Halloween at Peter's

I guess I am a bit too old for trick and treating so I decided to visit one of my old haunts in the neighborhood, Peter's Waterfront Ale House. It does look a bit spooky at night.

Peter's at Night



Nothing to crazy going on here except for the usual eclectic menu that included a Buffalo Flank Steak Salad (that I ordered) and TexMex Turkey Meatloaf (that the Mysterious Chinese Woman ordered). Both were very good but man, you had to be ready for some heat if you ate the meatloaf. It started out hot from the first bite. Not burn your tongue hot, but a good mouth hot. Then it built from there. By the time you ate your third bite you were just beginning to feel the full extent of your first mouthful. It was just right, in a forehead and nose sweating kind of way.

Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale



I generally like Rogue products so I thought I would give this a shot. It is also known as Rogue Buckwheat Ale. Rogue has a line of "Signature" Morimoto products, having hooked up with Chef Masaharu Morimoto, who you may remember as one of the Iron Chefs.

Soba is just another name for buckwheat, which is not actually wheat, but a member of the rhubarb family and therefore a fruit. I keep telling you, read my blog and you learn something new every once in a blue moon (the second full moon in a single calendar month).

Morimoto Soba Ale is brewed with Roasted Buckwheat, Pale malt, Munich Malt, 13-17 Carastan Malt, and Crystal Hops. The flavor is toasty-nutty with medium body and good hop bitterness. I quite enjoyed it.

I also had a Brooklyn Blast Pale Ale. It is a fairly strong beer, 8% I believe, and is marketed as an IPA. This is, I think, unfortunate. My palate was prepared for the typical dry, hoppiness of most pale ales so I wasn't prepared for the somewhat heavy and sweet flavor that I got. It did have a hoppy back-taste, but somewhat subdued. Knowing what to expect I would order it again, but to me it was not an IPA.

(Note about Brooklyn Blast Pale Ale; that wasn't what I was served, even though it was what I ordered. I had a Brooklyn Blast Pale Ale at the Real Ale Festival at Brazen Head and it was very good indeed and tasted like an IPA should taste. Not sure what I actually drank here.)

Peter's has been covered by scaffolding for over a year now so I thought I would take a couple of shots of the place now standing naked in the sunlight. I think they still need to put up their sign.

Naked Peter





As usual at Peter's, we had a good time and headed back home before it got too spooky outside.

Up North

I haven't had much of a chance to post anything lately because I was up in Northern Minnesota visiting friends of mine who live on Dove Island in Rainy Lake. The closest town is Rainier and the closest "large" town is International Falls, population a little over 7000.



My friend, Bruce, had made some spruce beer and was eager for us to try it. He used the green tips of spruce branches either instead of or to supplement the hops. He should market it as Spruce from Bruce, or something like that.

Chris, Bruce, And Bar Man Sampling Spruce from Bruce



As you can see, the beer had a bit of a head on it, but it did settle down after about five minutes or so. We are enjoying our beer on Bruce's deck.

The weather was a bit mixed but we did have several very nice days and managed to do a bit of fishing. Chris caught this nice Northern, 31 inches and about 10 pounds.

Chris With His Catch



The Mysterious Chinese Woman busied herself in Bruce's basement kitchen and brewery but, alas, it was not to make trimmings for our fish dinner.

Mysterious Chinese Woman Busy In The Kitchen



After being whacked in the head with a hammer the fish made a brazen leap for freedom as it was being placed on a table by the lake to be filleted. Oh, what tales he will have to tell to his children, at least the ones he doesn't eat.

There was a bit of sad news though. You may recall my review of Sha Sha's from the last time that I visited up here. It was a very nice bar that had all kinds of hand-made furniture, a lovely bar, and all kinds of mounted trophy fish. Sadly, it burned down and the owners have put up a large tent and a Tiki bar to get them through the season.





As you can see, a Tiki bar on the Canadian border at the end of September doesn't do a lot of business.



Maybe the troll scared everyone away.



Well, it didn't scare everyone away.

Bruce and Bar Man at the Tiki Bar



The bartender said they lost a lot of business because women didn't like using the porta-potties that had been put up to replace the bathrooms that were destroyed in the fire. This also cut down on a lot of the bigger parties that they host during the year. They plan on being back in business next year though.

Sadly, even the chipmunk that guarded the old bar suffered in fire.

Here he is guarding the old bar:



Now he has a butt-crack, although it goes the wrong way.



One neat place that we went to for dinner was called the Y and it is out of town a bit at a place where the highways do form a bit of a Y.

The Y



It had kind of a typical "up North" look to it and a friendly crowd at the bar where I had a drink.

Bar Man at the Bar



The restaurant had recently changed hands and the new owner, Suzie, was very friendly. I certainly wish her and her husband well, the food was not only plentiful, but delicious. They do a great job smoking ribs and I would like to go back for their smoked prime ribs one day.

Suzie and Bar Man



Just remember, if you come up here for the fishing, you need a big worm to catch a big fish.

Bar Man, Big Worm, and Mysterious Chinese Woman



We had a wonderful trip and managed to watch The Twins tie with Detroit for the lead in their race for a division title. It was an extra innings game that I watched with my friends Rico and Sandy in the cozy Bob's Bar.

Sandy, Bar Man, and Rico (AKA Bob)



Sadly, I didn't have enough time to visit Nye's in Northeast Minneapolis. It was just selected by Esquire Magazine as the best bar in America. It wasn't one of my thousand bars either, although I have visited it many times when I was living in Minneapolis. Their ribs and sauerkraut is to die for but their specialty is a prime rib. Next time I am in Minneapolis I will visit it for sure and take plenty of pictures while I am there.

Help For Stacey

This is a bit of a different post for me, but a friend of mine asked me to put this up on the off chance that someone reading this might respond. Thank you.

Coney Island Cyclones

MurphGuide, one of my favorite sources of information about goings on in New York, offered a special deal today; a ticket to a Cyclones game, free beer, hotdogs, and hamburgers at Peggy O'Neill's before the game, and a free post-game drink to send you on your way afterwards. And all for just twenty bucks. Needless to say I couldn't pass up such a deal.

It is a bit late in the season so on a lovely Thursday afternoon there really wasn't much going on.



I headed towards the beach from the subway and was presented with this teaser.



Of course the answer was yes but, sadly, the place I wanted to stop into was closed.



I think the Freak Bar is still open on the weekends though so I may try again one of these days.

I headed to an old reliable though to find solace.



How much longer Rudy's will be here is questionable. All the land that it sits on has been sold and more than likely any new development will not take into consideration the historical significance of Rudy's. If it was up to me it would be declared a historical landmark.

I wanted to buy a tee-shirt in case the place wouldn't survive into next year. The manager Sam assured me that it would have at least one more year to go though. He was out of tee-shirts for sale but had an old one with some kind of a stain, mustard, probably, that he couldn't quite remove. He said I could have that tee-shirt for free.



Hey, this was better than just buying a souvenir, this had an authentic stain.

As I headed toward Peggy O'Neill's I passed by Cha Cha's and the Shoot The Freak game.



Cha Cha's is another favorite of mine but it too, is probably doomed. As I have said before, I love the concept of sitting in a dark dive bar having a beer and looking out on a beautiful beach.



After another quick beer I did head down to Peggy O'Neill's which is built into the Keyspan Stadium complex, so it is handy.



I got there a bit early so I stopped inside for a beer before the festivities begand to have a beer which was cheerfully served up by Paul, the bartender.



Soon enough though the free beer began to flow as well as the hotdogs and hamburgers. I had one of everything.



They even had live entertainment.



We headed into the game and it was a beautiful evening. You can see the old parachute jump that has been repainted and relit, but not reopened, in the background.



We stayed until the moon rose high before heading home.



The Cyclones were losing when we left but managed to pull out a win in extra innings and clinched a playoff berth. Maybe we should have stuck around.

On the way back to the subway Nathan's was tempting, but the temptation was resisted.



I didn't even stop in to pick up some hotdogs to go.



The subway terminal here has been totally remodeled and it looks more like you are entering an opera house than a subway station.



The subway home was almost empty, but very clean. The Mysterious Chinese Woman decided to ride with me instead of poofing tonight.



All in all it was a very fun night and I want to thank Sean Murphy for putting this together. Check out his website, a link is on my blog here, and try to attend some of the events he puts together. They are always a good time and usually a good deal as well.

Riverfront Park

Not too far from where I live is a hideously named neighborhood, DUMBO, that is fast becoming one of the most expensive in Brooklyn. DUMBO stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, a stretch if ever there was one. At least they have taken down the huge picture of an elephant that they once had up on the side of a building.

Not too far away, however, is a lovely little park that is, one day, going to be the north end of a larger park that will stretch all the way to Atlantic Avenue. It is really kind of nice to be so close to downtown Manhattan and still be able to experience a bit of wilderness. One of the entrances to this park requires a bit of faith to walk through, however. It kind of looks like you are walking down a somewhat dangerous alley.



However, the views are well worth it.



There is even a little beach where you could have a picnic. I wouldn't recommend swimming though, the East River is notorious for its dangerous currents.



There are a number of interesting sculptures in the park which is kind of a plus and a minus. Some of them complement the natural setting such as this one.



Some of them, though, just seem a bit out of place.



And some seem downright out of place and are more of an eyesore than anything else. In a city where the streets are full of trash, do we really need to see a pile of discarded sinks in a lovely little park?



And when I came upon this I actually thought it was just a pile of refuse that had been raked up and was awaiting removal.



But no, it actually is a "work of art." At least in someone's eyes.



I guess this one must be a commentary on vandalism. It looks like someone knocked down and carried off most of the statue.



Walking home I caught this interesting juxtaposition, the massive Brooklyn Bridge and a small lighthouse that now houses an ice-cream shop.



A little bit further along the stretch that will one day be a part of the larger park I came across this.



In a way it is kind of sad. The year after the World Trade Center came down this field was planted with two patches of sunflowers in the shape of the fallen towers. The sign proudly proclaims "After Winter, Spring." Sadly, interest didn't last long and after the first year the field has been taken over by weeds. It would, in my opinion, be better to take down the sign because it certainly seems inappropriate now, all things considered.

Heartland Brewery, HUH?!

Things that make you scratch your head. In today's Daily News in another article about how New York is going to support New York Breweries, there is a section titled "On Tap In The City." It says "Here is a look at some of the top breweries in the city." They list, appropriately enough, Brooklyn Brewery, Chelsea Brewery, Sixpoint Craft Ales, and Greenpoint Beerworks Inc.

However, and this is the kicker, they also list Heartland Brewery with the comment "No longer produce their own beers, buy it from Greenpoint Brewery." Now, if they don't produce any beer but buy it, they certainly aren't a brewery, so why is it even listed? Could it be because they are a co-sponsor of the New York Beerfest this Friday that kicks off the launch of this campaign?