Thanks for the thread!
The most recent suggestions were, according to this:
Jimmy's Corner (dive)the Russian Samovar (piano bar, infused vodkas)
The Pony (craft beer)
Rum House (fancy cocktails)
Chopper decisively rejected the Hilton bar as infested with his cow orkers and customers, so that's out.
You should do the Hilton bar but Chopper should come in disguise. Like, I don't know, a domino mask plus a fake mustache plus a long flowing wig, or something. His cow orkers would never catch on.
I would kick in a little bit for whatever the shitty video games are if you did it at ESPNZone.
Let me be the first to suggest The Algonquin.
I don't have a preference on the remaining choices. I'll show up wherever.
I have class, but I'm going to suggest Lansdowne Road as a place you'd be more likely to be able to sit, but that is relatively inexpensive and has both food and a wide variety of drinks. I've never been, but from the pictures it's much bigger and has more tables than Pony Bar, and I think it has a less yuppie happy hour culture, so it would be less likely to be packed right as you arrive. Alfie's is another possibility.
Finally, I don't know what the boundaries of Midtown are for this exercise, but does it have to be West Midtown? The Gingerman was very unusual for being laid out to seat a lot of people.
Dennis Skinner shows how to do it with panache.
Skinner: "Half the Tories opposite are crooks."
Speaker: "Please Retract."
Skinner: "Ok, half the Tories opposite aren't crooks."
I can't hear *anything* in the Gingerman.
I was just going to say the same thing. It's funny, it doesn't look like the kind of place that would be that loud, but it's like trying to drink in a cement mixer.
Ok, I don't really feel like I can hear anything ever, and mostly just try to smile genially in bars, so it's possible that I'm not sensitive to variation in values in the high end of the volume range.
This place is a little pricey, but it has plenty of seating and isn't too loud, and they do mix a nice drink.
After doing a little looking around at our options, I think that the Pony or the Bar Downstairs (cf: comment 12) would be our best bets. Jimmy's Corner looks awesome--if you like boxing, close quarters, and standing up. The Russian Samovar doesn't seem to have tables for more than two and fewer than forty. The Gingerman makes me twitchy and uncomfortable.
The Bar Downstairs is nice, but a little chichi.
Bar Downstairs sounds quietest. That's my vote. And I'm now fairly likely to show -- I think I just resolved an annoying case by pointing out to petitioner that while the agency he actually sued is an implacable death machine that will do nothing for him, and his suit is legally hopeless, he can get everything he wants by going to a different agency and explaining his problem. So he should do that and not make us crush him like an insect, which would be troublesome and would keep me from getting out of the office at a reasonable hour.
Jimmy's Corner looks awesome--if you like boxing, close quarters, and standing up.
So, I like boxing OK--call it .5 out of 3?
I should say that if there are any NY area lurkers left, the more the merrier.
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People who have to miss board meetings because they have been sent to a European capital for a week maybe ought to be able to cough up more that four benjamins per year for the non-profit that they are on the board of. Grumble grumble I-know-people-have-expenses-but-still.
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So let's say The Bar Downstairs. What time? 7 pm?
www wolfson # /etc/init.d/mysql status
* status: stopped
Huh.
Damn, that's too close for me not to put in an appearance despite this crushing deadline. Especially if, say, the time was made closer to 5. Maybe split the difference?
We could say 6, but I can't be there before 6:30 at the earliest.
I should be able to be there by 7.
I'm a big fan of Jimmy's Corner, and I don't like boxing even a little bit. But when I suggested it, it sounded like there might just be three or four of us.
I probably can't get there much before 7.
6:30 is about my earliest time too. Looking forward to it!
I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it at all tonight.
Scratch that last. It looks like I need to stay late at work today so I should be there shortly after 7.
Have one for Trey Radel. (Picture of taps halfway down--will be impressed if someone can identify the bar, Blandings.)
Are we settled on the Downstairs?
God, that sounds filthy.
I appear to be here first. There also appears to be not much in the way of seating space that's not reserved.
Slip 'em a $20, you'll get a table. Chopper's good for it.
Blandings, Jackmormon and I are lurking inside the building, immediately outside the entrance to the bar. It's a half hour to an hour wait for a table. The current plan is to wait for Chopper, and then decamp to someplace with space.
C'mon try the twenty thing. Make Blandings do it. I bet he's done it lots of times.
I mean what awesome liveblogging fodder! Think about your audience.
I'm nearby, can you wait a bit before decamping?
Well somebody slip somebody a twenty, for god's sake.
And we're here, trying to get a table.
And we're here, at a table in the back, having dinner because they wouldn't let us sit without food.
neb: I just got an error when trying to post in this thread. Don't know if it will help you, but here it is:
Got an error: Bad ObjectDriver config: Connection error: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (111)
Well somebody slip somebody a twenty
That part of the evening is later?
46: As opposed to people who dress all in black, with a black beard.
mysql is frequently soaking up all available memory, swapping like mad, then getting killed by the oom-killer.
We just doubled the available memory and it's still happening.
We just doubled the available memory and it's still happening.
Ugh.
That was fun! Thanks everyone who came out!
Evidently Chopper won the knife fight.