August 28, 2011

(Note: I'm posting this tonight, because there's a good chance that the power could be off tomorrow. If I don't comment back, it means that Marty After Dark is really living up to the name.)

Live, from New York, it’s Saturday Night Cheeseburger! Starring Old Town Bar and featuring the Ready for Prime Beef Player, Marty Wombacher. And now, right before a hurricane knocks the shit out of the city, please welcome your host, Old Town Bar!

It's raining out and the streets are pretty empty because the subways aren't running. Even though the bad shit isn't supposed to hit till morning, I think I'll stick close to home and go to the Chat 'N' Chew right down the block.

Can you say, "irony?" Sure, I knew that you could!

Motherfucker, it's closed! Oh well, Steak Frites is right across the street and they have a great cheeseburger.

Shit, they're closed too. Pussies!

There's Union Square Cafe down the road. I don't know if they've got cheeseburgers, but they do have a bar, let's go.

Closed! Shit, Irene's not supposed to get bad till after midnight, this is becoming a trying Cheeseburger Saturday Night!

Fuck, I hate to resort to McDonald's for a Cheeseburger Saturday Night, but I need to get his over with and go home and start drinking get ready for the storm.

Well, looks like I'm not going to resort to McDonald's, these fuckers are closed too.

I wonder if the Andy Warhol statue will ride the storm out. He is pretty frail after all!

A lot of people are taping their windows.

I don't understand how it's going to help, but whatever floats your boat.

Hold on, I think I see a beacon of hope there!

The sign is lit, but is the bar open?

Shit, there's a sign on the door, I hope it doesn't say they're closed.

Ha! I love Old Town Bar!

Not only is it open, it's packed! Let's see if we can find a seat at the bar.

No sooner do I sit down, than friendly bartender Peter serves up a beer.

The view from my perch at the bar.

A shot from the end of the bar.

People at a table in the back room.

The booth's opposite the bar are filled up.

Meanwhile back at the bar the condiments and sliverware have been placed. The cheeseburger can't be far behind.

And speak of the devil and it appears. I got a cheddar turkey burger with bacon and cole slaw.

Delicious!

And here's our pretty friend Lucille, who waited on us last time behind the bar with Peter.

Irene may be knocking some shit down later, but I think the Old Town Bar and it's might and massive urinals will still be standing. See you tomorrow after dark if I still have power!

For the cheeseburger rating, review and more photos of Old Town Bar on MAD click here and here.

Old Town Bar
45 East 18th St. (Between Broadway and Park Ave. South)
212-529-6713

Further reading: Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York, Forgotten New York, Peter Sylvester Photography and Wikipedia.

You Might Also Like: My Three Sons, Three Little Pigs and Three’s Company.

Four Other Canes (I know it’s a stretch, but I’m running out of hurricane related shit to put up here!)
Sugarcane
Arthur “Killer” Kane
Cocaine
Cain and Abel

Suggested by Al and rr.

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Bonus Photo By Crazy Eddie!

Crazy Eddie sent me a photo of his Hurricane Irene survival kit. Looks like he has all bases covered! Thanks for the photo Crazy Eddie!

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Bonus Art From Jaws and Half Empty Glass Linkage!

Jaws sent in this Hurricane Irene Art, thanks Jaws! And check out the fine post over at the Half Empty Glass.

July 4, 2011

Okay, tonight I’m having drinks and a Sunday dinner with my friend, Paul Scanlon. I met Paul via last year’s bar crawl and you can read that right here: Paul and Marty on the Bar Crawl. Okay, let’s head off to Mumbles bar and start the Sunday off with a few drinks.

We're starting out a little early tonight, so it's still light out, but it will be dark by the end of the evening.

On my way to Mumbles I catch a glimpse of that god-awful T.G.I. Fridays across from Union Square Park How sad that it's still in business. Eat at local places, people!

And here we are at Mumbles Restaurant and Bar.

There's the bar and I see a couple familiar faces right off the bat.

There's Paul with a swizzle stick offering for the MAD swizzle stick collection. It's from the legendary Tadich Grill in San Francisco. Thanks, Paul!

And here's Hal the friendly bartender with an ice cold bottle of Budweiser. We can officially start the Sunday evening now.

A pile of Sunday papers sit at the bar.

Hal in action behind the bar.

A few drinks later and the lovely Sarah takes over behind the bar. In addition to bartending duties, Sarah sings and plays guitar in not one, but two bands here in New York. The band's are System Noise and the other is The Sometime Boys. System Noise are playing next Saturday, July 9th at the Parkside Lounge. Sarah told me they're scheduled to go on around 10pm. Go and check them out, I know I'll be there!

We decided to have dinner at Old Town Bar, a familiar stop here at MAD. Shit, it's still light out!

Usually it's crowded in here on Sunday nights, but since it's a holiday weekend, there's plenty of seats at the bar. Nice!

Booths line the wall opposite the bar.

They have a well stocked bar, here at Old Town.

I love vintage cash registers and this one's a classic.

The tin ceiling's are high in here and illuminated by antique chandeliers. A real slice of old school New York.

And Sunday dinner has arrived! I got the bacon grilled cheese and I think it's the best grilled cheese sandwich in New York!

Paul got the burger and fries and you can't go wrong with the burger in here.

And of course I have to take a shot of the massive urinals, which leads to...

Obligatory bathroom mirror shot!

And finally, it's dark outside. Goodnight everybody and see you tomorrow after dark.

Further reading: Mumbles Bar, New York Magazine, Old Town Bar and Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York.

You also might like: Salt Water Taffy, Salt Lake City and A Salt and Battery.

Four Fifths

230 Fifth
Fifth of Jack Daniels
Fifth Amendment
Fifth of July

Hey baby, it's the Fourth of July,
Hey baby, it's the Fourth of July.

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Bonus Cardboard Box Man Photo From Kari!
MAD commenter and Leaf Girl Blogger, Kari, sent in the Cardboard Box Man sighting on the streets of Salt Lake City. He’s everywhere...aaaaaahhh!

May 15, 2011

Live, from New York, it’s Cheeseburger Saturday Night! Starring Old Town Bar, with special guest stars, Kari and Britta and featuring The Ready For Prime Beef Player, Marty Wombacher. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Kari, Britta and Old Town bar!

******UPDATE: Kari just posted photos and a blog from last night! Check it out here: Leaf Girl.

Okay, as stated in the introduction, I've got special guests coming over tonight. Most of you know Kari from the comments section and from her blog, Leaf Girl. She's in town tonight and she's coming over with her sister Britta, who also has a blog, check it out: Justice Girl. And when special guests come over, we all know what that means...snack time! Here's my patented snackologist bowl.

Tonight I'm making a snack I just made up invented earlier in the day, it's called "Potato Chip Potpourri." I start with a base of Utz baked potato chips.

And now I add Lay's barbecue chips, Muncho's, Utz sour cream and onion, and the icing on this classic snack invention is...

A layer of Funyuns on the top! And, a gentle reminder, PLEASE, don't try this at home. I'm a board-certified snackologist with years of training under my  belt. Now we wait for the guests to arrive.

And through the magic of the internet, you'll never know that they were over 40 minutes late (but they did call to tell me.) And here they are, from left:  Britta and Kari! Welcome ladies and enjoy the snacks!

They don't drink booze, but they are serious Cokeheads! Couple of Kari's friends had made suggestions on where to go, but one involved something like a nine pound cheeseburger and sounded a little gross and the other suggestion was Jackson Hole. I know of Jackson Hole, but the name makes me think of Michael Jackson's sphincter, so we decided on...

Old Town Bar! Yeah, I know we went there last week, but Kari and Britta had never been and I wanted them to experience a real New York bar, so we here are!

Here's Kari and Britta taking shots of the bar. Check their blogs to see if the photos made it to the internet.

And we'll head to the back room. If you have a sense of deja vu looking at this photo, it means you probably watched David Letterman when he was on NBC, they filmed the opening sequence in here.

I knew what I wanted, so I left Kari and Britta to go take a table full of strangers photo.

Hello table of strangers! Cheers!

I also stopped in to visit our old friends, the giant urinals!

It's been a while since I took an obligatory bathroom mirror shot, so here we go!

And when I came back, Lucille was serving up our dinner! Lucille is Pamela's sister by the way. And Pamela was our lovely waitress last week for those of you keeping score. Hike!

Britta got the hot dog in honor of Biff! To quote Biff: "Ta-da!" (For those of you who don't know, Biff invented the phrase, "Ta-da!")

Kari got the Bison Burger...

And since I'm Mr. Redundant, I got the same meal I got last week. The food was delicious and before we knew it, it was time to go. And as we learned last week, when you're at Old Town, when you gotta go...

You gotta go! (Yeah, I'm going to milk this joke everytime I'm in here!) Goodnight everybody and we'll see you tomorrow after dark.

Cheeseburger rating:
See last week’s post.

Further reading: 365 Bars, Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York, Serious Eats and Wikipedia.

You might also like: Sam and Dave.

I'm a soul man.
I'm a soul man.

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May 8, 2011

Live, from New York, it’s Cheeseburger Saturday Night! With special guests, Jon Hammer, Karen McBurnie and Lex from Canada and featuring the ready for prime beef player, Marty Wombacher. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, all those people and Old Town Bar!

Okay, my friend Lex is in town from Canada (you may remember her from a special guest appearance when I went to Hurley's last year on the bar crawl) and she's coming over and I've also invited Karen and Jon, the masterminds behind, Grade "A" Fancy. They're coming over to my place for a beer or two and then we're headed over to Old Town Bar. And of course, since I have guests, it's time to make another award-winning snack mix! Tonight's snack is a pure popcorn mix, utilizing seven different brands found in far flung exotic popcorn palaces around the world. (Okay, really I got them at Duane Reade.)

And out comes my board-certified snackologist bowl.

I hate to be redundant, there's nothing worse than redundancy, I really hate it. Being redundant really cracks my nerves and sends my spine tingling. As you can see, I hate to be redundant...okay I love being redundant! I love being redundant. I love being redundant. I...okay, I'll stop. The point I'm going to be redundant about is to tell you, please DON'T try this at home unless you're a board-certified snackologist. And I really doubt you are, I mean you can say you are and I won't call you a liar, but I'll definitely think that that you are one. A liar that is, and not a board-certified snackologist like I am. Anyhoo, here we go, carefully adding the popcorn in small amounts, shifting and pruning the snack so it is positioned just so. It helps to be prudent, it really does.

And here's the finished popcorn snack, a beautiful thing!

Due to the fact that I was drinking and not thinking, I forgot to take photos of us enjoying the snacks, but remembered I needed to get a photo before we went to Old Town and here it is. My three guests, from left: Karen, Jon and Lex. They're holding up swizzle sticks that Karen and Jon brought for my collection.

Very cool! And check out the red one in the middle, an official Friars Club swizzle stick! A real gem for the collection, thanks, Karen and Jon!

And here we are at Old Town bar! I love that neon sign!

It's one of the best bars in America, I tell ya! If you don't believe me, just look at the front window.

It's crowded up front, but there's usually tables in the back, let's check it out.

And as sure as shit on a shingle, we got a cozy corner table. Here we are and our friendly and lovely waitress, Pamela got in the picture with us.

I wandered away from the table to get a long shot of the bar.

Here's a shot of Pamela in action.

Happy birthday!

And as we learned last year, all the best bars have tin ceilings!

Back at the table, Karen showed me her bracelet which at first I thought was adorned with subway tokens. Then she told me they were old tokens from Show World! Beyond cool!

The beers have kicked in and it's time for a bathroom break and a good excuse to take a picture of their famous massive urinals.

Here's a poster from when they had the 100th anniversary celebration honoring the urinals. I didn't go, but Jon did and from what he told me the party was a real pisser!

Back to the table and dinner is served! Karen got the sliced steak sandwich...

Refusing to conform to Cheeseburger Saturday Night, John got a cheeseless burger...

Lex got the turkey pastrami and fries...

And sensing that turkey was starting to trend at the table, I got the turkey burger with cheddar cheese. #turkey Everything was delicious and it was a great old time. And then before you know it, it was time to go.

And when you gotta go, you gotta go! Goodnight everybody and see you tomorrow after dark!

My Meal
The food at Old Town Bar is really good, a couple notches above your standard pub grub. I got the turkey burger and most turkey burgers have a tendency to be dry and bland, but not at Old Town. Mine was juicy and spicy and topped with cheddar cheese and big honking glop of their homemade mustard. Delicious! And the onion rings were great as well. Sadly, no one ordered the hot dogs, sorry, Biff, maybe next time.

Cheeseburger Rating
Three Wimpys

Old Town Bar
45 East 18th St.
212-529-6713

Further reading: Grade “A” Fancy, New York Magazine, Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York and Wall Street Journal.

You might also like: Toilet Paper, Rolling Paper and Paper Magazine.

Five Mothers
Moms Mabley
Mommie Dearest
Mark Mothersbaugh
Mothers of Invention
Motherfucker

You should never smoke in pajamas,
You might start a fire and burn your face.

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Bonus Photo!

Lex brought me flowers, which was really nice! Here they are and I thought I'd post a picture of them every week as they slowly wither and die. Lex also brought some bakery cookies which were delicious! Thanks, Lex, great to see you again!