The Lower East Bar hop.

First off, it has been a crazy semester for the both of us, a lot has happened and so the crazy life of college has consumed the both of us. That being said, this past week was the first time in a long time that I have even been to a new bar let alone have time to write about it. This past week I found the time to go out for a friend's birthday. We decided to do some good old fashioned cheap bar hopping, well sortof...

Here is a condensed review of the night.

After a few drinks at my apartment we met friends at:
Elsa

217 E. 3rd St
(between Ave B and Ave C)
located in the East Village

Why we love it: The entire menu consists of cleverly named drinks which include the Invitation to a Beheading, Cortez the Killer and Sunset city. We all got different drinks and tasted each others' . My personal favorite was the Cucumber infused drink that I can't for the life of me remember the name... S.J. Jenkins something or other delicious. Also the very cozy atmosphere was a great way to start off a night with friends. Half of the fun of drinking here was deciding which of their cocktails fit my taste best as they have a wide variety from fruity to spicy. It also didn't hurt that the waiters were not ugly and neither was the decor inspired by a 1920's somewhat deco style with a hipster twist. However this place is not for the cheap. Expect to spend at least $10 per drink, and they are on the smaller side. Totally delicious, but not for the cheap of heart.

When we decided to leave the trendy Elsa, we trucked it through the cold around the corner to another bar.

Max Fish
178 Ludlow Street
http://www.maxfish.com

(Act 1 Scene 2)
Welcome to your typical dive bar. Outside was your usual herd of smokers and the bouncer checking ID's. Once we got into this long narrow bar, I quickly realized that we were no longer in the hipster bar scene we had just left. The entire bar was packed, most likely way over the capacity limit. That is partly what made the experience so much fun. Squeezing your way past everyone to get to the bar and rolling your eyes at the 5 people actually sitting down and taking up way more space than anyone else. Getting a drink puts you back about $3-$5 a beer depending on what your poison is. We made our way to the back in search of space to breathe and somehow got lucky enough to find an open booth.

Why we love it: From the cheap drinks, and all the poor college and young professionals, this place screams fun. The pool table constantly has a game going on, and the players have to ask other patrons to move so they can make the big money shot and impress the girl on the other side of the table in hopes of not going home alone. The walls are splattered with a few pictures and wall paintings of seemingly random song lyrics. It was a really interesting experience and a fun cheap bar. I'm glad I got dragged to a bar with so much character
(The night was only made better with a trip to the famous Katz's Deli right on the corner where the friendly banter with the workers and free beer make up for the over priced sandwich a friend got.)

Perhaps we will share the rest of the night another time. Its time to go. Until next drunken story...