Pub Crawl August 7, 2004 ~ 12:10 pm
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closedYesterday turned into an amm-out pub crawl. We started at 2:30 when we arrived at McSorleys, which is a New York institution. This place has been in operation since the mid-1800s, and looks it. There’s sawdust on the floor, the bar itself has been worn away, and our waiter looked like he was at least 90. Still liked to get a feel, though. Everytime he came over to see if we wanted another round, he rubbed my back. Fun times. Oh, and if you want McSorley’s ale (and really, who goes to McSorleys and gets a Bud?), you just tell them “Light” or “Dark”. And they bring them to you. In twos. Two little beer steins at a time. Price of 14 of those (4 each for Jordana, Tony, and I, 2 for Jordana’s husband Thabiso, who joined us late): $28. I love McSorleys. Quote of the afternoon: “Oh, they come in twos?” from Thabs when his beers arrived.
After that, we headed over to a nice little garden spot two blocks down because it was gorgeous out and we had to be outside. Shrimp Scampi Linguine for me, and I took a time out from the beers. I figured if there was any way I was actually going to be awake for the play we were seeing later, I had to pace myself. Everyone else continued to drink, but kept it down to a beer each. Finished off the meal with mudd cake and key lime pie, and coffee for the drinkers. At this point, Thabs left us to go see another friend who was leaving for South Africa.
We moved on to a Barnes & Noble where I forced Tony to buy Pete Hamill’s book Forever for his road trip reading. Everyone who has the slightest interest in the history of Manhattan should read it. Because it’s that good. Before heading uptown, I took this picture of the weird creature outside a sushi place on St. Marks. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but am too lazy to go back through my posts. So, enjoy, and try to figure out what the hell it is:
Then we went uptown, picked up our tickets, and went to Ye Olde Tripple Inn. I only mention the name of this place because Rick called while we were there and when I told him where we were, he said “I know where that is! My old roommate used to hang out there. And my favorite pizza place is next door!” (and indeed it is, I’ve been dragged to Luigi’s before.) So at the Inn, we had a margarita. But were pretty sober, because we were about to sit through two and a half hours of Caroline, or Change.
Let me just say one thing about Caroline out of the many things that occurred to me last night (and Tony, J, and I spent a loooong time talking about the merits and faults of the piece afterwards, concluding that the faults way outnumbered the merits). Tony Kushner is a wonderful playwright. This isn’t his best play. This was someone saying “Tony, we’re sorry you didn’t get all the kudos you deserved for Angels in America the first time around, here, try again and we’ll give you all the exposure you need.” The play had its moments, but overall, we weren’t that impressed.
Finally, we ended up at McHale’s for some of the best burgers in the city. And two more ciders/beers. After a lot of laughing and conversation ranging from deer hunting to genetic modification to Nat King Cole, we realized it was 1 AM, and called it quits. Tony took a taxi to the Ferry, J and I walked to the F train, which took for-fucking-ever just like it always does, and I walked through my front door at about 2 this morning. 12 hours of boozing and hanging out with my friends. Good times.
