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?!