Friday, June 4th, 2010—Bar 145
Day 145—Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
The Local 269
Okay, tonight I was trying to figure out what bar to crawl to and it fell right in to my lap. Or perhaps I should say it fell right in to my email. Let me explain.
Months ago I met photographer Jason Kuffer on the 61st bar of this sudsy sojurn. You can read about it here: Bar 61. That was a great night and today Jason emailed me about an auction that’s going on at a bar in the East Village at The Local 269. It’s a punk rock auction presented by musician/author, Mickey Leigh and Erin O’ to raise money for the Joey Ramone Lymphoma Foundation. That sounds cool and I appreciate Jason telling me about it, it should make for a nice night on the town. But I’m wondering, how do you have an auction in a bar? I’m not sure, but we’re about to find out!
Here we are at The Local 269 on the corner of Houston and Suffolk.
Wow, the place is packed! Lots of people showed up for the auction.
I managed to wiggle in and get beers from the friendly bartender, Mickie.
I think I know who that fellow in the yellow t-shirt is.
It's the co-presenter of the punk rock auction, Mickey Leigh with his friends. From left: Yoaz, Mickey, Tina and Izzy Bella. Mickey is Joey Ramone's brother and recently wrote a book with Legs McNeil called, "I Slept With Joey Ramone." A great book and I highly recommend it. Mickey's friend Yoaz plays bass with the band, Ingrid and the Defectors. They're playing tonight at Kenny's Castaways on Bleecker, go check them out, I'd go but they go on at nine and I'll be at work. Sob! Let me know when the next gig is Yoaz and I'll try to make that one.
And here's Jason Kuffer! Jason's a great photographer and you can check out his photos here: Jason's photos. Check out his shots from the Joey Ramone Birthday Bash. Great photography, Jason!
Here's Jason getting a shot of Mickey Leigh.
The DJ for the auction was Steve Craig from 101.9 RXP. He played some great punk rock tunes and lots of Ramones classics.
Here's the lovely co-presenter Erin O' sipping a drink at the auction.
Kim, Jason and Morgan were seated at a table at the front of the bar.
Jason liked the 365 Bar Crawl so much he wanted to take a photo of me outside the bar, so I had him take one with my camera as well. Cool photo, Jason! I guess if you're named Jason, you're a natural born photographer.
Here's a shot of me taking a picture of Jason who's taking a picture of me. That last sentence just made me dizzy. I need to sit down...oh wait, I already am. Never mind.
Jason introduced me to Sarah, who's the Edito-in-Chief of Stay Thirsty. Check them out here: Stay Thirsty.
I found out how the auction worked. The items were placed around the bar and you put your name on a sheet if you wanted to bid on it. Some of the items up for auction included: A New York Doll's movie poster signed by photographer Bob Gruen, a gift package from CBGB's gift store, a Cyndi Lauper Barbie Doll and cool photos including this one of Joey Ramone at CBGB's signed by photographer Godlis.
It already had a bid on it.
Here's a great shot of Joey and Dee Dee Ramone.
Here's a photo of writer Legs McNeil and Marky Ramone and it's signed by the photographer, John Nikolai. Legs was the first person to publish my writing when I moved here to New York in 1993 when he was the editor of Nerve magazine. And I interviewed Marky Ramone for my magazine fishwrap back in the '90's, so I had to bid on this one!
I hope no one outbids me.
I got it! Now I need to get it framed and find an empty space on my walls to hang it.
The bar cleared out a bit as the auction ended and the band was setting up to play for the evening.
The band playing was The Joseph Walsh Quartet (insert Eagles and/or Rocky Mountain Way joke here.) They performed jazz and pop standards.
Great band, but they ignored my request to play, "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue." Oh well, you can't win them all. Goodnight everybody!
Review
If you didn’t know better you’d think The Local 269 has been a fixture in the neighborhood for quite some time. It is called the Local after all, but truth be told it’s a fairly new bar. There’s no tricked out gimmickry here, inside it’s dark (the way bars should be) and the space is intimate. There’s a bar that seats around 10 to a dozen and tables behind it. Mismatched chandeliers hang overhead in the dark brick-walled space. There’s a few small tables to sit at when the bar is full and the bartenders and staff are friendly. The crowd is a mix of punk rock, hipster and neighborhood regulars. Old school TV’s loom from atop the bar and there’s a stage up front. You’d expect the band’s in here to be punk rock and/or garage flavored, but Monday’s they have a jazz night and the night I was there it was the Joseph Walsh Quartet doing an evening of jazz and old school pop standards.
They have a decent selection of bottled and draft beers, drafts range from Guinness to Brooklyn Lager and if you’re in the mood to get buzzed in a hurry you can get five shots for ten bucks. There’s a nice Happy Hour here that runs daily from 4pm to 8pm with 2 for 1 beers and well drinks. The food is standard pub grub, but if you’re a grilled cheese fanatic you’re in luck. There’s three different varieties to choose from here. They also host a weekly jazz brunch.
Check out The Local 269, it just might become your local watering hole.
The Local 269
269 E. Houston St. @Suffolk
212-228-9874
3 References
Reader Comments (16)
WOW!! What an amazing night you must have had. How very cool meeting all of those interesting people. It looks like everyone had a great time!!
Great place....loved it!
I received my items today! I got a shirt (the yellow logo) a mug (yellow) and two coasters. I will most likely be ordering more items in the future as they are very nice. You are so very right they are quite well done and of a high quality. I LOVE them!
Thanks, Tiki Bar Susie! I appreciate you ordering the items and glad you like them! Thanks for your support of the 365 crawl, it's mucho appreciated!
Looked like a great night out.
Congrats on the Legs McNeil and Marky Ramone photo.
Again, the crawl took on another dimension with this stop.
Very nicely done.
Thanks Tiki Bar Susie for your ongoing support!
Wear it proudly!
I had never heard about the ramones before, and I figured out on youtube & wikipedia, very cool music!! I'm glad I learned english, I can share with english speakers and read, and find out allot of music & bands we don't know in France. I mean, before internet, we didn't get as much as now, only very famous international bands could cross the ocean through big label records.
Internet is just amazing... (when you don't use it for stupid things I mean! lol)
5 shots for ten bucks, that looks so fine!! ;)
Another great dive, its been a good week for you Marty. Very worn looking bar,,,a good thing. Im starting to really get into the pictures you take in the bars and I noticed that I always see something that I find peculiar,,, in a nice way. The girl, Erin, looks like she's having a pint of guiness which is ok except look closely,,,she's drinking it with a straw,,,never seen that,,,how funny....guess I dont get out much.
Love this bar and auction! I've got the I Slept wwith Joey Ramone book and Please Kill Me is one of my favorites. Very cool that you know Legs McNeil and he published your writing. What did you write for him?
@Barfly: I wrote a humorous article about Bill Wyman's autobiography and I did a Cliff's Note's version of the history of rock and roll in under 500 words. It was for a short-lived magazine called Nerve and Legs was the editor. I actually submitted them right before I moved and they came out as I got to town. Nice memories!
Great place and an even better cause! I'm not sure I could do five shots, but it seems like the kind of place where you could make friends easily (especially if you're handing out four shots!) Glad you had a good time and congrats on winning the photo! Although, you're going to have to redecorate your entire place in order to create a blank space on the wall. HA HA HA!
Forgot to mention - great photo, Jason! Now all we need to do is draw a thought bubble from Marty's head to that Budweiser sign.
@Biff: When my ceiling caved in in my bathroom it destroyed the Hunter Thompson pictures, so I'm going to hang it there. This will be one of my weekend chores and I'll post a photo of it when it goes up. So get your "well hung" jokes ready!
damn man that ceiling still not fixed?...my landlord would have been here in a flash..NOT...hey glad you got the pic...another GREAT crawl...waniin' on my stuff...LOC
rr
@rr It's fixed, but when it caved in it destroyed two framed photos of Hunter Thompson I had hanging over my toilet. So I'm going to replace Hunter with Legs and Marky. I'm going to go get it framed tomorrow.
People are so interesting.
Very cool life in New York CIty. I'd love to go back there soon.
Oh, no, not the HUNTER THOMPSON PHOTOS!!!!
You can't cry over spilled Hunter Thompson photos, Jaws! One door closes and up goes Legs and Marky!
Marty, you're the Guiding Light in my Search for Tommorrow!