Sunday, December 19th, 2010—Bar 343

Day 343—Saturday, December 18th, 2010
Amity Hall
Live from New York it’s Cheeseburger Saturday Night! Starring Amity Hall with a special appearance by one third of the Baltimore Bar Crawlers, Gene Rubbico and featuring the ready for prime beef player, Marty Wombacher. Tonight’s episode is brought to you by a generous donation of twenty dollars from Packer fan, Jamie Bettis, who we met at the Kettle of FIsh. Thanks, Jamie! And now, please welcome...Amity Hall!

Goddamn, Broadway is packed with people and all of them are motherfucking slow-walkers.

Fuck, I looked up and saw I was at Broome Street and realized I've walked way past 3rd street. Shit, now I have to backtrack through the slow walkers on Broadway.

I'm terrible with directions and after about an hour of missed streets and backtracking, here we are. Thank, god, I need a drink!

Wow, it looks great in here. Hey, there's a familiar face at the bar!

Bartender Nav pours up an ice cold bottle of Duvel. Nav's from Ireland and is a first-class bartender and all-around good guy.

365 commentator and pal, Biff sent me this stocking cap and three Metro cards for Christmas! Thanks Bifferoonie! And cheers from Gene and I!

They've got an impressive amount of beers on tap.

And an equally impressive selection of bottled beers below in the refrigerated beer coolers.

A candle-lit railing and stools lead up to the bar.

Fire!

Sneezin's greetings!

Meanwhile back at the bar, Gene and Nav are shooting the shit.

Shannon is the other beautiful bartender on duty. She was taking a dinner break till I interrupted with the pesky 365 camera.

And suddenly this group has overtaken the end of the bar.

Luckily, they're a friendly group and we chatted about the bar crawl for a bit. From left: Melissa, Michelle, Davy, Abeed and Daniel. Daniel has a blog and you can check it out here: No Is The New Yes. I've only had a chance to quickly peruse it, but any blog that has Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash giving the finger looks to be first rate!

Here's Shannon, back to work.

And suddenly...cheeseburger! Where's the cheese though?

It's stuffed inside of the burger! And it's horseradish cheddar cheese and it's one of the best burgers I've ever had!

Here's Gene getting ready to devour his cheeseburger.

Gene truly cleaned his plate. Nav joked that they wouldn't have to put this one in the dishwasher.

We decided to stop in at the Stoned Crow for an after dinner nightcap.

And here's a familiar face, Josh the bartender. If you've been following this blog you may remember that he was the bartender on duty on our 84th night out, last April.

The bar is all lit up for the holidays.

I went back to the office to say hi to the wonderful and beautiful owner, Betty. I told her I was looking forward to the end of this bar crawl in January because I could go back to being a regular here. Betty looked sad and told me that that wasn't going to happen. I asked her what she was talking about and she told me the bar is closing due to steep rents from her greedy-ass landlord. Anybody see a recurring theme here? I felt like someone had slapped me in the face with a cold 37 pound piece of fish. Motherfucker, another classic New York bar closing. I'm so sorry for Betty. She built and maintained a great New York bar in Greenwich Village. The last night this place is opened is New Year's Eve. I think I know where I'll be that night. Quite a sad way to end a Saturday night. Goodnight, everybody.

Review
Okay, I’m running late and I have an appointment for a haircut, so I don’t have time to write a regular review, but I do have to say that this was one of my best bar and cheeseburger experiences on the bar crawl. The cheeseburger was fantastic and I always say that the bartenders at a bar are the captains of the ship and can make or break the place and Nav and Shannon were two of the most fun and hospitable bartenders I’ve had the pleasure to meet. Thanks to both of them for a great night. And now you can check out the bar via this video: Amity Hall.

Amity Hall
80 W. 3rd St. (Near Thompson St.)
212-677-2290