Friday, December 31st, 2010—Bar 355

Day 355—Thursday, December 30th, 2010
Blarney Stone (on 9th Avenue)
Before I begin, I need to direct all of you to a piece of genius. Karen and Jon at Grade “A” Fancy have outdone themselves with a piece of film that sadly displays some of the sad closures that happened in New York City this year. I’d say more, but it speaks for itself, check it out here: 2010 R.I.P.

Okay, another night, another Blarney bar. I think this is the only Blarney bar I haven’t hit yet...there may be one near Wall Street..aw, at this point who the fuck cares? I’m picking this one, not only because I think it’ll be a good stop, on the bar crawl but because it’s all about location, baby! It’s just a few blocks from where I work and I’m getting out of work early, which is nice because I have to get up early to post this and then do my early New Year’s Eve bar crawl. Wow, that’s a lot of “early’s in one sentence.” Makes me think of Biddy Early’s! Let’s go, I think I’m losing my fucking mind here.

It's 8pm so there's a lot more people out and about than usual. A lot of hustle and bustle and I have to admit to being a fan of neither the hustle or the bustle. But in spite of that, what the hell, let's all do the Hustle! (Do it!)

I told you it was close and here we are.

Okay, it looks like a great spot in here and there's plenty of seats at the bar. Shall we?

Linda's the pretty bartender on duty and she's not only friendly...

She's quick with a beer. Peace, love and suds.

An overhead shot of the bar.

And a longshot from below.

Christmas may be over, but there's still a tree in the window here.

There's a long wooden railing and stools opposite the bar.

Sports pictures hang on the well worn walls of the bar.

At first glance you'd assume this is a Jets bar...

But the Giants sign in the back room by the pool table shows otherwise.

Linda and Gregory pose for the 365 camera in the back room.

A shot of the bar from the other end.

Peanuts!

Here's Luis, a regular at the bar. I had a great conversation with this man with topics ranging from music to books to politics to our current culture and everything in between. One of the best things about this bar crawl is meeting people and having interesting conversations and this was one of the best. Great to meet you, Luis!

Halfway into our conversation, Luis' brother Larry walked into the Blarney Stone. It turns out Larry works security at the Horseshoe Bar, which was the 129th bar on the crawl, along with the BBC. Check it out here.

A parting shot from Luis and I. Cheers and goodnight, everybody!

Review
Okay, as I said in the introduction, I have to get to my bar early today and get it over with before the contingents of meatheads start swarming all over this town. New Year’s Eve is NOT a good night if you’re a seasoned bar crawler. Too many amateurs that don’t know how to drink. The odds of getting vomited on go sky high on this night, so I’m hoping to finish early, come home get a bunch of beer and watch the Twilight Zone marathon on the Sci-Fi channel. So I guess what I’m getting around to saying is, I’m going to slack and not write a review. I found this “citizen” review on NY Citysearch and it sums the place up perfectly and it even mentions Linda, check it out.
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(This review is for the Blarney Stone on 9th Ave. and 29th Street. There are several other bars in Manhattan with the same name.) I'm really reluctant to write about this place. If I thought more people would read this, I wouldn't. It's like a fragile glass sculpture. It could so easily be destroyed. As it is, this could be the last place of it's kind south of 125th Street? Wow! A DIVE BAR in the best sense of the word. Nothing faux or pretentious about this place.

Everybody at the bar was our instant friend. The thickly brougued bartendress bought us two pitchers of beer. When we walked in, I said, "this place would be perfect if it weren't for the music being too loud." In ten minutes, Linda, the bartendress came to ask us if there was anything she could get us. "Yeah," I said. "Lower volume." POW! She was at the controls. "Just raise your hand when it's at a good volume," she said. "Excuse me," I didn't, but should have, said. "Are we dead and is this heaven?" The neighborhood is foreboding with NOTHING, but one pizza place and lots of people sleeping on the sidewalk. I hope that's enough to scare off tourists. Once inside, the funkiness, friendliness, and everyone's-a-pal spirit, makes this our best new discovery of the year.—Drink Club NYC is a roving group of NYC drinkers

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Happy New Year, everybody!

Blarney Stone (on 9th Avenue)
340 9th Ave  
212-502-4656

Sunday, July 18th, 2010—Bar 189

Day 189—Saturday, July 17th, 2010
Blarney Stone on Third
Alright, it’s request day today, which I love because It means I don’t have to pick the bar. A while back I got an email from Mark Smimmo suggesting that I stop at the Blarney Stone on Third Avenue. He told me to ask for Caroline whom he said was the best barmaid in the city. And so, it’s off to the Blarney Stone we go. It's just that easy.

It's Saturday, so we'll take a leisurely walk to the place.

Aaaahhhhhhh!

This old school shoe and watch place is a nice antidote for what we last saw.

And after a long, sweaty walk, here we are at the original Blarney Stone bar.

Lots of specials dot the lime green colored entrance.

Okay, to quote the Talking Heads, this must be the place.

Yvonne and Maggie were the two pretty and friendly bartenders on duty.

Caroline wasn't on duty, but she was enjoying drinks at the end of the bar. When I asked if I could take her picture, Caroline said no, but she did ask me to say hi to "Big Mark." So hi from Caroline, "Big Mark." And cheers to the late, great, Andy. "Smirnoff and water, NO FRUIT!" She remembered that Mark and it brought a smile to her face.

And how funny is this, the first person I meet is named Mark as well. This guy has been a regular for close to a year and was like a tour guide for me, introducing me to some of the regulars and showing me how the bar works and how the different areas house different people.

Mark poses with his grandfather, Tommy who's been perched on a barstool here for over 36 years.

Mark explained the division of the bar to me. The front area is the horse betters who bet in the neighboring OTB and watch the results on the TV's in the front of the bar.

The middle of the bar is friendly regulars and as you get to the right end, it gets a little rough. Mark is right about this, I asked a guy at the end of the bar if I could take a picture and it looked like he wanted to punch me in the mouth. I quickly retreated to the middle before my camera got smashed.

Mark told me the tables were mainly filled with tourists and first-timers to the Blarney Stone.

Here's a list of beers available and as you can see, you won't go broke drinking in here.

Alright, it's cheeseburger Saturday night and it's time to eat.

And master chef Julio is happy to grill me up some sliders.

Here he proudly displays the finished product. They look delicious.

And they are, I love cheeseburger Saturday night!

Mark's brother Jeff joins the party.

Jeff's got an ipad and everyone checks out the 365 Bar crawl.

Shit, I forgot to write down this guy's name. He's a great musician and a friend of Mark's. Mark if you're reading this, please leave his name in the comments section and I'll update this. UPDATE: I just got a comment from Pablo that this fine musician's name is Paulivio.

Yvonne serves up a special Blarney shot of whiskey on the house. This thing is huge, equal to about three ounces.

So of course I decide to down it in one gulp.

Bomb's away!

Wow, that was rough! The sliders about slid back the wrong way.

I think I'll survive though.

Feeling better and back to the beer.

Goodnight everybody!

Review
There’s a lot of Blarney bars in Manhattan. There’s Blarney Stones, Blarney Rocks and a Blarney Cove on 14th Street which I plan on visiting in a daytime episode of this bar crawl, but that’s another story and another bar crawl. The Blarney Stone on Third is the original Blarney bar. It’s a definitive working class bar and the crowd is varied and changes with the hours. In the daytime regulars bet at the neighboring OTB parlor and then watch the races on the TV. The bartenders are Irish, pretty and friendly and as nightime draws the crowd includes construction workers, local plumbers, suits from nearby office buildings, tourists and the grizzled regulars who never seem to leave the joint. Christmas lights intermingle with shamrocks over the bar and the beer flows freely.

There’s a good selection of bottled and draft beers and the prices are happy hour styled with pints running between $2.50 to $3.50 all day and all of the night to quote Ray Davies. The steam tables up front feature home-styled meals such as roast turkey and stuffing, baked ham, brisket of beef and meat loaf. All the meals include potato and vegetables and are served up in genuine Styrofoam buckets. There’s a large selection of sandwiches and the cheeseburgers are grilled to perfection before your very eyes.

There’s a lot of pretenders to the Blarney Stone name, but this is the real deal.

Blarney Stone
710 Third Ave (Between 44th and 45th Street)
212-490-0457