Thursday, April 21, 2005

Greenwich Again

Another fine day and I left a bit later so I could begin to hit bars that don't open until late afternoon. I will probably be doing this on a more regular basis, at least a couple of times a week now that the weather is nicer and the days are longer.

425) Fat Black Pussycat

A strange name for a bar on 130 West 3rd Street, kind of by the intersection of MacDougal and 6th. I knew I would like this place when I noticed that Akira Kurosawa's classic 1954 film "Seven Samurai" was playing on two of its televisions. A dark, narrow, but deep place. An old beat-up bar with a black linoleum topped foot rest. Bar chairs, some with cushions, some without. Mirrors behind the bar with tiered shelving for the liquor. Above the mirror is a collection of neon beer signs and a large clock with a fat black cat on its illuminated face. A very nice back room with a pool table and two dart boards. Pretty much of a dark wood interior with several lights hanging from the ceiling, each different than the other but old looking and quite nice. Large school room type lights hang above the bar. A wide assortment of framed mirrors hang on the wall behind the bar chairs.

Keeping with the them of the name I had a bottle of Magic Hat Fat Angel.

426) The Town Tavern

Just down West 3rd Street a few doors from Fat Black Cat is this wider, lighter establishment. It is much louder too. Maybe this is because the pizza place like dining area in front of the bar was occupied by several families with young children. It looked like some kind of a party was going on. The brick and plaster walls kind of amplified the noise. The bar had a not very well fitting copper top tht looked like it was just slapped on the top of an old wood bar. A bar rail that looked like it was made of old plumbing pipes. The brick wall behind the bar feature a couple of mirrors in antiqued frames on either side of a large flat screen television showing the Mets/Marlins game. A decent selection of liquors sit on the tiered shelves underneath the mirrors and television. The place was really packing up when I left at about 6:45 P.M.

I had a Sam Adam's Boston Lager.

427) Slane

This newer looking place is on 102 McDougal. It is a L shaped bar in what appears to be an L shaped place. Large glass windows and glass doors dominate the narrow front on McDougal. The short side of the bar is in front of the windows with the longer side extending down the relatively deep, and narrow, side of the place. A nice dark wood top to the bar that has a front made up of closely packed round ceramic pieces set in cement and a wooden foot rail. Lights with what looks like wrap-around sugar candy hang above the bar. The coloring is primarily light pea soup green with dark blue/green trim. Interestingly enough, the fixture for the draft beer hangs down from the ceiling instead of sticking up from the bar. I don't think I have ever seen that before. There is kind of an Asian style decor behind the bar with mirrors, bottles, and little teddy bears wearing green vests and green bowlers. They are probably still there from St. Patricks day, lost in a drunken haze. The wall on the long side of the place is old, light, brick.

Despite the interesting beer dispensing device I decided to have a Tanqueray and Tonic.

That was it, 3 for the day, 427 for the year, 573 left to go.

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