Bar Tuesdays: Season Two - Week Two

Season Two, Week Two: Norman’s Restaurant & Tap/Greenwich Hotel

We hit two bars last night, one being our usual dive bar and the other being its somewhat nicer companion across the street. Our first stop was the Official Bar from our list, Norman’s Restaurant & Tap:

What you can’t tell from that picture is that this place is like a small alley in this quaint and cute little town. The town is full of snooty snoots, yet there is Norman’s, just sitting there being pretty awesome. The place is not much bigger than the pool table that sits inside, which isn’t helped by the wood paneling everywhere. I think it’s the smallest place we’ve been so far, and they only had about 10-12 bar stools (some taped up with duct tape) and chairs in the whole place. Lucy and I enjoyed the stray bench while we soaked up the atmosphere, which was full of wood paneling, Halloween decorations, and 3 random pictures of Madonna, John Lennon and J. Lo (behind us):

I must say, the place was all kinds of decorated for Halloween – it was very nice. Not only were there pictures and trinkets behind us on the wall, but there were also windsocks and decorations hanging from the ceiling and taped to the mirror on one of the other walls:

There was also a sign up that was advertising a Halloween costume contest that is taking place next “Wenesday.” I may need to go to that. There was also a sign advertising wieners until midnight, but I think I’ll let someone else partake of that offer.

Paul and I took advantage of the 2 barstools outside at one point, where he enjoyed the seashell ashtray on the table:

What Paul did not enjoy, however, was the sink in the bathroom, although you would never know it from this picture I took of him right after he came out:

He was explaining that the sink “went off like a rocket” and sprayed water spots all over the front of his pants. The bathrooms (while quite clean and unremarkable) were VERY small, so he ended up in a hunched position with his knees against the door while he tried to use his shirt as a towel. That’s him demonstrating it as he was regaling us with the story. Frito added that there was a pube on the toilet in the men’s room, which is all I needed to hear about that. Ew.

Aside from that, Norman’s was a nice little hideaway, but we got a little antsy after a while as we ended up being the only people in the bar most of the night. We need to mingle with the locals! There were two people in there when we came in, and a few others trickled in and out throughout the course of the night, but there were no more than 3 other people in there with us the whole night. Most people that came in were going back and forth between Norman’s and the bar across the street, so after a while the sounds of the open mic night across the street drew us over there as well. Behold, the Greenwich Hotel:

We don’t think this place is actually a hotel anymore. It was at one time, but we think it is more just a bar now with a few efficiency apartments upstairs that are rented by the week. The bar part is all redone and is pretty nice, although we were pleased to see that it was full of typical Bar Tuesday bar-type patrons. These are our people, man! One particularly drunk man who was singing when we came in approached us later in the night and announced that he had just buried his mother. (Paul, after he left: “Is that the same guy who announced that to me at The Whalen a couple of months ago?”) Then he asked if we had some quarters that we could throw his way so he could buy a drink. (Lucy, after he left: “Did he just try to panhandle us?”) He came back a little while later and stopped to tie his still tied shoelace, saying, “I am soooo drunk tonight, but I’m allowed to be,” before sauntering off yet again. Lovable locals rule.

When we first arrived at the bar, we sat in the main bar for a few because the next open mic singer was someone that Frito and Paul knew from work. While sitting at the bar, we perused their array of snack choices, as I am all about the Bar Tuesday snacks. I opted for my usual choice of chips, while Frito, Paul and Lucy pondered the Slim Jims, the can of octopus in hot sauce (?!) and various nuts. Also on hand were Rolaids, which would probably be needed after eating any of those things. In the end, Frito talked them all into trying these packaged stuffed pepper things. I still don’t know how he talked them into it, but here they are with their purchases:

Paul looks so happy there – little did he know how he would feel about a minute later after shoving the whole thing in his mouth:

The best part about it all is that it took Paul about five minutes to actually choke the thing down, so I enjoyed the variety of pained faces and grunts that he made while trying to do so. At one point I started crying from laughing so hard. Lucy said that she enjoyed hers until she bit into the middle part, which tasted and felt like sand. She just kept yelling, “I’m eating dirt!” Frito remained mum through all of this, but his slightly grimacing face told us all we needed to know. As for me and Brent? We just stood there and enjoyed the show:

Did I look that short a couple of years ago when we dated? Criminy.

After the Pepper Incident, we moved things into the Game Room which was located on the other side of the bar, and that’s when the hotel turned from “this place is pretty nice” to “Oh my God, this place is awesome.” The Game Room? Photo Shoot Paradise. We were initially excited about the random padded wall:

But then we saw a random velvet chair and old school TV in the corner and we just started getting silly. We decided to do a Photo Series entitled “Velvet Chair, Old TV & Cigarette.” Do enjoy:

I can’t even handle that picture of Paul – it makes me laugh like a moron every time I see it. And here is Lucy doing her best Top Model elongate-the-leg shot:

After all of that, Paul went off in search of the men’s room, which ended up being in another area of the building. When he came back, he informed us that we needed to follow him and bring the camera because he had just been playing around at the old front desk of the hotel. That’s all we needed to hear, so off we went.

And now, I present our second photo series, entitled “Working Stiffs: Our Jobs at the Hotel (which is really not a hotel anymore, but may have one or two people living upstairs because there is real mail in one of the slots)”:

I call this one “How Many Sockgirlies Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?”

There was also some sort of a bar area near the desk, but we didn’t get to explore that due to too many people coming in and out of the game room and looking at us a little funny. Still, we had a ball. Any bar that has secret little places like that where we can goof around and make asses out of ourselves pretty much rules. Frito called me the next day and said, “I had so much fun last night – that hotel place was awesome.” Even though there were only five of us there this week, the crew we had was full of people who can make fun out of almost anyplace we go. That’s what Bar Tuesdays are all about.

Plus, how can you not have fun at a place with padded walls, a velvet armchair and an old hotel desk area that looked straight out of The Shining?

Jukebox Report: None at Norman’s, but they did have Sirius Satellite Radio playing (Frito: “Really?!”) and the bartender offered to put on any channel we wanted. The Hotel Greenwich had what looked like an older CD jukebox, but we were unable to get to it or use it because it was blocked by the open mic performers. Next time.

Video Game Report: The Greenwich Hotel was sadly lacking any video games (but made up for it with an old dusty, piano in another room that we didn’t get to explore…yet), but Norman’s had the newly popular touch screen game:

Those are the new Golden Tees.