Sunday, Sept. 19th, 2010—Bar 252

Day 252—Saturday, September 18th, 2010
Sardi's
Okay, first off the PayPal donation bell has not only rung, its banged me right on the noggin.’ Glenn Staack who lives here in New York sent in a more than generous donation of 250 dollars! That’s right, 250 bucks! His message on the PayPal document simply read, “Buy the man a few beers...” Well, Glenn, that’ll take care of the week! Thank you so much and somewhere down the road I hope to meet Glenn and buy him a round or three from this generous donation.

Last week I stumbled upon a cool new website. It’s called Grade “A” Fancy and it’s a magazine styled web page. Check it out here: Grade “A” Fancy. The second post on the website is about the theater district in Manhattan and while I’ve been to a few of the places within the article, I realized I’ve yet to stop at the legendary Sardi’s bar and grill. And so that is today’s stop, to Sardi’s we go.

And baboom! Here we are at the legendary Sardi's.

There's full dining rooms on both floors of the restaurants, but I'm going to bars and luckily there's one of them on both floors as well. Here's the ground floor bar, so this will be the first stop.

And José serves up the first Budweiser at the bar. José has tended bar here for over 20 years and is well-known at Sardi's and in the neighborhood.

There's an impressive snack selection at the bar, featuring pretzels, peanuts...

And delicious cheese and crackers.

I usually have a cheeseburger on Saturday's, but today it's going to be cheese and crackers.

Seated next to me is author Carliss Pond. Her latest book, "Taste of Broadway" is a collection of recipes from bars and restaurants in the neighborhood. It's also filled with great photos of the neighborhood and quotes from chefs, actors, producers and workers from the theater district.  Check out the book here: "Taste of Broadway."

Bob was seated next to me at the bar and was going to see West Side Story later on.

And here's the three of us at the bar, I'm holding my copy of "Taste of Broadway" which I purchased from Carliss at the bar. Carliss also has a book featuring recipes and photos from Hell's Kitchen. You can check that out here: "Sizzle in Hell's Kitchen."

Page 12 from Carliss' book contains a quote from José, and he signed the page for me.

Sardi's is known for the caricatures lining the walls of actors that have appeared on Broadway and beyond.

Caricatures of the cast of "The Honeymooner's" hang over the bar downstairs.

Napkins!

José in action at the bar.

By now Carliss and Bob have both left and there's a new crew at the bar.

Including the lovely duo of Indira and Iran.

Seated behind me at a table was this friendly group. From left: Jeremy, Jennifer, "Sloppy" Sal and Cheryl. And now for a crazy coincidence. Jeremy and Cheryl are the owners of Jeremy's Ale House that I visited on July 22nd. If you scoll down the post, you'll see a picture of another Jeremy who bartends the upstairs bar at Sardi's. I said in that caption that you'd be seeing him soon, so let's go upstairs and see if we can find him.

Here's the main dining room at Sardi's.

And it's upstairs we go.

Here's the bar, but where's Jeremy?

I think this gentleman's name was Brian, but I forgot to write it in my notes. If you're reading this Brian and I'm wrong, feel free to correct me in the comments section.

John and Jennifer were seated next to me. John owns several bars all over the country and one here in New York. Check out the New York bar here: Mad River Bar and Grille. I'll be stopping in there soon.

More caricatures line the walls up here.

And there he his, Jeremy behind the bar!

Here he is in all his glory!

Reunited and it feels so good! Thanks to everyone at Sardi's for a great night. Goodnight, Everybody!

Review
I’m not about to review a legendary joint like this, I couldn't do it justice. Here’s a link to the Wikipedia entry and you can read all about the history of Sardi’s. Sardi’s on Wikipedia.

And here’s a list of every caricature in the restaurant: List of caricatures at Sardi's restaurant.

Sardi's
234 W. 44th St. (Near Broadway)
212-221-8440
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Bonus Photos
Okay, here’s part two of Jason and Zioum Zioum’s excellent adventure in Paris with captions by Zioum Zioum the Chainsaw.

Drinking Champagne while waiting to see tits, ass and pussy!! Wow wow!!!!

Then after the show I had to change my clothes and heels shoes since we had to go back to my cousin's place by train, right in the Paris ghetto!! So we went to a bar and I changed my clothes in the (dirty) toilets. But big surprise it was a crazy funny bar!

Jason got a shower with the draft beer (end of the barrel!) So the Bartender offered dry sausage and chips!

Then things turned crazy in here, it was the birthday of a regular and has he's muslim, the 2 bartenders put a candle on a piece of bacon and brought the "birthday cake" to him while all  people in a bar were singing Happy birthday !! Cynical humor still the best! Then they played Trance music and everybody danced like crazy motherfuckers! Here, the bartender is dancing with a bottle of wine!

Lately, to visit France can only lead you to cross those revolutionnary posters in streets walls!!! There are glue everywhere in any city of France! We can read : "GET OUT! because they're not worthy" I wonder if someone in that world like that bum! Cheers Everybody!!!!

And last but not least, a black and white shot of the Eiffel Tower by Jason. À la votre !

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010—Bar 193

Day 193—Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
Jeremy's Ale House
Okay, let’s take care of a little business first. “Boris” has been busy at the old 365 store and he’s come up with a brand new red logo and it’s now available on all the shirts and some of the merchandise. Check it out here: The 365 Bar Store.

I really want to thank everybody who’s bought shirts and products, I appreciate it and hope you enjoy the 365 merchandise.

And I also want to thank “Boris” for putting the whole thing together. Remember that “Boris” is available for freelance artwork, so if you have a website and you need some banner art or a logo, he’s your go-to guy. “Boris” can also design your CD or book cover and do just about anything when it comes to art/design. Just send me an email and I’ll give your request to “Boris.”

And speaking of merchandise, my friend Joe Freedman (who designed both of my books) has come up with the coolest thing in the world. It’s a password encoder called Mr. Mistifiki. With this device you can generate passwords for websites that you’ll never forget. I’m going to let Joe explain it over at his website, click on the link and check it out: Mr. Mistifiki at Leaf Design.

Okay, now on to the business of bars. Mark Smimmo sent me an email and suggested I go to the Blarney Stone on Third the other day and it was one of the best times on the bar crawl yet. So when I got an email from him telling me that Jeremy’s Ale House, down in the South Street Seaport is a fantastic bar, it’s a no-brainer, it’s off to Jeremy’s Ale House we go. Taxi!

And we're off. It's hotter than shit out and of course he says his air conditioning is broke, so my head is out the window trying to cool off.

After one long-ass taxi ride we're here on the block. Hey look, it's bar number 68, Nelson Blue. Let's pop in and see if Pauli is working tonight.

A blast from the bar crawl past: Pauli along with added bonus of the lovely bartender, Melissa!

Pauli poured out a couple of shots for the reunion. Cheers!

Okay, back to bar-crawling business. Here we are at Jeremy's Ale House.

Wow, it's a big room in here. Let's mosey up to the bar.

And general manager, Milton serves up a tall 32 ounce stryofoam cup of Budweiser. The cups may not keep Al Gore happy, but they keep the beer cold, so fuck Al Gore.

Marco and Timmy were also behind the bar. Timmy worked for years in the printing industry, so we had a long talk about the terror of working in that industry that I'm still stuck in.

Milton not only served me up a giganzo beer, he gave me this bumper sticker.

Here's Rebecca, Jeremy and Jessica. Jeremy bartends at legendary Sardi's in Times Square and I think we'll be seeing him soon on the bar crawl. Stay tuned.

Here's the house mascot, the moose on the wall along with some discarded bras and knick-knacks.

There's a picnic styled booth in the back to sit at.

There's various photos, reviews and press articles splattered all over the front wall.

Lots of tables and chairs off to the side of the bar.

Saiju and Tim were celebrating Saiju's 23rd birthday. Happy birthday, Saiju! I don't remember 23, but then I don't remember last night either.

Jessica pointed out graffiti on the ceiling from her niece Amy and Amy's husband Charlie.

Milton at work at the bar.

This makes me think of the old Ed Head cartoons from Playboy. Anybody else?

The extensive food menu.

And the drink list to wash your food down with.

Here's the back room of the bar. Let's go see who these two hooligans are.

It's Mike and Matt who were working on their third round of buckets. Impressive!

I always like to see a pay phone in a bar, it means it's patrons aren't cell phone junkies. Okay it's midnight and Jeremy's closes at midnight on weeknights. Hey, they open up at 8 in the morning, so cut them some slack!

But Nelson Blue is still open, so I have a shot with Pauli and his crew. Goodnight everybody!

Review
Jeremy’s Ale House is a big airplane hanger-like dive bar in the heart of the South Street Seaport. The bar has been in various locations in this neighborhood since 1974 and owner Jeremy Holin calls it, 'the oldest established permanent floating saloon in New York.” The bar itself is somewhat dwarfed by the room in the bar, there’s tables, booths, bras and graffiti on the ceilings and TV sets here and there. The bartenders are talkative and friendly and the crowd is a mix of fishermen and construction workers in the morning and daytime to finance workers, tourists and locals in the evening.

There’s a full bar at Jeremy’s with a good selection of bottled beers and drafts, but everyone comes here for the 32 ounce styrofoam buckets of beer for six bucks. It’s not politically correct packaging, but after a couple you really don’t give a rats ass, so who cares? Happy hour runs from 4pm to 6pm with half price well drinks, $1.50 Jr. Burgers and 4 dollar buckets of Coors and Coors Light. Jeremy’s also has a kitchen with a large menu ranging from the usual suspects such as buffalo wings, cheese fries and several styles of nachos to burgers, hot dogs and a Philly cheese steak sandwich. There ‘s also a large selection of seafood including: crab cakes, calamari, oysters, marinated tuna steak and their specialty, clams.

And if you’re an early riser, Jeremy’s has an 8am to 10am special featuring 32 ounce buckets of Coors for two bucks a throw. A nice way to greet the day, indeed!

Jeremy's Ale House
228 Front St. (Near Peck Slip)
212-964-3537