Tuesday, October 11, 2005

New York City Pub Tour : Stop #4; Standings


After a little stroll over to Grand Central Station and a nice walk through the grand building, we hopped on the 6-train down to Astor Place (and, yes, we again skipped the Oyster Bar at GCS....but, once again, for no good reason! We WILL stop there....someday)

So, we find ourselves next at Standings Bar. It's directly next to Burp Castle and down the street from McSorley's. This is on 7th street on the edge of Greenwich Village and East Village. It was at this point that we hit a bit of a lull.

Hear me out on this before you call us lightweights! Up early in the morning, drop the dogs off at the kennel, pack the car, drive 2 1/2 hours to NY, check into the hotel, take the LIRR into NYC, hit 3 bars in the first 2 hours, walk, and take a subway to our 4th bar. And, it's only just coming up on 5pm. (Sorry, just a bit of sympathy, please??? :)

All of this was to say that Patty took a pass on beer here at Standings, I ordered an Avery, and neglected to take any notes or pictures. We were, as you can see, in a bit of a funk here. I'm not even sure of the style of Avery that I ordered.

Although, I may have also been slightly thrown off by the bartender, who poured me a glass of water from a half-full bottle of spring water. Was this is personal bottle of water? Did he find it in the back room and didn't want to dump it out (for conservation reasons, or course)? Or was this the special "house water"? In any case, I didn't ask, didn't want to know, and therefore didn't drink it!

Ok, back to the topic at hand. Standings is the kind of place that you probably don't make a destination. But, when strolling through the area, you'll probably want to stop off and catch some sports action on one of the several TVs, a quality brew, and some easy-going and pretention-free atmosphere. Contributing to the name is the mostly standing-room only theme. There are just a couple of tables in this smaller-than-average bar.

The rest of the area is a combination of high-top tables and the one bar with 10-15 seats around it. There are several TVs with sporting events usually on them and a lot of sports-themed decor (pennants, etc.) The bathroom, once again for those who care about these kind of things, is about as basic as you can get. Barely a hole in the wall, with a door, and not much else. I can definitely see this as a place that later in the night becomes a big hangout to watch some games on TV with your buddies and drink good beer. I'm guessing it's not a huge pickup scene with the ladies....but, I could be wrong. I promise the last two places on our tour are impressive and worth the wait. And, fortunately for us, we moved from Standings to next door at Burp Castle.


1 comment:

Adam said...

As usual I enjoy living vicariously through you from time to time...heheh :-)