Across The Bridge

It wasn't too bad a day out. Kind of chilly, but much warmer than it has been. I decided to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge into downtown Manhattan and hit a few bars.

162) The Beekman Pub

This place, on Beekman Street, is about one block from City Hall in downtown Manhattan. About a four or five block walk once you come off the Brooklyn Bridge. It is an old Irish pub that has been around since at least the 1920's. It is a very nice place with a fairly large dining area as well. The bar has nice stained-glass lamps overhead. There is a framed Kevin McHale jersey that he signed hanging in a prominent position by the door. I mentioned it to the bartender, I am from Minnesota and graduated from the University of Minnesota so am a big McHale fan. It turned out that the bartender had also been in Minnesota for a few months. In 1977 he tried out for the U of M hockey team as a walk-on but didn't make it. We chatted about Minnesota, hockey, Herb Brooks, and other Minnesota trivia. The place was pretty packed with people grabbing hamburgers and such for lunch.

I had a Highlander Scottish Ale

163) Ryan's Sports Bar

This place was kind of like a mini-Beekman Pub at 46 Gold Street between Fulton Street and Eden's Alley. It also was very crowded and noisy and was a very nice, cosy type of place. Lot's of TVs about the place showing ESPN and ESPN 2. I fixated on a woman's 9 ball tournament. They must get a lot of customers from Verizon in here because there were several "Keep Verizon Jobs Here" stickers about the place.

I had a Murphy's Irish Stout

164) Reds

I headed along the East River and just at the edge of the touristy area (well, alright, just inside) was Reds. Kind of a strange place in a way, the longer I was there the more it grew on me. It had a tin, or tin-like covered bar and floor to ceiling windows wall-to-wall. This made it quite bright. Had a vaguely Mexican look to it with sombreros behind the bar and large, mural-like pictures of Mexican Indians on the walls upstairs. The large overhead lights looked like something out of Star Wars, like large bowls with vaguely alien life-forms trying to escape. Not sure what that was all about. The TV was over the frozen-margarita machine at the end of the bar where I was sitting so I watched ESPN greates Superbowl moments while eating corn chips and a real nice and quite spicy salsa.

I had a Dewars and soda

165) Fraunces Tavern

Heading south back towards the area that I was at yesterday I stopped in at this venerable institution. This place is at 54 Pearl Street right on the corner of Broad Street. For those of you interested in such things, it is where George Washington gave his farewell address to the officers of the Continental Army in 1783. There is, or was, an attached museum at one time. The bar is to the left when you enter and the eating area is to the right. I headed left. Although this place could easily have become a tourist trap, it most decidedly didn't and is pretty much of a local watering hole for those that work in the area. It gets especially lively later at night. There are a few artifacts, or replicas of artifacts (the copy of the Constitution is probably not real) strewn about but nothing overbearing. A decent enough place to pop into for a quick libation.

I had a Dewars and soda and headed to the subway and home.

I probably am going to take the weekend off as far as my odyssey is concerned. A bit ironic in away, a lot of people only drink on the weekends. I have some things that I need to do on Saturday and then I am going to a Superbowl party on Sunday. I am sure there will be a bit of drinking, but nothing that can be counted, unless I can convince people to watch the game at a sports bar. Pretty unlikely though.

Well here we go again, 835 left to go. Still a lot, but certainly looks a lot more manageable than it did a mere month ago.