Wednesday, August 11th, 2010—Bar 213

Day 213—Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
Russian Vodka Room
Okay, first off, daily commentator, artist and writer, Jaws sent in a picture of himself wearing the 365 shirt with the red logo designed by “Boris.” Check out Jaws below:

What a handsome devil! In addition to being an artist (he did the graphics on the photo he sent in), Jaws is also a writer and has published three books. Two of them are tales from his cab driving days and when he toiled in customer service. The third is a collection of his graphics and drawings. It’s hilarious stuff and I highly recommend all three. You can check them out right here: Jaws the Cabbie.

If you’d like to check out the 365 Bar Shop and check out the custom design t-shirts and merchandise it’s as easy as clicking here: 365 Bar Shop. Our resident artist, “Boris” set the whole thing up and maintains it. “Boris” is also available for freelance artwork, so if you’d like your website spruced up, if you need a logo, CD or book cover or just about anything, “Boris” is your go-to guy. Just send me an email and I’ll forward it along.

There’s a couple more bonus photos, down under the main post and once again, down under is a fitting place for them because they more Australian photos. 365 commentator Tim Clack took a couple photos of the oldest brewery in Sydney. Check them out, they’re down under the review and a couple of great shots. Thanks for sending them in, Tim, mate!

Okay, tonight while Googling around I found what appears to be a very cool bar. It’s a place in midtown called the Russian Vodka Room and it’s bound to be a dark bar, because there’s no windows in the joint. But there is an in-house piano player and I bet there’s no TV’s anywhere. Let’s go see if my hunch is correct.

Here we are at the window-less bar. I love it already.

It's perfect inside, a nice dark and friendly vibe. And there's a seat at the bar.

And the beautiful bartender, Irina serves up a 2 ounce shot of pineapple infused vodka.

Budem zdorovy!

Azfar was seated next to me. He's a nice guy and was in town on business from Cleveland. I told him the bar crawl had traveled to Cleveland. He said he comes to New York frequently, so you may see him again on the crawl.

Quite a selection of booze at the bar. The large bottles in the back are the infused vodka.

There's tables and banquettes in the front of the bar.

The bar is wooden and somewhat octagon in shape, although there's not quite eight sides.

Here's an example of how dark it is in here. Here's the lounge area taken without the flash.

And here's the same shot with the flash.

There's nightly piano music at the bar, but it's kept at a conversational level.

Here's Irina at work mixing up another drink for me.

She adds the finishing touches and...

Voilà, a G3 martini.

Russian artwork hangs on the dark wooden walls of the bar.

And here's some more vats of the infamous infused vodka.

Here's Irina taking a little break behind the bar.

Next she served up a four shot tasting which was on the house. I love this place!

Cheers from Irina and I and goodnight, everybody!

Review
I think I found the perfect bar. Nice and dark inside, no windows, no TV’s and no pretentious attitude. The bartenders and waitresses are pretty and friendly, there’s live piano music every night of the week and the crowd is a mix of tourists, local business people and perhaps a thirsty international spy or two. The main room houses the octagon shaped wooden bar. There’s tables and chairs in nooks in the front and behind the piano is a lounge area with couches and tables to relax and enjoy your flavor-infused vodka.

The Russian Vodka Room lives up to its name. There’s over 40 varieties of vodkas and 10 flavor infused vodkas including: apple cinnamon, garlic, pepper and dill, horseradish and strawberry among others. There’s eight selections of rare scotch whiskies available and ten types of cognac. They have five choices of flavored martinis and specialty cocktails include: the Russian Breakfast which is, garlic, pepper, dill vodka with beef broth and tomato juice; the Red Bastard which mixes horseradish vodka and spicy bloody Mary mix and the Mintini which is a mixture of mint infused vodka, fresh lime and gingerale.

You’re going to need something to soak up all that booze and there’s plenty of items on their dining menu to do just that. There’s a large appetizer/small plate selection, including: Herring with potatoes, Duck Liver Pate, Beef Carpaccio with spicy mayonnaise and Smoked Trout with picante salad. Some of the main courses offered are: Chicken Schnitzel with truffle, Beef Stroganoff with kasha, Lamb Shanks Braised In Red Wine and Roast Duck with apples. There’s five different kinds of caviar and dessert is also available and if I go back I’m trying the Farmer's Cheese Blintzes with chocolate.

There’s a daily happy hour that runs from 4pm-7pm with $3.50 house-infused vodkas, $5 flavored martinis and $4 beers. Byla ne byla and cheers to the Russian Vodka Room.

Russian Vodka Room
265 W. 52nd St. (Near Broadway)
212-307-5835

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Bonus Photos!

Aussie mate, Tim Clack sent in these photos of Sydney's oldest brewery. Here's the photos and Tim's captions.

This place is the Lord Nelson Hotel Brewery located in the Rocks in Sydney. The Rocks is pretty much the oldest part of the city which is under the south side of the Harbour bridge. It used to to be a bad ass area full of hookers and sailors and has hosted the odd underworld murder in it's time.

I'm sure it packs out on the weekends but at Monday lunch its a haven for kicking back and enjoying a few of their specialty house brews.

Thanks for sending in the photos, Tim, very cool! And now in honor of the Russian Vodka Room...