Be Good or Be Gone

There’s something about participating in a bar crawl. The goal is pretty clear, drink a lot of booze, in several different places, in one evening. For me, having a drink in any establishment that serves liquor requires at least one of two things. Either a great environment, whether it’s cool lighting, décor…modern, rustic, funky, or just being anywhere with great people. I’ve definitely brought the party many times in places that were far beyond boring just by having the right group of people in attendance. The bar crawl takes a quality group of people into several different establishments. If one place sucks, you move on to the next. Definitely fits the bill for an epic birthday night celebration!


So, here I am, just about to turn 37 yrs old. Granted I don’t have any kids yet(not that this would change anything) and I’m putting together another epic mission to NYC to cruise a few pubs in only a few hours. This particular mission does have a theme to it. The plan is to only hit bars of historic stature, the historical bar crawl: part deux! I originally held the historical bar crawl: part one in April of 2008. Part one consisted of several places that are well documented on the internet regarding their historical backgrounds. Here’s the 2008 list for those that are interested in feeding google searches:

-Bridge Café, 16 Dover Street New York, NY 10038, http://bridgecafenyc.com/
-The Ear Inn, 326 Spring Street New York, NY 10013, http://earinn.com/
- McSorley’s Old Ale House, 15 East 7th Street New York, NY 10003, http://www.12darks.com/
- Pete’s Tavern, 129 East 18th Street New York, NY 10003, http://www.petestavern.com/
- Old Town Bar, 45 East 18th Street New York, NY 10003-2003, http://www.oldtownbar.com/

For the mission in April 2008, we all began at the Bridge Café on a Saturday afternoon. From there continues our quest to drink at least one drink in all of these places. What a great time it was! Our group of 10 or so people walking, taking cabs, getting separated only to meet up again turned out to be such a great evening. The bars themselves were conversation pieces on so many levels. Between the structure, architecture, decorations, people that had visited, who was president when the place was in business all added to the fun of the afternoon/evening.

One notable story from this evening was while drinking at Ear Inn, and it’s low 6.5-7 ft ceiling, we ran into a group of people from the DAR (daughters of the American revolution). Wearing their triangular hats and led by a fully decked bag piper. Already being relatively drunk I yelled at the bag piper “what the hell is this??” and he replied, “we’re with the daughters of the American revolution”. He then asked me why I was in the bar and I told him it was for my birthday. The guy screamed “well then, happy birthday!” and their group raised their glasses while he played happy birthday on his bag pipes. Yea, the bag pipes are an incredibly annoying instrument. Especially when they’re played in your face, in a small bar at point blank range. The gesture was appreciated and the people outside of our two groups were stoked to participate in all of the action. Further supporting my feelings on being in a great place, with great company. Mission accomplished!
Now it’s April 2010 and we’re doing this all over again. Here’s the list of places we visited:

-McSorley’s Old Ale House 15 E 7th st , NY, NY
-Fanelli’s Café, 94 Prince St, New York, NY
-Mulberry St Bar, 176 Mulberry St, NY, NY

This time we started later and on a Friday night. Since we didn’t quite get to fully experience McSorley’s ale house in 2008 due to the large crowd in that place, the plan was to meet and begin our mission there. For those that haven’t been to McSorley’s, the interior has almost been completely untouched since the mid 1800’s (1910 from what I’ve read, but still old). I can’t do well describing it but the bar has this console with pulls and levers that looks like it’s from a movie set or haunted house. I have no idea what it was supposed to be used for…maybe serving beer? Looks like it could be used to power a steamboat or something nautical. See the picture I found at this site: http://www.deadprogrammer.com/mcsorleys-bar .



We spent a lot of time there, sitting at a table in the back by the bathrooms. I don’t remember hitting the bathroom in there but friends were saying something about the old urinal’s looking like ivory colored carbon freezing chambers for midgets! Have a look for yourself if you’re in there. Now, being that when you ask for a beer at McSorley’s they give you two 8oz beers, it became difficult to order. When we were wrapping up and placing our last order, we asked for eight beers, not 16…for the eight people in our party that wanted a final round….they brought 16 beers. It goes without saying, we were pretty drunk leaving this place…and the reason why our “crawl” ended at the third establishment.

Next up was Fanelli’s, this place was pretty cool. I definitely wouldn’t want to go here again with a large group but with a few people. Because of how many people were with us, we ended up getting seated in the small dining area in the back of the place. The other people dining there were likely looking for a quiet “date-night” sort of ambience. We definitely ruined it for them. I do remember throwing things across the dining room at the second table that was occupied by part of our group and yelling… a lot. Surely we were all damn drunk, or near that point. The prior two hours of non-stop refills at Mcsorleys set us up to be construed as the “douchebags” by patrons and workers at Fanelli’s.

After leaving Fanelli’s we could’ve just packed it in but no, we continued on to the Mulberry St Bar. This place was having karaoke and the patrons were definitely semi-pro or pro singers/performers. Being there on a Friday night would make me think that they were all out of work. After a few more drinks, being physical shifted and directed by one of the guys in the bar towards the bathroom, this further solidified my birthday beers were taking over. The night ended with me attempting to be ridiculous near the dancing karaokers who tried to move me out of the way. Friends intervened and we were outta there.

All in all, a great evening. I just have to make sure that any future plans to McSorleys start and end there.

Cheers.

Peekskill, NY: Blue Mountain ride/ Peeksill Brewery

My kickoff story is just a brief run through of my 4/5/10 biking mission to Peekskill NY. For those that don't already know, I've been getting deep into mountain biking. I was always into bikes, bmx/freestyle from like the age of 6 or 7 onward. At least until I got my driver’s license that is. Great outdoor activity and even better that it's an activity that's sort of in some level of wilderness.

Peekskill NY is a town in northern Westchester county. Maybe 30 min from NYC. This little town is set on a hill along the Hudson river just south of the Bear Mtn bridge. This area is really nice in the fall. Just a really nice area of NY state overall. Unfortunately Peekskill is not as wonderful as its surrounding area. The downtown area is shitty and rundown. Totally a depressing area. So weird because it has such potential to be such an awesome little downtown. It could easily be like a big “Stars Hallow”.

Being a big diner fan, there’s one old school, mid 40’s diner in town. I had breakfast there the first time I visited Peekskill. Food was fine, nothing to brag about, but you really get a feel for the grunginess of the town. One thing was that every parking meter on the street across from the diner was cracked and busted. Just really weird and a small measurement of the semi-ghetto-ish feel of the place. Think Atlantic City meets Perth Amboy type of depressing.

So this trip on 4/5 is my third trip to Peekskill and my second trip to Blue Mountain Reservation. If you like mountain biking or hiking, this place is pretty damn cool. The riding is very technical, northeast style singletrack. Lots of large rocks/boulders everywhere. Definitely a great hiking spot if you enjoy interesting wooded terrain. For our first trip here back in 2008, we hiked to the top of Blue Mtn, carrying our bikes(unfortunately). Not the most impressive view but it’s always awesome to trek to the top of any mountain! Even if it’s only 900ft tall.

Round two at Blue was bound to be better than my first trip here. I’m a much stronger rider now also better conditioned for technical riding. I remember being completely destroyed after riding this place the first time. Thinking to myself that it couldn’t be possible that anyone could ride these trails without getting hung up on rocks, wiping out, or just being completely exhausted. My second time around, I wasn’t in too bad a shape. Still not achieving every climb but I had no issues getting around such a large trail system. I just don’t ride enough and I’ve committed to improving this for 2010. I’m not doing any road cycling like a lot of my riding crew does. To my disadvantage I guess but the love/need to sport spandex just kills it for me. I’m hoping our 3rd mission here will suck us in to the flow of the place. Just a very rocky trail system.
The trails there are confusing and not solidly marked. The map is great (http://www.wmba.org/PDF/Blue-Mtn-map-rev3.pdf) but some of the markers are not entirely present. Some are on trees, some are wooden stakes in the ground and some couldn’t be found. Our first time here we got totally lost and had to ride out to a nearby road that circled the park to get back to our car. I’m definitely acclimated to the place now and how it’s laid out.

Regarding the rockiness of Blue’s trails, my riding buddy James prefers smoother, “flowier”(my new word) trails. Blue’s trails have a lot of technical segments that will cause stop and go to get around them if you are not sure how to properly navigate the terrain. We had a great time despite. All in all, a great workout and some good tech skill building.

Just before our last run for the morning, James ended up with a flat tire and caused a not-so-far ride/hike back to the car. It was now about 12p and time for lunch. AWESOME! Down near the Hudson river, about 5 min away, on the east side of Rt 9, you’ll find the Peekskill train station and some older brick buildings. One restored Victorian-styled office building and a much “cleaner” and brighter environment from the somewhat decrepit downtown area on the west side of Rt 9. In this area, across from the park that is right next to the train station is the Peekskill Brewery.(http://www.thepeekskillbrewery.com) Awesome place! Our first trip to Blue Mtn afforded us the opportunity to visit this restaurant the month that they opened back in 2008. They still hadn’t even brewed their first beer at the time. This is now my third time here and I will tell anyone who loves craft beer and doesn’t mind driving a bit, this is one destination to add to your list.
First thing to note about this place is the beer selection, outside of their own brews is more impressive than you’ll find anywhere in NJ. No BS beers! If you want Miller Lite, forget it. Not that they’d trash you for it. It would just force you out of your comfort zone for the bartender to recommend a beer that you’d likely enjoy. Everyone I’ve met there is very knowledgeable of all things beer related. I went for the Lake Placid 46er Pale Ale to start. Pretty standard Pale Ale but noticeably fresh. The menu is not over priced but the food selections could well cater to an upscale crowd. I wasn’t picky and decided to go for the pork belly appetizer with a side of the amazing lemon parmesan fries. Yea, a lot of fat and not enough protein but I figured that I might not be back here this season and I had never eaten Pork Belly before. Time to indulge a bit. Round two before the food comes out. I followed up the 46er with the Peekskill Old Wagon. Claimed as a English session ale, fairly low alcohol, but it tasted stronger and bigger. Pork and cabbage completely consumed and fries disappearing, no one needed to twist my arm on my day off to have a third round. I chose the Peekskill Hop Common. A hoppy but balanced IPA. Might just have been a little strong factoring the 90min drive home!

For those looking for a mid day getaway, Peekskill Brewery is tops in my book. Tack on a stop at Bear Mtn or mountain biking at Blue Mtn and you’ve got yourself a solid day adventure. Enjoy!

Intro

I've been told many many times by friends and family to publish some record of my adventures. Although I love to talk about the wide array of subjects or things that interest me, I’ve never thought of trying to write about it or consolidate it into one forum. Hopefully someone, somewhere will be exposed to my world in some way and then be inspired or encouraged to try something new. I'm definitely into a lot of things. At least I think I have more interests than most average folks do. So, upon frequent suggestion, the blogspace world seems to be an easy place to host record of such things and events.