NY Barfly

Are Expensive Clubs on Their Way Out? The Times Thinks So.

2009-07-13T05:57:00-07:00

In their ever growing State the Obvious series of articles, the New York Times took a look at nightlife’s move away from bottle service toward more frugal minded drinking activities. They cite the keg service at Superdive, the no reservations policy at 675 Bar (a Barfly favorite) and the gritty vibe at Cabin Down Below as evidence that the drinking world is adapting to tough economic times.

We’re a bit dubious of their other examples. Swanky club Avenue has forbade the use of the words “bottle service”, opting for the less contentious moniker “table service.” Whatever you nickname it when a waitress brings a $350 bottle of hooch over to your table, it will always have the same name to us: a fucking rip off. Oh, and we forgot, we’re supposed to call it a gastro-lounge, not a club. In related news, club owners are trying to recast “credit-card debt” as “quality of life gold-stars”.

Superdive seems to be doing better in keeping the low-key vibe. Check out our favorite part of the article. Viva la Manday!

At a table, a group of men in their 20s and 30s shared a 5-liter keg of EKU Pils beer to celebrate what they call “Manday,” a semiregular male-bonding night out.

Superdive suited them more than a noisy club with menacing velvet ropes and $400 bottles of vodka, said David Sitt, 32, a Manday regular and psychology professor at Baruch College.

“When you watch the Flintstones and they are at the Water Buffalo Lodge,” he said, referring to the homey clubhouse where Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble and pals partied, “they don’t have bottle service there.”

Bouncer Smacks Someone in the Face / Proposals on the Roof

2009-07-10T08:24:39-07:00

-In the latest episode of When Bouncers Attack, a patron outside of Chelsea’s Avenue was smacked in the face with a velvet rope by Wass Stevens. He was charged with assault and possession of a weapon. Funny, we were wondering why they confiscated our velvet rope the last time we tried to get on a plane.

-Metromix has a great piece on the different Bitters that NYC bartenders are using in their cocktails. The drinks at Fatty Crab and Mayahuel look like they’d warm our bitter heart.

-Turns out the rooftop bar Plunge at the Gansevoort Hotel is one of the most romantic places in the city. A gentleman proposed to his lady by taking her up to the bar. He signaled to his friends on the rooftop of Soho House, who popped the questions by holding up signs. She said yes, reportedly not only because he is a member of the Soho House.

Summer Drink Deals from Rouge Tomate

2009-07-09T12:48:11-07:00

Thinking of heading to the Hamptons this weekend? Why bother when you can sunbathe in the park and head over to Rouge Tomate for a top notch drink deal? The East Side restaurant is tempting patrons to stay in the city with ½ off their wine list all night, and ½ priced cocktails from 6-8 PM in their downstairs lounge. You can get all the tipsiness without all of the Hamptons fuss (i.e. having to get ready for 5 hours, standing in line, P. Diddy).

Their drink list includes a spiked Strawberry Blonde Lemonade, perfect to help cool you down after sunbathing in the park (or after taking that Saturday hangover nap). Like all good summer things, the deal only lasts through Labor Day, so get your sun-burnt self to the lounge!

Rouge Tomate is located at 10 E 60th St.

Pacifico Beer Wants to Take You to Hawaii

2009-07-09T08:20:04-07:00

We seem to have a contest theme taking hold over the past few days. That’s a good thing, seeing that you just spent your last money at the bar and you can’t afford to actually go on vacation. Why not try to win it back from The Man (The Man = all those tempting companies that led you to drink).

The latest give away comes from the folks over at Pacifico Beer. They are letting their customers enter for the chance to win an "Epic Adventure". The trip is to Waikiki, and includes surf lessons and (we assume) lots of beer.

To enter, head to their website and upload some of your own epic adventure photos. You can put up to three on the site until September 30^th. Photos will be judged on aesthetics as well as the epic-ness of your adventure. Pacifico is leaving it up to consumers to decide what you consider an epic adventure. Spending all your cash at the neighborhood bar? Sounds pretty epic to us.

The contest is giving away some cool schwag. Take a look:

One grand prize winner will win a trip for four to the Moana Resort on Waikiki Beach in Oahu for five days and four nights and surf lessons from professional surfer Joel Tudor, considered one of the best longboard surfers in the world
Five first prize winners will receive their choice of a shortboard, longboard or stand-up paddle board from Surftech
50 second prize winners will receive a one-year subscription to Surfer Magazine

To enter, fans of the beer can visit www.mexicoviapacifico.com and click on the VW bus roaming the map. Drink up!

Beer for Dessert? Perfect, Especially when you had Vodka for Dinner.

2009-07-09T06:14:00-07:00

Our friends over at Urban Daddy unearthed an awesome dessert beer in the Whole Foods beer room. Their piece on Crème Brûlée Imperial Milk Stout had us running over to stock our fridge. Not that we bring many dates back to our apartment, but we figured our pet dwarf rabbit might like a special treat every now and then.

Check out their description, and get your beer money ready:

First off, get the notion that this stuff is some sort of lightweight frou frou beer out of your mind: it packs a worthy 10 percent alcohol by volume (that's a point or two higher than your Riesling, more than double your Guinness and a smidge lower than your go-to Barolo). Which means it's sweet (be warned: really sweet), but powerful (sort of like your date). As for when it hits your lips, you'll taste more cream soda with a sting than crème brulée in a bottle.

For those of you who do bring a lot of dates back to your house, the sweet creaminess of the beer is perfect to mask the light flavor of roofie.

Superdive Arrives. It's Secret Weapon? Barf Buckets.

2009-07-08T12:41:44-07:00

We haven’t had the chance to make it down to the new East Village shit-hole Superdive (note, they would take that profane adjective as a complement). Our friends over at Eater and EV Grieve are doing a good job of documenting the debauchery. After reading what they have to say, we’re not sure that we’ll make it a point to stop by.

Here’s a scene from EV Grieve:

Just walked past superdive. there were these schmucky "dudes" screaming at the top of their lungs and chanting something at the girl across the street on a bench at OST. one "dude" was wearing a us marine corps shirt and i literally saw him rip off his dog tags and howl.

Eater questions the illegality of its “mix your own drink” gimmick. Convicted felons aren’t allowed to serve booze in any legal establishment. Judging by the descriptions, we think there are a lot of crime doers in the house.

Our main question: why did this neighborhood need a Superdive when it’s already got Cheap Shots? It’s like having Superman and Batman in the same city. It’d never work, especially if they were both wasted.

Drink for Points and Prizes at Pacific Standard

2009-07-08T09:36:00-07:00

Finally, your drinking can get you something in life. Park Slope Bar Pacific Standard is offering points that can be redeemed for awesome prizes (thanks to Joonbug for the tip). Just pay $10 for a special members card and you’re in the game. It’s like those Skee-ball tickets you collected as a kid, with two key differences:

1. These points are earned through rampant drinking.

2. While the Skee-ball tickets could be redeemed for plastic combs and penny-candy, these will get you a much greater treasure: more drinks.

You can learn more about the bar’s point system here, but its basically a dollar per point (or “drinker yards” in the contest’s lingo). If you’re a regular, it’s a really great deal, especially because they have double and even triple point nights, making it important to have far too much.

We scoped out some of the prizes offered. Here are some of our favorites:

All-Expenses-Paid Trip to Williamsburg. Pacific Standard will pay for a subway ride to glorious Williamsburg, a $30 bar tab at Barcade, and $50 towards dinner at the amazing Fette Sau. 2000 yards.

A Poem Celebrating You from John Rauschenberg. It’s not understating matters to say that one of our owners, John Rauschenberg, is one of the greatest American poets of this or any century. He will write a sonnet celebrating you and your many desirable traits, and give a signed, framed copy to you. 500 yards.

Cuddle with Mike and Amber, and Get a Signed Photo to Prove It. Mike and Amber, two of our regulars, love a good cuddle. Cozy up to them on one of our couches, have a conversation, and receive a signed photo to commemorate the occasion for just 400 yards.

There’s also some non-funny prizes on the list, like a round trip plane ticket to California. Start drinking now, and you’ll be able to redeem it for when you fly to rehab.

Build-a-Bear full of Heroin

2009-07-08T06:14:00-07:00

Bars get a bad wrap for being dens of drug trafficking. We think it’s time for the public to leave our drinking spots alone and shift their focus to the main problem: teddy bears. Turns out that the cuddly-wuddlys are stuffed with a lot more than love and a cloth heart. Take a look:

MSNBC reports that authorities on Friday seized 33 pounds of heroin found stuffed inside Build-A-Bear toys in connection with a drug bust in the Bronx that resulted in the arrest of a dozen people.

The Build-A-Bear drug bust was carried out by the New York office of the Drug Enforcement Administration along with city and state police broke up a drug distribution ring that sold hundreds of thousands of small bags of drugs a week in New York and New Jersey.

No wonder so many hipsters have been scheduling their parties at the cutie-pie chain. The good thing about this situation is that, in getting both a fix and a bear at the same time, you have someone to talk you down if the drugs get too wacky.

In related news, the chain is now offering a Michael Jackson bear full of Vicodin.

Where We're Headed: Blaggards

2009-07-07T13:01:36-07:00

During tough economic times, many folks head back to school. A few of the education-inspired are misguided, so they head to a little place called Bartending School. Blaggards, on West 38^th Street, serves as an internship for these students of drink. This unassuming Irish Pub runs a host program with the New York Bartending School down the block. In exchange for all of their tip money, the drink spot lets students get “experience” pouring pints for actual drunks. There are only two words to describe such an arrangement: shit & show.

Stop by to see a recently laid off account executive try to mix a Red Headed Slut. You won’t be disappointed. The Bartending School trains their scholars in many of the finer, more obscure drinks. You haven’t experienced truly sophisticated mixology until you order a 1-900-FUK-MEUP. It’s not top-notch cocktail unless it’s mixed by a nervous bartending student in a crappy midtown pub. Head to Blaggards now, school is in session.

The learning institute is located at 8 West 38^th Street.

Bar Artisanal: Providing Life's Staples, One Hunk of Cheese at a Time

2009-07-07T08:07:13-07:00

Some people need food, water, and shelter to exist in life. Us? Our three staples are wine, cocktails, and cheese. We stopped into Terrance Brennan’s new Bar Artisanal, and found a lot to sustain us. The restaurant was bustling with folks who were similarly fromage-inclined, so we decided to perch at the bar and take it all in (“it all” being the cheese). Artisanal is the type of place that’s good for a long, leisurely meal of multiple courses. After a few hours picking at the small dishes in the posh space, we realized why our life-supporting staples are a bit different from everyone else’s. Sometimes, it’s not just about survival. It’s about living.

While other folks suggest wine pairings with their food, Artisanal suggests cheese pairings with their drinks. Want to try the Peppery Peach Bourbon cocktail? It goes great with some of the Ribiola du Latte, Bianca Sardo. They offer a Rubharb Mojito, perfect for summer, and even more choice when paired with the their Chabichou du Poitou, Garrotxa. Their countless cheese selections may seem intimidating to the new initiate, but the staff knows more about the stuff that you’d think possible. They will help you navigate the list. If you’re still a little shaky even after their suggestions, go with one of the wine and cheese flights. They’ll do all the work for you, and you’ll get contentedly tipsy in the meantime.

The restaurant serves a full dinner menu, but to us it’s really a “sunny-Sunday afternoon” type of place. After a long week of indulging, you come to a haunt like this to unwind (albeit, with more indulgence). After some duck pizza, oysters, Coupole from Vermont, and (of course) wine, you’ll be energized for another week’s grind through the city. If that’s not enough to get you through, treat it as a pit stop, and drop in mid week to recharge.

The bar also offers a Late Night dining menu, for those of you who are more worried about the nightly grind. Instead of slumming it with diner food before hitting some downtown spots, stop in here and do it with class. Or, if you’re a bit frugal, have some Artisanal snacks and then head across the street for some cheap beer and shuffleboard at Nancy Whiskey Bar.

They say you should have three weeks of food and water on hand in your apartment in case of an emergency. We nabbed one of the curated cheese lists from the bar, and have been stocking our fridge. If something happens, we will be ready.

Bar Artisanal is located at 268 West Broadway, at 6^th Avenue.

O-Face Finalists: Three Olives Sure is, uh, Stimulating

2009-07-07T06:13:00-07:00

There Olives Vodka’s none too subtle What’s Your O Face contest has whittled the entries down to 5 finalists. No kids, not that kind of O, get your mind out of the gutter. This O-Face is the expression you make when you’re wowed by the different flavors on Three Olives line. There were over 4,000 entries and millions of votes in the contest, and the final five vodka lovers / narcissists can be viewed on the Three Olives website here.

Among the finalists are three New Yorkers, so it’s time to get off your drunky butts and represent! There is also a Texan and a New Jerseyite in the mix. No way we can let those lesser states take the prize. Take a look at another favorite finalist below the jump. O!

Win a Rum-Soaked Internship / You Can Still Get Drinks at Tailor

2009-07-06T12:25:06-07:00

-In another “the prize is also a job” giveaway, Malibu Rum announced that it has partnered with Reef Check to give away 10 internships. Check’s mission is to monitor, protect and rehabilitate reefs worldwide, and they want to enlist 10 interns to monitor coral reef health in Thailand, the Maldives or the Philippines. You can apply for this ten day job at www.malibu-rum.com/reefcheck. If you’re not so industrious, Malibu also offers the chance to save the reefs by drinking a special label rum. We’ll have to drink a bit extra, it’s nice to do our part.

-Bankrupt restaurant Tailor announced that they are going to close their dining room for the Summer. Luckily, the Bar area is going to stay open, so you can stop by for a drink and some financial advice.

-Did you know that sober people work in bars? The Times takes a look at some former alcoholic bartenders that are currently pouring, notably at The Pegu Club. We’re glad to see that someone took that warning about not drinking while operating heavy machinery seriously.