muhammad Ali.

Tara, the lovely bartender serves up a bottle of Budweiser. And sorry guys, she's going to be married in ten days.

Even if you're not a boxing fan, you'll enjoy the vintage photos plastered all over the bar.

Shots and stories of Jimmy are interspersed with archival boxing photography and artwork.

Heidi and Ken were enjoying drinks in the bar and wanted to know about the 365 site, so I happily gave them a card and explained what I was doing. As you can see, they got a kick out of the idea.

It's like a museum in here, but with cheap beer, who could ask for anything more?

There's a great selection of tunes on the jukebox from jazz to Motown to Frank Sinatra and to the Fab Four. A little something for everyone.

A great poster from the legendary Ali-Frazier boxing match.

Here's a signed photo to Jimmy from famed sportscaster, Howard Cosell.

The front of the bar is narrow but it leads to a bigger back room with tables.

This group was enjoying beers and the old school ambience of Jimmy's. From left: Meryl, Justin, Grant and Oykie.

Even the tables are decked out with vintage boxing photos.

The walls also have photos of Jimmy in the bar with various patrons.

And here's the man himself, Jimmy Glenn, checking out the sports wrap-up of the evening on one of the TV's in the bar.

Diane and Ken were in town from Conneticut. Ken is president of Travelworks, Inc. and if you're looking for a great deal, check out his website at: www.travelworks.us.

It was Diane's birthday and she was letting it all hang out. Happy birthday, Diane!

My photo's a little fuzzy, but on the bar amongst other photos is Jimmy with Drew Barrymore. I'm officially jealous!

And one last great Jimmy-Ali photo. Two champions together! Goodnight everybody!

Review
Esquire magazine picked Jimmy’s Corner as one of the best bars in America for a good reason. It’s one of the best bars in America. It’s old school New York, through and through. When you enter the bar located in the heart of Times Square you’re assaulted with sparkling lights, American flags, jazz music on the jukebox and vintage boxing photos plastered throughout the bar. Even if you’re not a boxing fan, the framed and unframed photos are impressive for their historical importance alone. And Jimmy’s Corner has maintained the old time New York Times Square feel where the rest of the area has gone a little too much towards Disneyland.

The bar is a shrine to the passion in Jimmy Glenn’s life, boxing. And more often than not, you can find Jimmy sitting at the bar talking amongst the regulars or watching sports on TV. He’s approachable and is soft-spoken, a gentlemen and a pleasure to talk to. You won’t see anybody drinking a pink martini in here and just like the bar, the prices are old school Noo Yawk. You can knock back three dollar bottled beers all night long in here and four buck well drinks. They don’t bother with a happy hour in here, why should they with prices this cheap? There’s no kitchen, but free potato chips are laid out in plastic bowls on the bar. So just drink your three buck beer, enjoy the history of this place and shut up.

In an era where Times Square is slowly turning into a mall, there’s still a little slice of the old school: Jimmy’s Corner. Cheers to the bar and to Jimmy Glenn.

Jimmy's Corner
140 W. 44th St. (Near Broadway)
212-221-9510