Tuesday April 6th, 2010—Bar 86

Day 86—Monday, April 5th, 2010
Westside Tavern (Originally scheduled for the Half King Bar)
Okay, so first things first, I’m a little damaged this week. After over-celebrating at the Mars Bar last night I went home, collapsed and then fell out of my loft bed and my eye snagged the corner of a bookshelf on the way down. Check it out:

So tonight will be a little more settled down, I think I’ll stick close to my three drink minimum. I don’t plan on any bar for any given night. Usually I find it during my dinner break at work using Google. There are a few however that I plan on visiting and tonight’s bar is one of them. The Half King Bar is known as a literary bar as a good portion of the patrons who visit this tavern are writers. This makes sense when you learn that two of the three owners are writers and the third is a director and producer. The most famous of the three is Sebastian Junger who penned the best selling novel, The Perfect Storm, which was later turned into a movie starring George Clooney. The bar hosts a weekly reading on Monday nights and while we’re too late for that, I’m sure there’ll be interesting people left over and of course there’s drinks to be had, so let’s go.

Okay, so here we are at the Westside Tavern. I know I said we were going to the Half King Bar and I did go there. Oh, and I should mention here too that tonight I’m being “shadowed” by a writer from the NBC blog “Niteside.”  The writer is James Jung and he’s a great guy who did a hilarious blog that’s now on hiatus: The Foggy Monocle.  You can see the post James wrote about 365 here: On The Town With Booze Blogger Marty Wombacher. So, anyway, James and I went to the Half King and I was told I could take pictures inside, but couldn’t take photos of any signs or anything that had the Half King logo on it. They were very nice about it, but I couldn’t really stay and do the 365 thing without being able to take a picture of the signage. The bar is partially owned by novelist Sebastian Junger, so it would be a little bit like him saying, “You can review my book, but just don’t mention the title.” Anyway, like I said, they were nice about it and said I could email the D.M. and gave me a business card. I don’t really have the time to email the D.M. (and I have to confess I really don’t know what a D.M. is), so D.M. if you’re out there and would like some free publicity, feel free to email me. Anyway, we tried a couple other spots, one had just called last call and the other didn’t want me taking pictures either. At this point I accused James of being a jinx and we eventually ended up here, at the Westside Tavern. I told James I had a good feeling about this place and I was right, so after the longest picture caption in the world, away we go!

It looks friendly inside and there's a good vibe. I think we'll get the thumb's up here, it looks picture friendly.

And indeed Colm the friendly bartender said I could do my 365 thing in here. He was a little mystified as to why any bar wouldn't want to join in and I always am too.

James took a break from his note-taking to take a shot of me swilling some beer to help my sore and somewhat broken eye.

Super-cute Siri was seated next to me and told me she was waiting for a friend.

And as if on cue, moments later the aforementioned friend arrived. His name is Ben and he came all the way from England. Welcome to the states and to the Westside Tavern, Ben!

The walls are brick and black and white photos decorate them along with candles on the tables.

There's a lounge area in the back with black leather couches, candles...

And a pool table. Let's see who's back they're playing.

From left it's Lauren, Tegan, Smith and Nick. A friendly group who was enthusiastic about the 365 idea.

Colm in action at the bar.

A group of people checking out the game on one of the bars HD TV's.

Erin, Charles, and another Charles and Mandy were enjoying drinks at the front table.

Bo and Fred were having fun and drinks at the bar. They too loved the 365 Bar Crawl idea. In fact Fred wanted to get in on the action and wanted to shoot a picture.

So I surrendered my camera and Fred took this shot of Bo and I.

They then introduced me to their friend Damian who was drinking a pint of Guinness at the bar.

And then they wanted to donate some drinks to the cause, so they generously bought me a beer and a shot! Thanks guys, I appreciate it. Cheers! Okay, it was time to head home, I didn't want to overdo it tonight and take my other eye out. Goodnight everybody!

Review

The Westside Tavern combines the ambiance of an Irish workingman’s pub with a bit of a low-lit lounge feel. It sounds like a dichotomy that can’t work, but they pull it off here. The front is a brick walled room, with a sturdy wooden bar and tables, candles and black and white photography. The bartenders are friendly and the crowd is mainly Chelsea regulars from the neighborhood. As you head towards the back, the mood get a little more loungey and there’s black leather couches, an internet jukebox boasting over 3,000 songs, TV’s and a pool table. There’s also a lower level lounge which can be booked for private parties.

The Westside Tavern has a full bar with a good selection of bottled and draft beers. Ther’s a generous Happy Hour that runs daily from 5 pm to 9 pm with various drink specials. They don’t have a kitchen, but patrons are encouraged to bring in their own food to enjoy at the bar or the candlelit tables. And if you’re a Dave Matthews fan, you might want to hang out here the next time he’s in town, this is reported to be one of his favorite New York bars to hoist a drink or three in.

And you can take pictures here! Special thanks to James Jung from NBC Niteside for hanging out on the 365 Crawl and writing a great post on our night out. Cheers.

Westside Tavern
360 W. 23rd St. (Between 8th and 9th)
212-366-3738