Friday, May 28th, 2010—Bar 138

Day 138—Thursday, May 27th, 2010
Temple Bar
Ding, ding, ding! Yes the PayPal donation buzzer is once again ringing and it’s a generous donation from Shannon Kennedy, who yesterday sent in $2.70 to tip the bathroom attendant and it turned out there was indeed a bathroom attendant at the bar I went to (Hiro Ballroom.) Shannon writes stories in her blog called, Green Monkey Tales and yesterday she wrote a moving piece about her son Kerry. You can read it here: Over The Rainbow.  I left a comment and Shannon sent in a more than generous donation of 27 dollars with the stated purpose of: “Cheers to Kerry.” Thank you so much Shannon and your blog got me thinking about life and its twists and turns and it was a good set up for the bar crawl that happened on Thursday. I’ll explain in the next paragraph. But before that, "Cheers to Kerry, indeed!"

To me, life is an ever-changing intersection of people that you meet along the way where your journey leads you. Some of these people are just a nod and a smile and I’ll never see you again people and others that you meet have a profound effect on your life and they even change the directon of it. This week I heard from three people that changed my life in oh so many ways and I always wonder if they really know how they re-directed the course of my life. Here’s the story morning glories.

In 1993 I had been publishing, editing and writing a magazine called People of Peoria in my hometown of Peoria, Illinois. It was a magazine where pretty much anything went and the three templates I borrowed from to create it were the National Lampoon, Mad magazine and People magazine. Sometime that year I got a call from a woman named Julie Reynolds who had moved back to Peoria from California. She had seen my magazine and wanted write for it. So we had lunch and I was the type of editor that if you agreed to have lunch with me, you could write for my magazine. I don’t know why all editors don’t operate like this, but I guess it’s just the way of the world. So we had lunch and she told me she had written for the Pekin Daily Times a newspaper in a neighboring town and that they used freelancers. Julie said the editors there were cool and I should call them and maybe try and write for them.

Now while I was doing my own magazine, deep down I really did want the validation of being published by a newspaper or magazine. I wanted to see my name in a byline in a publication that I wasn’t paying to produce. So I took Julie’s advice and called the paper and talked with one of the editors, Kevin Kaufman. Kevin was a great guy and liked my magazine and my writing and agreed to let me write a story on three private investigators in Pekin, Illinois. I wrote the story, turned it in and then Kevin introduced me to the Editor of the paper, Kent Davy.

Kent’s a nice guy, who isn’t an overwhelming person, but when he says something, it usually is worth hearing. One of the things he said to me after seeing my wacked-out Peoria version of People magazine was, “Have you ever sent this to Dick Stolley in New York?”

I answered back, “Who’s Dick Stolley?”

Kent simply said, “Sit down.”

He then explained that Dick Stolley was the founding editor of People magazine and he was from Pekin, Illinois. And he started writing for the Pekin Daily Times when he was 16-years-old. Kent said he’d probably get a kick out of my magazine and my stories from the Pekin Daily Times and I should send them to him.

So I did.

I ended up meeting Dick Stolley and he turned out to be a great guy and a good friend through the years. In our first meeting he asked how my magazine was doing and I confessed that it was doing horribly because I couldn’t sell ads for it, even though the newsstand sales were good. He said to me, “Have you ever thought about moving to New York?”

And I hadn’t. But then I did. And soon I cashed in my pension fund from a job I had worked at for 13 years, moved to New York, Dick got me interviews at People, Entertainment Weekly and In Style and I learned that I wasn’t Time, Inc. employable, but I was in New York City. I started freelancing and snared bylines in some of the weekly papers and then two of the dailys, and some magazines. I got a night job, started another magazine which became a cult hit, but bled money like magazines can do, wrote a couple books, learned how to do websites and now I’m going to 365 bars in 365 days.

And it all started with Julie Reynolds suggesting I call the editors at the Pekin Daily Times. Life is full of weird twists and turns and if you're reading this, you're sharing one of the many twists my life has taken in the last few decades.

Well, tonight, the man who suggested I send Dick Stolley my magazine is my special guest star on the bar crawl. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s my honor to introduce...
Kent Davy the man who gave me my first newspaper byline, seated in my apartment enjoying a can of Budweiser. Kent is now the editor of North County Times in California. Check the newspaper out online here: North County Times.

Kent and I enjoyed beers and a dinner at the Chat 'n' Chew restaurant which will be featured soon on this bar crawl.

We were going to The Temple Bar to meet some friends of Kent's and along the way we walked by my first place of employment, 611 Broadway. I worked for nights here for Sarabande Press owned by Joe Freedman. The building always brings back memories and I showed Kent where Sarabande used to be located.

I spent a lot of time in the hallway, smoking cigarettes in this building, here's a reenactment.

Okay, onto tonight's bar crawl destination, The Temple Bar.

It's old school New York wooden and red velvet ambiance inside here.

And we were greeted warmly by Jessica who quickly served up two bottles of imported beer.

Kent receives a text saying his friends are on the way.

And through the magic of the internet, here they are! From left, Kent, Eric, Varinda and Jinda. They're great people to hang out with and you need to check out Eric's coupon website here: 10 Local Coupons.

The Temple Bar is a nice place for cocktails and converstation. Here I'm telling Varinda, Jinda and Eric about the 17,009 hits of acid I took while in high school. That's right, I single-handedly put the "high" back in high school.

The side room has a lounge atmosphere with tables and comfortable velvet couches.

Kelley was enjoying a drink and waiting for her friend Alex who has written and is starring in this play: The Common Air. I plan on seeing this play and will feature it in an upcoming crawl episode.

Just some of the top shelf liquor available at the Temple Bar.

Christine was the other bartender on duty. She's a knowledgable mixologist and is studying to be a wine sommelier.

Popcorn!

Christene and Michael were on their way out, but graciously posed for a picture before they headed out. Michael's a DJ, check out his website here: Salsa-Berlin.

Varinda and Jinda, two beautiful and fun sisters who brightened up tonight's bar crawl.

Pedro was enjoying a martini at the end of the bar. Cheers!

Kent edits my notes and you can see how well I take direction. It was great to see Kent again and meet his wonderful friends! Goodnight everybody!

Review
The Temple Bar is an elegant, red velvet and dark wooden two-roomed bar that is somewhat quiet and the staff is friendly and the vibe inside is comfortable and relaxing. The bar in the front room zigs and zags in a wooden curly-cue fashion, the music is low-key and it’s a good place to sip cocktails and enjoy conversation with friends and patrons of the bar. There’s tables in the back room for larger groups and dining. The Temple Bar is a perfect first date bar with lighting guaranteed to show you at your best. Just watch out for that early morning light the next day though, it can be a killer.

The Temple Bar has top shelf liquor with eleven international vodka choices, twenty different bottles of gin and an extensive wine list. The bartenders are talented mixologists and can help guide you with a choice of a specialty drink or explain the wine list to you. The bottled beer choices include: Victory Storm King Stout, Sapporo, Grolsch and Chimay Grand Reserve. The Temple bar also has a generous selection of specialty drinks including: Black Crow Cocktail which is, vodka, kahlua and Vietnamese coffee; The Pisco Sour which is a mixture of pisco, lime juice and egg white and a Ginger Highball which is gold rum, lime, lavender and ginger.

If you want a little food to soak up some of the cocktails, the kitchen is open till midnight and some of the choices for snacks include: Temple Bar Guacamole, Steamed Chinese Dumplings, Potato Pancakes and Organic Deviled Eggs.

Happy Hour runs Monday through Friday, 5pm-7pm, featuring $8-$9 specialty cocktails and free bar snacks. The Temple Bar is a nice, elegant bar with a friendly, attitude-free staff that makes for a nice enjoyable night on the town.

Temple Bar
332 Lafayette St. (@Bleecker St.)
212-925-4242