NY Barfly

Vine Talk, A New Show Starring Stanley Tucci, To Debut in Spring

Winos, get excited! Stanley Tucci is bringing a new show about vino to public TV this spring. OK, the only thing that really qualifies the actor to host a show like this is the fact that he starred in Big Night and Julie & Julia, but did we mention they will be talking about wine! Each episode will focus on a specific wine-growing region, with info about the provenance and guest panels that include folks like Patricia Clarkson and Daniel Boulud (yes, we’d like to see the two of them get drunk together). Take a look at a preview montage in the above video and get your corkscrew ready for the spring debut – we’ll pass on air date deets when we have them!

Hail Mary, It's 2Pac: The Musical!

Every once in a while, a cultural event comes along that makes us reconsider our view that the only interesting thing to do in life is drink. Ladies and gentlemen, behold one such event: 2Pac – The Musical!

Using Tupac’s most popular songs, this jukebox musical parody tells the story of two mall food-court employees and their yearning desire to head to California.

Sounds kind of like Mamma Mia! with a lot more rapping (and hopefully a good smattering of bitches and guns).

The show is going on at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre on 26^th street and reservations can be made here. The next show is on Friday, Jan 22^nd at 8PM and the one after that is on the 29^th.

Luckily, they serve cheap drinks at the theater. That makes two interesting things to do!

A Toast to Henry Hudson (he's, like, the Dude).

This year marks the 400^th Anniversary of Henry Hudson’s first exploration of the Hudson River and New York Harbor. Why should you care? Drinks!

The Museum of the City of New York is playing host to an exhibit called Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: The Worlds of Henry Hudson. As you may remember, the museum also hosts a speakeasy on their patio. This Wed., the 26^th, (today!) marks the spot's last speakeasy of the summer. Head over, get a little tipsy, and see the exhibit. You can learn about Henry Hudson’s voyage across the Atlantic as you take your own voyage into drunkenness. If you can’t make the speakeasy, the exhibit is open until the end of September. You’ll just have to get a little tipsy on the street before you go, much like the original Indians who lived on Manhattan.

If “learning about history” is not really your thing, cocktail bar PDT is serving a libation to honor the Hudson Anniversary. Their Henry Hudson was created by Jim Meehan and Gerry Corcoran, and will be served throughout the month of September. We posted the recipe below so you can do a little exploring on your own (i.e. chart the course to your liquor store and find those ingredients).

Hudson’s voyage will be celebrated with events through the end of the month, you can get more info here: www.henryhudson400.com. Still wondering why Hudson is the Dude? Just think, what if Manhattan were first discovered by the Italians? Then this whole place would be like the Island we call Staten.

Henry Hudson

1.5 oz. Bols Genever

1 oz. Channing Daughters Scuttlehole Chardonnay (no oak)

.5 oz. Simple Syrup

.5 oz. Lemon Juice

.25 oz. Van Oosten Batavia Arrack

Add everything to a mixing glass, then add ice

Stir and strain into a chilled old fashioned glass filled with one large cube

Garnish with freshly grated nutmeg

Wine Comes to Reality TV. We'll Take a Glass.

Gotta love the PBS reality shows. Antiques Roadshow has always been a favorite (what’s lamer: tuning in every week, or being upset because we already saw the episode twice?) Frontier House kicks our city dwelling butt. Now, it's time for a PBS style reality show about one of our favorite subjects: wine.

We checked out The Winemakers at a recent preview event (we were also sure to investigate the freely flowing wine). An Apprentice-esque exercise in all things vino. The six 30-minute episodes follow a group of 12 spirited wine enthusiasts from various walks of life, including law, teaching, sales, retail and marketing—as they compete for the prize of launching their own wine label. The series, which was shot in Paso Robles, Calif., chronicles tense wine-making challenges, as well as the inevitable contestant eliminations.

During the sneak peek, we saw the wine-making contestants frantically push crates, spill wine everywhere, step on grapes, and drink a little bit as well. Should make for an interesting show, especially because you can drink along with it (we always felt strange about having a bottle of Syrah when watching Big Brother, the pairing never quite fit).

We didn’t get to watch a full episode yet, so we don’t know the vino version of Trump's famous line. Maybe “You’re Fired!” will be replaced with “You’re Cut Off!”, “It’s Only Miller Light for You!”, or “You’re Corked!”. We’ll have to tune in and find out.

Casting Call: Bartenders for New Reality Show. Show Them Your Best Vodka Tonic.

We doubt it’s going to be the next Top Chef, or even on par with LXTV’s On the Rocks bartending challenge, but the Fine Living Network is looking for camera ready bartenders. A great show about life behind the bar is long past due. Could this be it? Check out the casting notice below:

Great bartenders have to employ a variety of skills – from mixologist to psychologist - and now Fine Living Network wants bartenders in the New York metro area to put those skills to the test! We’re looking for bartenders in the New York/Tri-State area to feature on “Bartender Wars,” an upcoming FLN series where they are the stars of the show.

Participating bartenders will go head to head with each other and frequently enlist their patrons in a variety of bartending challenges, from the simple to the outlandish.

If you know a bartender – man or woman – who’s sexy, confident, with a great personality and who would be up for the challenge, be it competing for the biggest tips, flirting for the most phone numbers or playing matchmaker for customers, we want to hear about them.

It’s “Candid Camera” at your favorite watering hole with a lot of liquid courage thrown in!

We hope this show will portray the true hardships of bartending, like counting a $7,500 cash out (all those dollar bills!) at 4:30 am while drunk off your ass on Jameson’s.

If you’re interested in showing them your talents, you can get more information here: http://www.gotcast.com/casting-calls/Bartender-Wars/53827. Even a sip of Top Chef fame would be worth it. Did we mention – Hosea and Leah were spotted drunkenly making out, like, everywhere?

Review: Martinis at The Morgan Library's Free Friday

Reason #44 that we love New York: even the culture comes with a side of gin. On a recent Friday evening, we stopped into The Morgan Library for a night of free events. From 7 – 9 pm, this small but classy museum waives admission and encourages the masses to check out the early 20^th Century digs of J.P. Morgan. In addition to a series of rotating exhibits (one on book binding, and another on small landscapes when we visited), and guided tours, the museum lets you visit Morgan’s opulent study and library.

We could tell that Morgan was our type of guy. It’s easy to imagine him sitting on one of the study’s red velvet chairs, drinking a gigantic goblet of scotch while playing solitaire in front of his epic fireplace. After his third cocktail, he’d surely amble over to his gorgeous three story library to page through what was one of the lushest collections in the world. We’re no expert, but we think those little brown spots on the original Gutenberg Bible must have dripped from old J.P.’s glass.

The museum is small enough to take in quickly, which left plenty of room for our favorite part of the evening: lounging in the small cafe, listening to a jazz trio, and enjoying a martini. The lounge, like the museum, is tiny, but we think it would make Morgan proud. They may not have a lot to offer, but they sure know class. We enjoyed a Hendrick’s Gin Martini as our companion sipped on their Blood Orange Cocktail. Both cost only $10.

The conversation skipped from art, to wealth, to 19^th Century history. Wow, at The Morgan Library, we suddenly weren’t just pretending to be a sophisticate. We plan on making our trips to this little cafe a regular thing. Maybe we can learn a lesson from Morgan’s wealth, like how to leverage priceless tapestries for better interest rates on our credit cards.

The Library is located at 225 Madison Avenue. It’s free every Friday from 7 – 9 PM.

Review: Free Fridays at The Morgan Library

Cocktail Options – 4 olives – It’s not the most extensive list in town, but we were impressed with the variety offered at what is basically a concessions stand. At $10 a pop, the drink prices rival many of the neighborhood’s less posh happy hours.

Jazz and Conversation – 5 olives – Leave it to New York to liquor up even its most upscale cultural institutions. It was hard not to enjoy the music after a few sips of that drink. It’s a great place for a date, especially if you are trying to convince your partner that you’re not a complete derelict.

Opulence and Wealth – 3 olives – We suspect J.P. never heard the word “recession”. It’s not that he didn’t go through bad times, it’s that he was able to give everyone around him a bag of money if they agreed not to say the word.

Dive Bar Documentary: A Movie About Siberia is (Hopefully) on the Way

There are dives and there are dives. What separates the two (beyond font choice)? If you ever went to Hells Kitchen bar Siberia when it was still open, we wouldn’t need to answer that question. Holes in the floor, unspeakable things going on in the basement, cheap shots of whiskey served in little plastic cups – it had all the things that make a dive bar truly special. For a bar like this, the letters in dive aren’t just italicized. They’re drunk off their asses.

Grub Street has news that a documentary about Siberia has been shopping itself around on the film festival circuit. We hope that the movie sees the light of day soon. Word has it that bar owner Tracey Westmoreland (pictured, via Grub Street) is looking to re-open in a new location. It would be fun if we could get a nostalgic glimpse of divey smut in a darkened theater before heading to the grimy new bar.

Firsthand accounts of the flick show that it’s sure to leave you with a hangover:

The scenes are filled with close-up rants, dirty dancing, beer-bottle bowling, mysterious fires, and a guy swinging from the toilet chained to the ceiling.

Could the film live up to the original locale? Well, maybe. They’d have to release a case of rats into the theater and have a free keg, but we still think it would lack a bit of divey magic. Yes, even if there were drugs in the bathroom and pickpockets roaming the crowd. That true dive sparkle is just impossible to recreate.

Cultural Cavorts: All Aboard the USS Intrepid

Barfly is always excited by a good nautical adventure. We find that a few days at sea help with the never ending question of existence: how to overcome our hangover. Recently, we decided to hop on board the USS Intrepid. How exciting to explore the Air Sea Space Museum, a gigantic aircraft carrier with one of the most active warfare records in history. A survivor of multiple injuries during its 1943-1974 life span, we were ready to take inspiration from the Navy legend on how to continue to survive multiple hangovers. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday…yikes! How would we continue to live through such great battles?

The USS Intrepid lived through five kamikaze attacks (amongst other damages) and continuously went back into the breach. How similar we were to this ship. Five days of a hangover and we continuously revisited the alcohol war zone. Perhaps the stellar ship achieved such success with a bit of luck from its sponsor, who christened the 27,000+ ton carrier by smashing a bottle of champagne over the deck. That sounds like a hangover cure to Barfly! Off we went, bottle of Veuve stashed in our pants ready to celebrate all of the Intrepid’s notable victories in history.

With very heavy security to pass upon entrance to the Intrepid we thought the burly security men would understand why it was so important for Barfly to celebrate cultural cavorts with a bottle of bubbly this weekend. With a cheers and a wink we began to make our way into the opening exhibit to admire the photo of the boat being christened. Unfortunately we did so with our bottle of bubbly left safely behind the security desk. Truly a moment to be admired, we stared into the photo and imagined the ceremony could only be a significant contributor to the ship’s many lives that we were about to experience.

We tromped up steep, frightful stairs leading us up to deck after deck on the mammoth ship. No wonder they insisted we leave the bubbly behind. These stairs were a drunk trap if we ever saw one! Spanning World War II and Vietnam we read old letters from various members of the crew and peeked into bunkers and control rooms. Up some more and we read logs of the boat entering and departing international ports and viewed photos of it hard at work: carrying up to 90 aircrafts, seeing off spacecrafts and monitoring Soviet submarines.

Awed, we couldn’t imagine living through so much drama. We supposed it could compare to the time we disappeared on a 2 week bender only to find ourselves pantless on 43^rd and 12^th one sunny fall afternoon. Perhaps we landed at that intersection because we were looking to climb aboard the Intrepid for some inspiration at that time as well. All we know is that day we showered and napped in preparation for an all night rave. Back into battle indeed, and we live to speak about it with our pants on.

The One and Only Thing to do on Valentine's Day

Alright folks, Valentine’s week at NYBarfly is coming to a close. We’ve given you plenty of suggestions, and frankly we feel a bit nauseous from all of the hearts and flowers (no one told us that we shouldn’t eat the roses). We received an email today: “Barfly, what are you going to do on Valentine’s day? Won’t you be mine?”

Sorry kid – we’ve got plans. We’re going to wash the romance (not to mention the thorns) out of our mouth with a visit to our favorite theatrical event. NYC Comedy Troupe FUCT is up this month with a new act: Show Me on the Doll. You’re welcome to join us, but we will not call you our Valentine. We’ll call you that strange person who followed us to the theater.

Judging by their previous shenanigans, we think we’re in for a doozie, and we don’t mean a great prix-fixe meal. FUCT promises stunts, acrobatics, nudity, vulgarity, and (most importantly) free beer. The sweethearts in their drunken audience are our Valentines this year. Stop by and get your buzz on. There are plenty of  prix-fixes to enjoy throughout the year. This will be a Valentine’s date to remember (we mentioned the nudity and free beer, right?).

You can catch FUCT: Show Me on the Doll at the Cherry Pit (155 Bank Street), and tickets are available at www.fuctnyc.com for $20. If you are too busy “loving” someone on V-day (barf – get over it already!) the show runs through the end of February on Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays at 9.

LXTV Gets Thrown On the Rocks in Manhattan Court

We’ve been following LXTV’s On The Rocks, a reality web show about the search for America’s Top Bartender (aka a reality show made for people like us). We were all set to check in on the latest webisode, when an interesting tip landed in our inbox. Turns out the show isn’t making everyone drunk and happy. Take a peek:

A Charity Group claims that Absolut and Pernod stole its idea for a "Charity Mixology" reality TV show and broadcast the show as their own creation, "On the Rocks: The Search for America's Top Bartender," harming nonprofit organizations in the process.

Scott Talbot, an Australian entrepreneur who is associated with the charity, has filed a lawsuit in Manhattan. In the spirit of the show, we suggest the two parties settle this the old way: with a barroom brawl.

We’ll keep an eye on developments in the case, but on first glance we are dubious. A Top Chef for bartenders surely was thrown around in many TV think tanks before On the Rocks made it to air (well, web). It doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch from what’s on 100 other channels, top this / best that / True Life I Suck.

We will check in with LXTV in the next few days. In other news, we are waiting for the producer who will come along and develop America’s Most Charming Barfly. Any takers?