Friday, May 7, 2010

THE DAY AFTER...

Cinco de Mayo pretty much ended up the way I thought it would.. a total shitshow. Folks partying until the wee hours of the morning; bars and bartenders feeling happy with the evening's take. What would the day after bring?

Normally on a hard-partying holiday (and again, I use the term loosely), the day after tends to be a major slowdown. Folks are either hungover, broke from being the big spender, or a combination of the two.

However, things worked out well for the bar on Thursday night. For starters, we had the doubleheader NHL playoff games featuring Montreal/Pittsburgh and Detroit/San Jose. The majority of the folks there for the games were fans of the Montreal Canadiens and they were pretty hardcore.

The Detroit/San Jose game was over as soon as it started as Jonhan Franzen scored a mind-numbing four goals to help the Red Wings stave off defeat and an embarrassing sweep by the Sharks with a 7-1 victory.

In the other matchup of the night, the Canadiens came back from one goal down to pull off an improbable 3-2 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champions, evening the series, much to the delight of the fans in the house...









As the bar began to clear out after the celebration, another group of people began making their way in. A group of NYU students, blowing off steam after finals and getting ready for graduation... this night just got interesting.







It was a nice bounceback from a chaotic Wednesday.

ON ANOTHER NOTE... If anyone out there does not find the show "Community" as funny as I do, they quite frankly, you have issues. Seriously. It's that hilarious.

THIS WEEKEND: Yankees vs Red Sox kicks off a great weekend in sports; The Mets face off against the visiting San Francisco Giants. The NBA/NHL playoffs continue, while Tiger Woods tries to continue his comeback in The Players Championship. And finally, UFC 113 takes place on Saturday night. The PPV event will be televised live at the bar (no cover charge), after Game 5 between PITTSBURGH and MONTREAL.

It will be a great weekend and as always, you are welcome to join us! Keep tabs on our website for all events and drink specials!

On a final note, while things around here are hectic as ever, I want to take a moment to remember my brother Joseph, who moved on to a better place seven years ago today. He's always in my thoughts and in my heart. R.I.P....




That's It. That's All I Got.

CINCO de MAYO IN PICTURES

Here are some highlights from Cinco de Mayo at THIRD and LONG! Enjoy!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

CINCO DE CRAZY!

Sorry again for the late post; Got pressed into service last night and it turned out to be a late one. So I'm scrambling now to play catch up. My bad.

Cinco de Mayo turned out to be a raucous affair as 3rd Avenue was filled with spirited revelers, celebrating what most thought to be Mexico's Independence (which is ironic, considering all of the brouhaha going on in Arizona).

We got slammed with revelers early on, with the bar getting packed by 6:30pm. This presented us with an unusual situation. Would we be able to pull off our weekly Pub Trivia event with this many people? Folks were kicking back buckets of SOL like it was going out of style (we sold out in an hour and a half), as well as the usual suspects of Cinco de Mayo, including Coronas, Patron shots and tequila poppers.

Pub Trivia ended up going off as planned and aside from the occasional jackass who thought he was being funny by shouting out answers (he found out quickly that it didn't go over well), it went well. It was a good thing too as it exposed out weekly event to a lot of new faces and that's what we want to see: new blood. Makes for good competition for the regulars.

Of course, with the drunken debauchery that comes with Cinco de Mayo comes the random hook-ups. There were plenty of those. The one odd hook-up I noticed came towards the end of the night, where this fifty-odd-year old man, dressed in a white suit jacket and black slacks (obviously coming from a party), staggered into the bar with a young, nubile blonde, easily more than half his age. They made their way towards the back end of the bar (by the stairwell) and proceeded to spend the next thirty minutes making out like two teenagers at a drive-in movie. At one point, the old stud propped his foot practically on top of the bar and began grinding this girl like a porn star, to the dismay of the shocked patrons sitting nearby.

After a few minutes of this, they finally came up for air, paid for their drinks and staggered out and made their way across the street, where they continued their dry-humping escapades for all to see. It gave me hope that I could still get my groove on when I get old.

Overall, it was a very good night for 3rd Avenue bars, ours included. I'm interested in seeing what tonight will bring. I also wonder how many folks tapped out of work today.... hmmm. (Pics to follow).

TONIGHT: "Thirsty Thursdays" (5-10pm), featuring $4 domestic drafts! NHL Playoffs continue with PITTSBURGH visiting MONTREAL (7pm, w/Audio) and SAN JOSE looking to close out DETROIT (7:30pm). NBA playoffs also resume tonight with ORLANDO hosting ATLANTA (8pm). It's going to be a beautiful night for sports and brews!


That's It. That's All I Got.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

CINCO DE MAYO!

Today is May 5th, commonly known around the United States as "Cinco de Mayo". This "holiday" of sorts is one that is celebrated by Americans as a day/night of debauched partying and is often confused by us as Mexico's Independence Day (it's actually September 15th). Leave it to us to botch up another country's history, just to have an excuse to party.

In any case, everyone treats this day as the Mexican version of St. Patrick's Day and since it falls in the spring and the weather's nice, what the hell? Live it up, even if you'll probably pay for it tomorrow by way of hangovers, bad stomachs and the walk of shame.

We'll do our part by offering up a "Cinco de Mayo" version of our popular Pub Trivia night; in this case, we'll be offering up $15 buckets of Sol (bucket of five) and $4 Mixed Well Drinks (for ladies); AND if you become a fan of Third and Long Pub Trivia on Facebook and rsvp for tonight's event, you'll also get $4 domestic drafts AND $4 tequila poppers all night long!

Last night's edition of Dollar Draft Madness was in essence, a tale of two cities: The early part of the night was filled with hardcore hockey fans, in tow to watch the NHL playoffs and baseball fans checking out the Yankees and Mets...






We then got a hit from a high-falutin' group, decked out in gowns and tuxedos; they were coming from a gala fundraiser. I guess after spending big bucks at the swanky affair, they needed to get rid of their spare change. What better way to do that than with dollar drafts?



The way I see it, as long as the dollar is green, you can wear whatever you want... It was one of those nights.

ON ANOTHER NOTE: If you've ever been here on a Monday or Tuesday night for dollar mugs, no doubt you've probably looked out the window across the street and wondered what the deal was with the group of folks gathering in front of Dagostino's and tearing through bags like swarming bees. As it turns out, they are "Freegans", better known as "dumpster divers". They are a unique bunch of folks who sift through garbage and take food that stores and bakeries throw out and consume it (to eliminate waste and save money). It's an interesting sighting and it takes place every Mon/Tuesday nights....



You can't make this stuff up. Seriously.

Ok, on that note, I gotta bolt. There's Yankees and Mets afternoon baseball on tap, so if you are looking to sneak away for lunch, swing by and check it out ($3 pints, Miller Lite, Bud/Bud Light).

And don't forget about the festivities revolving around Cinco de Mayo tonight! And while we'll do our part to celebrate the day, we don't take pesos...


That's It. That's All I Got.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

WHAT'S GOING ON...

A lot is going on, I tell ya. Between the day-to-day inner workings of the bar to the various events taking place outside of the bar, there's a lot happening these days.

For starters, the weather is warming up and that usually brings me a cornucopia of issues to deal with. Between the air conditioner working properly, ice machine issues, Board of Health visits and things of that nature, my days are pretty full. As a result, you sometimes get late posts from me (or none at all), simply because I find myself getting caught up with other stuff. It's the nature of the beast.

That being said, here are some notable events taking place this week:

TONIGHT: "Dollar Draft Madness", featuring $1 Bud/Bud Light/Miller Lite mugs (4pm-close). It's Game 3 of the NHL playoff series between Detroit/San Jose and Montreal/Pittsburgh (7pm). It's also NBA playoff time, with Atlanta tipping off against Orlando, followed by Utah/L.A. Lakers. Add to that the Mets and the Yankees and you have a pretty full night of sports on tap.

WEDNESDAY: "Cinco de Mayo" is being celebrated by bars and restaurants around the city and we're featuring our "Cinco de Mayo" edition of our popular Wednesday Night Pub Trivia series. There will be $4 Mixed Well Drinks (for ladies) as well as $15 buckets of SOL all night long!

SATURDAY: UFC 113 is on tap for Saturday night at 10pm; No cover charge for the event but we highly recommend you get there early. There is already going to be a crowd on tap for Montreal vs Pittsburgh (7pm), and many of the Canadiens fans will no doubt stick around for the UFC event, especially since it is being aired live from Montreal's Bell Centre.

There is a ton of baseball, NBA and NHL action all week long, as well as The Players Championship (for all of you golf fans) this weekend. So as you can see, it's a pretty full week, leading into Mother's Day. That being said, you will find me at/near the bar most of the week, so if you are in the neighborhood, feel free to stop by and say hello!

On that note, back to the salt mines.

That's It. That's All I Got.

Monday, May 3, 2010

JAMMED UP... IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE.

Sorry for the extremely late post today. I got caught up in dealing with errands and that dreaded to-do list for most of the day. And you know how that goes; Once you think you got most of the things on that list ticked off, other things somehow make their way onto the list.

The weekend came and went so quickly that to be honest, I can't remember half of it. So I will share with you the things that I do remember ( I must be getting old).

The Kentucky Derby Viewing Party sticks out in my head because we got hit with a bachelor's party and a 30-year-old's birthday bar crawl, complete with cheezy t-shirts and Facebook requests. As always, the bartender sets up a "mini-pool" for the Derby (for entertainment purposes only, of course), where everyone draws a random number. The number they draw is the horse they get in the race. So, with 20 horses slated to run, there were a lot of folks cheering at the TV's come post time.

This elderly couple came in and bought up the last two numbers in the lot; sure enough, one of the numbers turned out to be the winner and they of course, left with big smiles on their faces, much to the chagrin of everyone else at the bar. OPIE CUNNINGHAM was slingin' up Mint Juleps and while I am not a fan of juleps as a rule of thumb, his concoction became strangely addicting and I ended up having one or two (or three) of them.

After the race, I made my way downtown (yes, I actually left the neighborhood) to the Angelika Film Center to check out a screening of Michael Caine's new movie, HARRY BROWN, which turned out to be much better than I thought it would be (think a "modern-day" version of "Death Wish" w/Charles Bronson). Some pretty intense scenes in it. Afterwards I made my way through SoHo, (Land of the Pretty People), where I stopped by Mac Bar for a Lobster Mac to go.

I spent Sunday dealing with sweltering heat and lack of an air conditioner, while trying to catch up on work before my bartending stint on Sunday night. I did run into a bit of a problem during my shift. At the start of the shift, I made the mistake of drinking an iced coffee. This made for an unusual moment later in the night as I found myself suddenly having the need to "drop some science", if you catch my drift. Problem with that was that I was solo, with no one to watch the bar should I have the need to go. So I was forced to hold on for dear life for a couple of hours. As couples came in and out of the bar throughout the night, my stomach kept churning and it was all I could do to keep my mind off of my dilemma.

Finally, the bar finally clears out, except for these two nannies who were totally into their own conversation. I casually lock the door, began cleaning up the bar a bit and said "Excuse me, I'm running downstairs for a minute to grab a mop. You don't mind, do you?". They were fine with it and with that, I bolted downstairs and flew into the men's room where science was dropped like nothing I'd seen before. Whoa!

I was in and out of there in a flash, and the ladies were none the wiser... I think.

Shit happens, I guess (excuse the pun).

We are into the month of May and there's a lot of things taking place this week that you should take note of. I will post the list of events later on tonight. In the meantime, there's NHL/NBA playoff action on tap tonight, as well as the return of BEER BINGO, hosted by OPIE CUNNINGHAM. There's $1 mugs of Bud/Miller Lite/Bud Light on tap as well as $2 mugs, all other domestic drafts (Blue Moon, Sam Adams, Sam Seasonal, Magic Hat #9, Yuengling, Molson Canadian, and Brooklyn Pennant Ale '55).

Hope to see you tonight!

That's It. That's All I Got.