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

---------------------------------

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!

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010—Bar 219

Day 219—Monday, August 16th, 2010
Réunion Surf Bar
With summer rapidly coming to a close (where the fuck did it go?), I thought we should go check out the Réunion Surf Bar while it’s still in season. This bar just recently opened and has gotten some good reviews. And, according to their website, Big Wave Dave approves. Now, I don’t know who the fuck Big Dave Wave is, but if he approves it’s good enough for me. Let’s go surfin’ now, everybody’s learning how. Come on a safari with me.

Here we are at the brightly lit Réunion Surf Bar.

The sign points down to the basement, so we'll follow that.

Follow the yellow flags to the door...

And a surf board points the way down the stairs.

Very nice and laid back inside and Iggy and the Stooges are on the sound system. Perfect!

Friendly bartender Doug serves up a frozen Corona, a perfect drink on a hot summer night.

Okole maluna!

Behind the bar, the infused rums and vodkas are at the top.

There's a long cadle-lit table behind the bar.

And another off to the side of it.

A long marble bar and stools line the perimeter of the wall.

Two screens show surf movies in tandem.

Eugene, one of the owners of Réunion was relaxing at the bar.

Adjacent to the bar is the candle-lit, blue aquarium room.

I love the aquarium in here.

To complete the ambiance there's a surf board in the corner.

Meanwhile back at the bar, Doug rings up a drink.

Some of the signature cocktails are listed on a board behind the bar.

There's a small lounge area in the back.

A shot of the bar from the other end.

Lights hang from the corrugated metal ceiling and swimsuits dry on the line on the back wall.

And the surf boards above can mean only one thing...

Surf's up! Goodnight, everybody!

Review
An underground surf bar has started to grow in Hell’s Kitchen. Réunion Surf Bar has only been open a few weeks, but has established itself as a little slice of Hawaii just a block away from Rudy’s infamous dive bar. The bar is in the basement of an office building and has a laid back and ultra casual atmosphere. The bar is wooden and surf boards are strewn here and there along with swim suits drying on a line in the corner of the bar. There’s wooden tables opposite the bar and a small lounge area in the back. Another candle-lit room is adjacent to the bar and has an aquarium at the end of it. Two flat screen TV’s show surfing movies at one end of the bar and the music is ‘60’s garage and surf rock played at a conversational level.

The drink menu is short on beers, there’s just four brands of bottles for six bucks apiece, but they make up for that with their cocktail offerings. It’s an island joint, so of course there are frozen drinks including: a Frozen Corona, which is a beer slush and the coldest Corona you’ll ever have, a Coco Loco, which mixes rum, lime juice, coconut cream, pineapple, cherry heering and amaretto and the Reunion Sunrise which is a frozen drink made of, tequila, mango puree, fresh lime, grand marnier and raspberry puree. There’s a large selection of rum and an Acid Drop Shot which is, house-infused grapefruit vodka, fresh pink grapefruit juice and a vanilla scented sugar rim.

There’s island ifluenced eats here too. Some of the unique selections from the food menu include: Shark Fry Tacos, Hanboa Sliders, Shortboard Ribs and the signature dish, the Le Americain which is a traditional surf sandwich consisting of french fries, wonton meatballs and melted cheese on a baguette. You should wait at least an hour after eating one of these to hang 10.

Réunion Surf Bar
630 Ninth Ave. (@44th St.)
212-582-3200

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010—Bar 205

Day 205—Monday, August 2nd, 2010
Smith's Bar
Okay, first things first. The Chief who comments here and runs the fine Peoria Bar Review blog has a friend who’s playing a show in Brooklyn tonight. The guy’s name is Derrick Hart and check out one of his video’s here. And this is his website: Wrecking Ball Wreckords. He’s playing a show at Coco 66 and if you live in Brooklyn or want to see some good live music, check it out, it’s only five bucks at the door. I’d go, but I have to work. My fucking job always gets in the way, but I need the dough for the bar crawl.

And speaking of dough for the crawl, I got not one, not two, but three generous donations tonight. The first one is a generous 20 dollar donation from James Schiano, who was the friendly and hospitable bartender at Saturday’s venue, Jamie-Lynn’s Kitchen in Brooklyn. The message on James’s reciept said, “Get drunk on me.” Alright James, don’t mind if I do! Mucho thanks, James for your hospitality the other night and for this donation!

The number two donation was a generous donation of ten dollars from Matt Mullen who resides in San Rafael, California. The message from Matt was: “Hey, 365 bars guy, I enjoy reading your blog. If you can, buy a beer from California .” I’ll do my best, Matt, I’ll see what the bar has in stock. Thanks a lot for your donation!

And last but not least, Ryan Borho generously sent in a twenty dollar donation with the message saying: “Marty, Great website. Let me know next time you're on the UWS. From, Ryan Borho (son of Dane, nephew of Jim.)” Holy shitballs! A Borho lives in New York and no one told me? Thanks so much Ryan we’ll hang out soon! Say hi to your dad and uncle for me!

I wasn’t going to visit Smith’s Bar because I didn’t think they’d let me do the bar crawl thing in there. Years ago I got thrown out of the bar when they found out I was writing a review of the place for Time Out New York. This place was a real New York dive bar and the only thing older and grumpier than the grizzled bartenders were the sizzled and sozzled geriatric alcoholics that frequented this dump. Well someone told me they renovated it last year and that the bartenders are friendly now and the vibe of the bar is totally different. That got me curious, so let’s go check it out.

You gotta love the half-lit neon sign.

It's Monday, so there's plenty of seats at the bar.

And friendly bartender, Troy serves up an ice-cold Corona. A friendly bartender in Smith's? A big difference since the last time I was in here over a decade ago.

And Matt, this isn't a California beer, but it's from Mexico which is close, cheers to you, James and Ryan for donating to the 365 cause!

Lee was seated next to me at the bar. He was in town from Leicester, England and is part of a comedy duo called Naylor and Gant. Here's a clip of one of their performances: Naylor and Gant.

Opposite the bar are large, German beer hall style wooden tables and stools.

Here's Jayna, the cute waitress on duty this evening.

More tables in the back with big windows providing a nice view of 44th street.

Tom and Kevin were enjoying drinks at the front of the bar in a window seat.

They asked me to join them in a picture and Lee grabbed the camera and got the shot.

You can gaze at a pay phone outside the front window that overlooks 8th Avenue.

As you can see, there's a huge beer selection available.

Jarrod, Cassie and Ashlee were in town from the land down under. That's right, more friendly Australians meet me on the bar crawl. You gotta love it!

They've cleaned the joint up, but the bar remains the same.

It turns out that the other bartender on duty was from England, so I had to get a shot of Lee and Peter together. Two English gentlemen in New York City.

And a parting shot as I make my way out the door. Goodnight, everybody!

Review
Smith’s used to be a real dicey, Hell’s Kitchen dive bar. It’s been renovated and like much of the neighborhood, it’s cleaned up its act and the bartenders are now friendly and the cliental no longer consist of skid row alcoholics. It’s spacious inside with a long wooden bar and German beer hall tables to the side of it. There’s live music Wednesday through Saturday in an adjoining room which has its own bar. Every Tuesday is karaoke night at Smith’s.

You can quench your thirst here pretty much any time of the day, the bars hours run from 7am to 4am. There’s a full bar here with over a dozen beers on tap and a large selection of bottled beers including: Amstel Light, Corona, Beck's and Miller Lite (hello, Biff!) Smith’s has a large menu with breakfast, lunch and dinner items available. There’s nine varieties of burgers available, chicken wings, nachos, mac and cheese and hot plates including: Chicken-Fried Steak, Grilled Chicken Platter, Chicken Pot Pie and Fish and Chips.

The “new” Smith’s is a friendly joint where tourists and locals easily mix for a nice drink, free live music and karaoke on Tuesdays. But I have to be honest, a part of me misses the old Smith’s where I would’ve been thrown out on my ass for bringing my bar crawl in there.

Smith's Bar
701 8th Ave. (@44th St.)
212-246-3268