Lazy Sundays

You gotta love lazy Sundays. Being able to read the paper, gorge on great brunch and sip a morning cocktail. Along those lines the Cap'n and I spent some time at the new Red Room Tavern recently - here's how it went.

First - I have to admit I was skeptical. I loved the Red Room Bar, its working class decor, cheap PBR's and Nintendo 64 complete with Duck Hunt. So when Pair announced they were turning the space into a martini bar and moving the Red Room concept into the Pair space I thought, "Great way to kill a good idea." But I've been wrong before - and was pleasantly surprised.

Kudos to the "Betty Ford Recovery" weekend Brunch menu! You can't go wrong with $6 bottomless mimosas and killer $4 spicy bloody marys.







Aptly named, the "Coronary" is biscuits and gravy, eggs, cheese sauce and topped with our favorite - bacon. We were introduced to this deliciousness during the Pair days and were so glad it stuck around. The sweet potato fries were also scrumptious with a special dipping sauce.




The great thing - you can have a lazy Sunday on a Saturday too - they serve brunch all weekend! And they have a late night happy hour complete with food menu to hopefully stave off the potential hangover.

And for those who still need the dungeon feel of bar life - check the basement, which is still sporting the Nintendo 64 - after 8 pm.

whew

Have you ever noticed that when you get home from a wonderful vacation - you are twice as busy as when you left! Trying to play catch up has been exhausting for the Vixen and myself. So here is the rest of the New York beer tour, sorry it took a month or so.

After another long day of riding the Island, Vixen and I needed a beverage to cure our parched bodies! We stumbled into lansdowner - a bar that would be a mix of Pengilly's and a sports bar. Nice and dark with old school seating - But TVs everywhere with every type of sport on!

We were so excited when we got the beer menu! Local draft beers! The large Chelsea Checker cab Blonde was buy one get one for happy hour - so of course that's what we ordered!

The beer was crisp and sweet. The pale ale is made in the style of northern Germany Kolsch beer. The finest imported Noble Hops varieties & 10% Wheat malt gives this brew a dry finish with a complex and yet delicate hop flavor and aroma. It is very very drinkable! We decided after four of those each we should move on to one of our favorite bars in the city - RUDY'S

Rudy's is the Nurelux of NY. Without the smoking!! It is dark and dirty and you are warned by many not to eat the free hot dogs! But beer wise - same as the lux - cheap and plentiful! We consumed a nice pitcher of Rudy's Special - at the price of 10.00. Be

prepared for a standing room only or sharing a

booth with strangers! And they have one of the best jukeboxes!

After consuming mass carbs after the ride we decided to hit the deli and head to the apartment.

This is when we had the Brooklyn beer. Sorry MEA - I felt that it was a little too much like PBR Light. I think it was because we had so many rich flavorful beers earlier. In hindsight I would have liked to start with this one.

The next day - of course we ate and drank, that was the purpose of the trip! We grabbed breakfast and jumped onto the "R" train to head down to Chelsea. We walked all over that place! Through the markets and Ed Hardy shops, through the cupcake shops and more. Two hours of walking and I was about ready to fall over. Vixen suggested we stop in the next bar we see and rest for a little. Oddly enough the next bar we stumbled onto was THE Stonewall Inn.

We sat at the bar and the owner was serving up these big ass BASS! We sat with our Bass and he told us the history of the

bar. It's been owned by 3 people, he being the third. And the

last owner attempted to turn it into a hip hop club - which

lead to it shutting down for a few years. After our first beer I handed him my credit card to pay and he gave me a quizzical look - "It's buy one get one honey - don't you want your second one?" Holy Crap! We ended up spending a few hours at the bar and getting tanked for 16 bucks! I highly recommend the happy hour drinks - hehe.

This was only the beginning of our shenanigans for the night!

We transfered from our Hell's Kitchen apartment to the Grand Hyatt Hotel. WOW - this hotel is really nice and crazy expensive! DO NOT GO TO THE BAR THERE!

We got fancy and decided to have some exotic food for dinner. Sofritos Puerto Rican Restaurant! It was our last night together in the city - we were ready to spend a little extra for the eat and drinks. But we really didn't need to.

The menu was pretty reasonable and had pitchers of handmade Sangria for 40.00

We ended up sharing the pitcher with the ladies next to us. It was one lady's birthday. It turned our to be fantastic conversation and they gave us some new places to go to on our next visit.

Our buddy Zach text us and wanted us to meet him at this place called American Trash. Now by this time Vixen and I had been drinking for six hours. We were feeling really good! So why not go drink some more!!!

This bar is the Cactus of New York with small flare of Tom Grainy's. And this beer is the best thing since the beer can was invented!

This is how the beer advocate describes it - It had that deep thick black appearance that an Imperial Stout has, but this beer was relatively light and creamy, with minimal stick on the palate, and only some heat in the finished, which perhaps has mellowed with age. This beer was a very nice drink, it has that thick beauty to it, without the heavy follow through on the palate. I would describe it to someone as a more toasty, robustly dark chocolate Guinness; which is never a bad thing!

Which is exactly why we drank a 12 pack each.

Around 2 or 3 in the morning we stumbled from the cab to our room and passed out! Did I mention that Vixen had to be at work the next morning at 7? And i had a flight to catch! Needless to say our last night in the city was a blast and we both paid for it the next day! I found a lot of new beers that I wish were served here - but that gives me incentive to go back to the city to find more!

New York

So while we were in New York biking the entire city, we of course drank an enormous amount of beer!

Of course if you are on the East Coast you have standard beers to choose from - Sam Adams, Ying Ling and.... I'm sorry where is all the beer? There was plenty of Coors Light, Bud, and Genius. But no PBR and not a lot of craft beers?! We found ourselves missing the dark and chocolaty beers of the Northwest!

Our first real good find was a Delta restaurant. I know we're in NY and we decided to drink NOLA beer. But we passed the window and I spotted our favorite southern beer - ABITA.

This TURBODOG was probably so good because it was the first beer there I couldn't see through! It was nice and sweet with a lot of nut flavors swirling around. Not a heavy beer, but a nice English Brown Ale. It was served nice and cold in the bottle.

Did I happen to mention we hit this place on a Sunday morning? The breakfast was just as incredible! Lots of salt and butter!

This is the fantastic chicken fried stake that Vixen had. It was tender and served with butter boiled broccoli. I had the bacon sliders!

This was our first meal outside of the apartment. From that moment on we had a mission - of finding the best beer and food that New York could offer!

To be continued......

Now accepting entries:

Catching up to do

I know it has been a little while since we've actually blogged about beer and bikes. There has been a whirl wind of stuff going on at the 3D house, not to mention New York and Hell Racer.

So let's go backwards through the last few weeks.

HELL RACER KICKED OUR BUTTS!!! Holy Shit!

At 10:45 yesterday morning the four horse women of DBRB rolled into Veteran's Park for the race. The Warlocks had Java to go for all of those that needed a little help with the early hours - very thoughtful. Also the Alley Cat stimulus package - 5 dollar entry fee and a real spoke card - a playing card with a number hand written on it! After pounding a few beers to warm up and having a late start for stragglers - we were divided by our card color and handed a manifest!

Yes, upon opening there were only a few stops! Sweet, a nice hard sprint ride. The Gaslight Lounge, A house on Fort, a house on Shoshone, Hyde park pub, O'Micheal's, and finish at the LIFT.

The four of us took off for the house on the bench first. A nice hill climb to find E77 handing out jello shots! And a slip of paper??? Oh an added stop at the cemetery - ok I'll adjust my route. hit the Morris Hill and roll down Americana to the house on Fort. Ah, a nice shot. I needed it, I was thirsty! Oh and another slip of paper..... I began to see the pattern. Crap. Alright I'll readjust my route to go out to Mt. Cove.

At every stop there was a new piece of paper. Almost every new piece of paper included a hill climb!!!! FREAKIN' A!!! The original route I planned was out the window by the time I hit my third stop. After going to Hyde park, The water tower by Camel's back, O'Micheal's, and the Bomb Shelter - I was just trying to survive!

I rolled into the Lift so ready for that beer - Chris and D-Bagg gave me a slip of paper - WHAT!
I told them I was done and fuck them. They told me I was a pussy and to get on my bike - which I did.

The second time I rolled into the Lift I was beyond ready for that beer. I didn't even care where I placed, I was done!

After many beers and hot wings, Chris finally asked if I was going to talk to him yet. Of course - so I bought him a shot because I was being a pain in the ass.

Although Vixen and I did not place - with the chain ring upgrade I did - I kept up with her and at one point passed her! I'm telling you - next season when I get my geared bike - ya'll are in some trouble!

Congrats to all those that did place - it was a hard ride and you kicked butt! Thanks Warlocks for a wicked time!

Pics to come soon!