Wednesday, December 30, 2009

I Could Have Been Killed

Well, actually, that would have been a stretch. However, there was an article in this morning's New York Daily News about a woman who claims she was injured when a moosehead fell off a wall and hit her in the head.

Duck, Duck, Moose!

Woman sues eatery after it falls, hits her



Now this happened in the White Slab Palace, a Scandinavian-themed bar on Delancey St. on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Interestingly, however, there was something strangely familiar about the picture of the "moose" that accompanied the article. Namely, it wasn't a moose, it was a caribou.

Barman, who has an amazing ability to relate obscure thoughts (but has a hard time following simple directions like put away the dishes), immediately thought of the Good Bar & Grill in Chinatown where he initially mistook a caribou head for a moosehead. And, as it turns out, Annika Sundvik, an art gallery owner, just opened White Slab Palace last February. But, wait, Annika Sundvik also owned, drumroll please, Good Bar & Grill. Sadly, the Good Bar & Grill has closed. To make room for condominiums, I do believe. Sad, so very sad.

But, the very caribou head that appears in my post (back in July of 2005) of the Good Bar & Grill was, apparently, relocated to the White Slab Palace where it, allegedly, fell on someone's head.

655) Good World Bar & Grill


If you missed the sign, and it is easy to do, here is a closer look.



This isn't the easiest place to find, but well worth the effort. It is in the part of Chinatown not as popular, on the east side of the Bowery. Canal Street, the main drag through Chinatown, takes a bit of a hook under the Manhattan Bridge and if you just follow it for about six blocks you come to Orchard. Take a right and go to Number 3 and there you are. This is the perfect place if drinking under the baleful eye of a dead caribou is what you crave. I know, I know, originally I said this was a moose but I was wrong, as many people pointed out to me.

Anna, The Live Bartender, And The Dead Caribou

A black stone topped bar with unusually high, and I do mean high, black metal barstools with black cloth seats. I would hate to fall of one of these babies, but the bartender said it has happened. Light yellow and green painted plaster walls with significant chippage. An old dark pea-soup green painted tin ceiling with exposed pipes for the sprinklers and wiring conduits. Gives the place kind of a funky look. Old greenish white globe lights hang over the bar and the flooring is old wood. There is just a minimal setup behind the bar but they have a surprisingly large beer selection written in fading chalk on the green wall behind the bar. How about a Harvistouns Old Engine Oil from Scotland? Sounds yummy, doesn't it?

They also have a very extensive wine selection and interesting items on the menu such as a rabbit and fois gras terrine with blueberry pickled bok choy as an appetizer. The place is owned by Swedes so they have four kinds of aquavit available and you can buy it by the bottle for only ninety-five bucks. No lutefisk though. Thank goodness for little things. Anna said they would have it but it just smelled up the place to badly. I know for a fact that is true. My father loved lutefisk and I would flee the house on the few occasions my mother prepared it.

Little round tables with orange and yellow chrome and plastic chairs are strewn about the place. Low blank benches with black cushions line the wall opposite the bar and small square tables sit in front of it. There are floor to ceiling windows in the front and a neat little back yard with picnic tables for outdoor eating.

I had a draft Bolleke. This is an everyday beer in Antwerp, easy to drink, and not too bitter, the red-brown ale has almost a cinnamon spice hint to its flavor. Actually, a bolleke is a bell-shaped high-stemmed glass that is used in Antwerp to serve any highly-fermented beer but generally means the beer that I had, which is actually a De Koninck. And, yes, it was served in the appropriate glass.

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