Friday, October 8th, 2010—Bar 271

Day 271—Thursday, October 7th, 2010
Hop Devil Bar & Grill (Originally headed for The Summit Bar)
I thought I’d switch things up a little bit and hit a cocktail bar for a change of pace. Through the power of my good friend Google, I tripped across a place called The Summit Bar, which looks like a nice, comfortable place amidst the classic dive bars and some of the horrible frat bars in the East Village. The name refers to the Rat Pack, so let’s go see if this place swings, ring-a-ding-ding.

The Summit bar, the port of call for the evening.

It looks nice in here, but it's packed. Not a single seat at the bar to be had and too crowded to do my 365 thing in. I'll try this place again, but now...

Time for a lonely walk in the East Village in search of tonight's bar.

After walking around a bit I stumbled onto this place. I like the devil sign.

And there's seats at the bar. I think we've found tonight's destination.

And the lovely bartender Cecilia pours me a Cooper's Pale Ale, a beer I discovered through our Australian friend and commentator, David Brooks. Cheers, Brooksy!

Here's Julian, who's a waiter at the bar.

A shot of the bar.

They have an impressive amount of draft beers and they change them out every month, bringing in new beers to sample.

There's tables opposite the bar.

And larger, wooden tables line the colorful, back wall which is adorned with beer signs.

There's also a somewhat elevated back room.

The back room has tables and a big screen TV, mainly tuned to sports.

A cool Coney Island sign hangs back here as well.

A view of the bar from the back room.

Here's Roshni, Michael and Kate who were enjoying the evening at Hop Devil.

And here's Kate with Sam up at the bar.

Bob and Jenny were seated next to me at the bar. They're visiting New York from Minnesota.

It was a dollar to change the board in the middle of the bar. The deal is, you pay the dough and you can write whatever you want. Then the price goes up a buck for the next person to change it.

So I got in on the game, see, Motherfucker?

And there it hangs, allow me to enjoy this moment of glory!

The night is winding down and time to head out the door.

And look what I spy on my way out the door! Hey, Daddio! And, Goodnight, everybody!

Review
Hop Devil Grill is a nice, somewhat low-key bar and restaurant with a Tex-Mex atmosphere and menu. The bar is low-lit with an impressive amount of drafts on tap. The staff are friendly and if you’re lucky they’ll share some frittes at the bar with you. The music is played at a conversational level and the crowd is mainly locals looking for a good meal and a chance to try sample some new beers from the massive beer menu.

It’s a full bar, but the emphasis here is beer and tequila. There’s two dozen ever-changing beers on tap that range from craft to imported. The bottled beer selection takes you round the world with choices from Australia to Japan to Belgium to Germany and back to the good old U.S.A. There’s a huge selection of tequila and a decent wine list as well.

The food menu stays true to the Tex-Mex theme with 8 styles of tacos, a variety of gourmet burritos, fajitas and five choices of quesadillas. They also have five kinds of burgers and appetizers including: chicken wings, bbq pulled pork sliders, chili cheese fries and a Coyote Loco Sampler which is guacamole, Colorado bean dip, chili con queso and spinach dip with crispy tortilla chips.

Hop Devil Grill
129 St. Marks Pl. Near Avenue A.
212-533-4468