Saturday, May 29th, 2010—Bar 139

Day 139—Firday, May 28th, 2010
Amsterdam Billiards & Bar (Originally headed for “Mysterioso Bar”)
Some nights spin weirdly on this bar crawl. Usually I write this introduction before I go out to the bar, but today I’m writing it in the morning with Long John Baldry blasting on my boom box as I try to wake up after last night’s crawl. What happened was I went to a bar a friend told me that was a small little bar that wouldn’t be too crazy on a Friday night. I’m not going into specifics about the place and you’ll find out why as you read on.

I got to the joint and it was perfect. It was a small place and not too crazy on a Friday night, just what I was looking for. I got out of work a little early and was jazzed that I had a three day weekend to look forward to. All was well. The bartender was pretty and nice and seemed to get a kick out of the 365 bars idea. I met a guy at the bar who also seemed amused at this project and we were having a nice conversation. The owner came in and I told him what I was doing and he posed for a photo and we talked about the bar. It hasn’t been open very long and I thought he probably appreciated the fact that I was going to give him some free publicity.

But then after I had been there for about 45 minutes, he came up and put some money in front of me and said he was paying for the beer I was drinking. I told him he didn’t have to do that, I wasn’t doing this for free beer and then he said to me, “I really don’t want you taking pictures in here and doing this.” I was a little surprised because I had told him what I was going to do and he agreed, then he did a 360 turn around and about 45 minutes of my night was blown to shits and bits He was really nice about it, and the fact he bought me the beer was cool, but then I was a little bummed out that I had to find another place after wasting around 45 minutes in this joint. But shit happens. He told me that he thought I was just writing a little something and once he saw me taking pictures he said he didn’t want that happening in his place. Which I understand, I mean if you have a bar that’s just opened and someone comes in who has a website with a decent audience that’s into bars and he’s going to take pictures of your bar and publicize it for free, well you really don’t want that, you learn that in Marketing 101...IN BIZARRO WORLD!

Anyway, like I said the owner was really nice about it, so I don’t want to rag on about him or his place, it’s just that I spent 45 minutes in there only to find out that I had to find another spot on a Friday night, which isn’t one of my favorite nights to go out because bars are packed and lots of the people in them are fucked up out of their gourd. And I had just gotten out of work after a long week and just wanted to do my crawl and go home. So here we go on an improv bar crawl. Some nights you just have to roll with the punches and this was one of those nights. Let the crawling begin.

Okay, I was just more or less paid off to leave the last place, so it's time for a lonely walk down 9th street towards 2nd Avenue in search of tonight's bar. Cue the video.

Holy shitballs, this is why I hate Friday nights, too many people out!

This place looked nice, but it was jam-packed, maybe I'll come back here on a Monday night.

I found this place, it had a peaceful and tranquil name.

And check it out, there's no crowd at all. I went inside and found out it was closing in about fifteen minutes. Fuck!

I stumbled upon this place. They've got a bar and maybe it won't be too nuts as the main attraction is the pool hall. Let's check it out.

Okay, the bar is nice and laid back and there's not a huge crowd here. And the bartender is pretty. Okay, bar crawl, Friday Night, take two!

And the bartender is not only pretty, she's nice and told me she was fine with me doing the bar crawl thing in the pool hall. Her name is Sofia and a waitress who heard me telling her about the bar crawl volunteered to take a photo of the two of us. I like it here!

And here's Kristen, the waitress who took the photo. She took another one of the two of us. Okay, the crawl is back on track!

There's over 25 pool tables in this place.

Here's some more of them.

I liked this painting on the wall.

There's also darts for your amusement in the pool hall.

And two pinball machines for all you pinball wizards out there.

Okay, back to the bar where Kristen and Sofia are hard at work.

Patrick was enjoying a beer at the bar and it turns out he works two blocks from me. It's a small world after all!

Bar snacks!

Alison and Zak were enjoying a drink at the bar and were supportive of the 365 bar crawl idea.

And here we come full circle. I took this photo of Adam and Ali at the first mysterioso bar, but I'll never tell the location! Goodnight, everybody!

Review
Amsterdam Billiards is a high class pool hall in the Union Squate area of Manhattan. There’s over 25 tables in the spacious and elegant hall, with a lounge area, darts, pinball and a nice bar with friendly bartenders and wait staff. The pool hall offers lessons, there’s coed leagues to join and you can book the entire place for a private party. After 10 pm, up to four people can rent a table for 29 bucks for the entire night. The pool hall has an oak paneled ambience, oriental rugs and lots of flat screen TV’s lining the walls to check out the latest games in between shots.

Speaking of shots, the bar section of the pool hall is spacious and a fun spot unto itself. The bar is a curvy and zinc and the bartender’s are friendly and there’s potato chips and snacks to munch on. There’s a full bar with a large selection of bottled beer and happy hour happens daily from 4pm to 7pm with one buck off select beverages.

And they don’t mind free publicity. Hallelujah!

Amsterdam Billiards & Bar
110 E. 11th St. (@4th Ave.)
212-995-0333