Cheap beer

Originally posted by Scallion1

1. It's got nothing to do with the provinces, and SF is my favorite American city after my home town.

2. I never said that Costco was the only place to get cheap beer.

3. I never said that my son went to Pentop expecting it to be cheap. He's probably been around the restaurants and watering holes of NYC as much as anyone his age. And the money isn't a problem. He dropped $400 the night before at an Italian restaurant.

4. That's my point. See if you can understand it. KNOWING that Pentop would be ridiculously expensive, but having gone there because it's near his office, he STILL was surprised. You can get a bottle of Bud for $7 or $8 almost anywhere in Manhattan. But KNOWING that it would be expensive, he was surprised to see that it cost almost twice as much as he thought it might be. He didn't care, it was just a curiousity.

5. I'm done. Babble on if you wish.

If bad beer is that expensive, how much is good beer, a micro brew or import? Something drinkable, in other words.....
Jeez, for $99.00, you should be able to have Joe Coors atop a Clydesdale greet you up on the roof.

Here in the boondocks of Kansas City we have many places proud to charge you $10.00 for a glass of Kendall Jackson Chardonnay. It is becoming more common to see $6 or $7 for a beer. And believe me, KC is not exactly "cosmopolitan." We do have cheap bars and lots of them, but a great cheap bar is Harry's Country Club, $2.25 can of PBR and very good bar food. You can get good beer T-Shirts as well.

http://www.kansascitymenus.com/harryscountryclub/

$2.25 for a can of PBR??? I wouldn't pay 50 cents for that... I don't know about anyone else, but the max. I have ever paid for ANY beer at ANY establishment was $3.00, and that was for some premium Czech lager. To he_l with restaurant ambiance, I say.

We're at $.90 for a glass of PBR, (what is today's youth thinkin'?). Our local and regional micros go about $2.00 per glass, $3.00 per pint. Some of 'em are only available on tap, so you have to go the ambiance route.

quote:

Originally posted by ken8038

I agree that even for NYC, $13 for a bottle of Bud is over the Top. But to paraphrase Calvin Trillin, any time you eat or drink at a restaurant at the Top of any building you are going to get overpriced drinks and mediocre food while you have a view of people drinking overpriced drinks and eating mediocre food at restaurants at the tops of other buildings.

I bet they make ya wear a jacket AND SHOES as well!!

quote:

Originally posted by Mosca
Ort, which bar in Mahanoy? I'm a couple minutes up the road in Mountain Top. Who's the spy, and do you know a singer/songwriter named Greg Williams?
Tom

Mosca,
Wow! I had no idea that you were so close! - I could write a great American novel in Mahanoy City, and just might attempt it.
Here's your directions. Get off the interstate and head downhill into M. City. It's like 4 blocks down on the left, on the SW corner of an intersection - the place with fake stone on the front in a rowhouse. Got an old Yuengling neon in the window. If you get downtown, you've gone too far. Nor is it the place with the wondrous Slavic home cooking - this place doesn't have a functional kitchen.
Conversely,if you're coming from the northside, turn toward the interstate and it's 3 or 4 blocks past downtown on your right.
Greg Williams I don't know, but famous session bassist Freebo is from Mahanoy City: his mother still lives there. When he comes back to visit, which is reportedly fairly often, he is in one or another of the taverns there, kicking back with his old friends.
Now - do you know about the place that serves Serbian-style pizza? - Gracious, I'll have to refind the notes I took and get back to you.
Curiously, Ort. Carlton in Athens, Georgia.
P. S. Does anyone thereabouts still have a working Kaier's neon? I'd love to photograph one. I'd also love to find a Kaier's opener, but surely one will pop up in some flea market in that vicinity.

quote:

Originally posted by Adjudicator

$2.25 for a can of PBR??? I wouldn't pay 50 cents for that... I don't know about anyone else, but the max. I have ever paid for ANY beer at ANY establishment was $3.00, and that was for some premium Czech lager. To he_l with restaurant ambiance, I say.

My husband echos your sentiment! I myself very seldom ever drink beer. I may share a bottle of Boulevard Pale Ale, but I can't finish a whole one myself. And I have never paid 10 bucks for a glass of wine in a restaurant or bar. I am what used to be known as a cheap date.

quote:

Originally posted by Scallion1

Jeez, and I never would have thought of that. I mean, how about a little understanding of irony or sarcasm?

Of course, the logic is faulty as well. Real estate prices and gentrification have all but eliminated the cheap bars of old in Manhattan. Newly-built penthouses, tacked on above old tenements on the Bowery, are being sold for $3 million.

Cheap beer: go to Costco, load up the fridge, and knock yourself out.

Are you saying they closed the bar in the Dixie?

The Dixie?

The Dixie was (is?) on West 43rd. At one time it was a very nice place, but by the 1950 and 60s it had deteriorated somewhat. The bar in the Dixie was the sort of place where you ordered your beer without a glass in order to avoid possible social disease contraction. The place came with hot and cold running hookers. And it was infamous for the assisted suicide of a "wiseguy" who apparently decided to fly away one night and discovered that the acquaintance who launched him on the flight from his hotel room forgot to connect the needed wings.

Oh, and the beer was cheap.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Hoffman

The Dixie was (is?) on West 43rd. At one time it was a very nice place, but by the 1950 and 60s it had deteriorated somewhat. The bar in the Dixie was the sort of place where you ordered your beer without a glass in order to avoid possible social disease contraction. The place came with hot and cold running hookers. And it was infamous for the assisted suicide of a "wiseguy" who apparently decided to fly away one night and discovered that the acquaintance who launched him on the flight from his hotel room forgot to connect the needed wings.

Oh, and the beer was cheap.

Ah yes, the Hotel Dixie. I don't know that I was ever in the bar there; of course, I can't swear that I wasn't.

Nah, Times Square is the legal/financial/accounting center of the world now, and the dives have given way to ESPN Sportzone, Starbucks,
McD's, and there's probably an odious Olive Garden around somewhere. The poolhall I used to play in on Broadway and 52nd is now a Novotel (and the old Julien's, the famous poolhall on 14th Street, is now an NYU dorm).

I was always under the impression that alcohol sales cover the food cost. I do not, as a rule, frequent dining holes that do not offer mixed drinks. I find the food is wonderful for much less, and if I am low on funds I arrive with the buzz already on and then just have "one". Sip it and make it last.......

CK
Alcohol License = Killer Food.

i live in New York, and am pretty broke most of the time, so i have to drik crappy beers that cost what good beers should cost. But i my own defense, I like to stick to idea that "Shafer is the one to have when you are having more than one" and for $2 a pop i am OK with that. You have to make sacfices to live here "before" you start making the big bucks.

Try McSorleys in the East Village. You have to buy two beers at once and they don't serve any other alcohol. But it's cheap.

By the way, the Peninsula serves a very elegant tea- I take my daughter there every year for her birthday. And a wonderful green apple martini. But, not exactly Roadfood.

quote:

Originally posted by Ort. Carlton.

quote:

Originally posted by Mosca
Ort, which bar in Mahanoy? I'm a couple minutes up the road in Mountain Top. Who's the spy, and do you know a singer/songwriter named Greg Williams?
Tom

Mosca,
Wow! I had no idea that you were so close! - I could write a great American novel in Mahanoy City, and just might attempt it.
Here's your directions. Get off the interstate and head downhill into M. City. It's like 4 blocks down on the left, on the SW corner of an intersection - the place with fake stone on the front in a rowhouse. Got an old Yuengling neon in the window. If you get downtown, you've gone too far. Nor is it the place with the wondrous Slavic home cooking - this place doesn't have a functional kitchen.
Conversely,if you're coming from the northside, turn toward the interstate and it's 3 or 4 blocks past downtown on your right.
Greg Williams I don't know, but famous session bassist Freebo is from Mahanoy City: his mother still lives there. When he comes back to visit, which is reportedly fairly often, he is in one or another of the taverns there, kicking back with his old friends.
Now - do you know about the place that serves Serbian-style pizza? - Gracious, I'll have to refind the notes I took and get back to you.
Curiously, Ort. Carlton in Athens, Georgia.
P. S. Does anyone thereabouts still have a working Kaier's neon? I'd love to photograph one. I'd also love to find a Kaier's opener, but surely one will pop up in some flea market in that vicinity.

I didn't know Freebo was from Mahanoy! Wow.

I'll check out the inns next time I'm down that way. I worked in Hazleton for 14 years, but now I'm up north of Scranton, tasting the goodness of Wyoming County. There is a bakery here, Gables', that make OUTSTANDING sticky buns.

Greg Williams is from Savannah, GA; http://www.gregwilliams.com/Home.htm

I know him in a round about way, through online gaming. I'm not friendly with him, actually the opposite; I don't care for him much. I thought maybe you would know who he is. I don't care for his music either, he's one of those "just not quite talented enough" guys that populate America.


Tom

quote:

Originally posted by Copperhedzkettle

I was always under the impression that alcohol sales cover the food cost. I do not, as a rule, frequent dining holes that do not offer mixed drinks. I find the food is wonderful for much less, and if I am low on funds I arrive with the buzz already on and then just have "one". Sip it and make it last.......

CK
Alcohol License = Killer Food.

You're laboring under a totally inaccurate assumption. They both have to make money.
You must be a wonderful dinner companion; show up toasted and nurse a drink for the rest of the night? Now you know why places like the Peninsula charge so much (although their particular price structure is crazy): to keep people like you out.

quote:

Originally posted by Scallion1

quote:

Originally posted by Copperhedzkettle

I was always under the impression that alcohol sales cover the food cost. I do not, as a rule, frequent dining holes that do not offer mixed drinks. I find the food is wonderful for much less, and if I am low on funds I arrive with the buzz already on and then just have "one". Sip it and make it last.......

CK
Alcohol License = Killer Food.

You're laboring under a totally inaccurate assumption. They both have to make money.
You must be a wonderful dinner companion; show up toasted and nurse a drink for the rest of the night? Now you know why places like the Peninsula charge so much (although their particular price structure is crazy): to keep people like you out.

Since you brought it up, I am a wonderful dinner companion
hardy har Rascallion
CK

Q.E.D.

I rest my case.

some great points in this thread, no, really...
its obvious that there are some places that cater to the rich and famous, and they explode their prices to keep out the costco/walmart going riff raff. simple as that. thats their goal and point.
you gotta pay to play with the rich....

rocker, how's the sale coming?

Hello all,
bassrocker4u2 is right. In the 70's and 80's our little city grew due to the growth of the local university. We had plenty of downtown bars. You had bars for locals and bars for the college crowd, but all beer was cheap. Happy hour was 25 cents for draft, 75 cent pitchers, and 50 cent draft and 1.00 pitcher at regular times. The city fathers saw that too many people were having fun, and also urinating in dark corners, and there was a crack down. Every hour cops would cruise the bars, counting people for fire codes, waiting outside parking decks and parking lots to give drunk in public or driving under influence tickets left and right. And then the bars where the cops wouldn't go to, like the Sheraton Hotel bar or Holiday Inn's, began to demand high cover charges just to get in, even when there was no entertainment, and also began charging $3.00 for a glass beer, $1.50 for a draft. Soon everyone was charging the same prices and they rose over time. Most of the downtown bars closed as businesses deserted the old city for strip malls and one big covered malls on the fringes of the city. The city lost its soul as outside chains, including bar chains, took over, and while college kids could afford the bar chains, most locals lost any friendly haunt to find solace in. Our downtown is experiencing a rebirth now, but the bars are too expensive for local riff raff and too trendy looking to express a local flavor. They serve great products, but are sterile when it comes to making locals feel at home. The cost of being a college town, I guess, and excellent for wealthy tourists. Harrisonburg, Va.

Bassrocker got it more right than anyone else. Just like Charlie Trotters in Chicago and numerous other places the pricing is a gentle way of keeping the riff raff out or parents w/ kids or senior citizens...whatever. Sure the real estate prices in NYC are high but another item that occured to me...no menus? Or did they plop their butts down in a white table cloth place w/ an awesome view and not ask pricing before they ordered?

Well at least they got the message and won't be back. I won't either because their food is only so-so.

Just an aside, but the two Costcos in Connecticut that I go to do not sell beer.

quote:

Originally posted by fablerox

Just an aside, but the two Costcos in Connecticut that I go to do not sell beer.

Connecticut probably has the highest prohibitionist mentality of any state in the country, besides possibly Pennsylvania. Conversely, here in New Mexico, you can buy just about any form of booze imaginable, at just about any type of outlet that sells food. I think I like my state more than your state

Another, somewhat related, note: the aforementioned son took a business associate to Jean-Georges for lunch this week. This is one of the top-rated restaurants in the city, and very pricey. But he goes there for the $20.02 prix fixe lunch, something that a lot of the better restaurants do. I've eaten there a few times, and it's great; limited choices, of course, but the opportunity to sample food from a kitchen of that caliber for twenty bucks is, to me, almost irresistible.

The point is, we were talking about it last night, and he said that the only thing he disliked was that people walked in (and were seated!!!) dressed as if they were going to Burger King: shorts, flip-flops, tshirts. We saw the same thing at 'Cesca, an esteemed and wonderful Italian place on the Upper West Side last week, some hoople in sandals and surfer shorts. It definitely detracts from my enjoyment of the experience.

I know there was a long, acrimonious thread about this elsewhere, and I have no desire to rekindle those flames. I have nothing whatever to say to anyone who thinks it's okay to walk into a three-star restaurant wearing a baseball cap and shorts. To me, there's absolutely no argument that can be made to justify this rudeness.

But you can see that even in first-class restaurants in Manhattan, the price doesn't deter the yahoos. And before anyone jumps on this, I'm not saying that these people are out-of-towners; they're just rude, poorly-raised, ignorant folks who should be eating someplace else.

Special Note to BT: I wonder what it's like in San Francisco; when I used to travel there more often, I always felt that your fellow citizens dressed more formally than people from any other city, NYC included. I have distinct recollections from back in the late '60s of women walking through Union Square wearing white gloves and elegant hats. Alas, I'm sure this has gone the way of buttonhooks.

Dear scallion: The local papers contain lots of nostalgia about the way people used to dress up to go to Union Square or wherever, but I think first the hippy era ('60's) and more recently the dot-com era killed all that. First of all, in that area now probably 75% of everybody you will see out and about is a tourist from somewhere else (often, Europe) and they dress however they consider appropriate, knowing nothing about local customs. Second, since the two invasions I mentioned above, SF has been swamped in 20-somethings from elsewhere and they dress very informally ("cargo" shorts and ballcaps are popular). Finally, SF has just gone more informal over the years. Where I am both fascinated and a little bit saddened is at haute culture events like the symphony, opera and ballet. Sometimes I like to wear a tux to these places just because I like to do it, but you'll see every level of informality (and formality--sometimes I still see people in white tie/tails) now and may end up seated beside a couple in full motorcycle leathers. Expensive restaurants do tend to be an exception just because almost all the patrons will be either business people on expense accounts or people celebrating something, but I don't know of anyplace here that still has a formal dress code and would toss you out if you arrived dressed informally. They are more likely to toss you out because they are full and you have no reservation.

Some will find this difficult to believe while others will nod and say, sure. In 1965 women were still wearing hats and gloves while shopping in downtown Charleston, West Virginia. It was delightful.

I lived in Shenandoah Junction which is just up the road. I left to live in Florida in 2003, when returning for a visit in 2005 I was shocked by the growth it has turned into another bedroom comunity of Washington, DC., WHY

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Hoffman

Some will find this difficult to believe while others will nod and say, sure. In 1965 women were still wearing hats and gloves while shopping in downtown Charleston, West Virginia. It was delightful.

The great unwashed should not be permitted to sit much less dine w/ the well dressed. My closet is full of Hickey Freemans and others of that ilk. That shorts and the like were allowed at Pentop would piss me off much more than the bill.

Send your son to Hatsuhana at 48th and Mad...ask to be seated at Seki-San's station. Best sushi in America.

My closet is full of bespoke suits that I had made during various trips to the far east and haven't worn now in a decade or more. My biggest "issue" vis a vis the suits is whether to give them to Goodwill since I'm delighted to say I hope never to wear them again and couldn't anyway since I've "expanded" since retirement. I did buy a new tux a couple of years ago since I wear that mostly for recreational outings (opera and such) but I'm starting to outgrow it too. I simply love the fact that I can dress very casually because I'm going to be doing something casual. Last year, when I went to New Orleans, I had to buy a tie and drag along my Orvis "travel blazer" because I figured I'd be eating at Galatoire's and they prefer their clientel to wear a tie (whether or not they require it--we've debated that here before).