USA

by / on July 9, 2013 at 2:03 pm / in Drink, Monica Byers, New York

NEW YORK: THE EMERALD PUB

NEW YORK, NY – We stumbled into The Emerald as an unplanned stopover on my husband’s birthday, between dinner in TriBeCa and a planned trip to the Meatpacking District for live music.  It was a hot, muggy night and a quick mid-trip pint seemed in order.  The Emerald was a never-before-visited, random choice for our pit stop, but the sign [...]

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by / on June 18, 2013 at 2:59 pm / in Monica Byers, New York, See

NEW YORK: COME WALK WITH ME, UP THOMPSON STREET

BY:  MONICA BYERS NEW YORK, NY – I have a special affection for Thompson Street in the Village.  My ZATAOT partner in crime, Gary, was lucky enough to live on this street for a while.  Except I don’t think he counted himself quite so lucky – he found it annoyingly student-y (NYU is just around the corner) or, at least, [...]

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by / on June 8, 2013 at 2:22 pm / in Drink, Monica Byers, New York

NEW YORK: McSORLEY’S OLD ALE HOUSE

By MONICA BYERS NEW YORK, NY – I almost didn’t write a piece on McSorley’s.  I assumed that a place trading so heavily on its longevity (more on that below) through the medium of extensive verbiage on its windows would be a horrible tourist trap.  And, indeed there are quite a few tourists at McSorley’s.   But there is also a [...]

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by / on May 7, 2013 at 1:05 pm / in Drink, Monica Byers, New York

NEW YORK: THE BUBBLE LOUNGE

By MONICA BYERS NEW YORK, NY – I love champagne so much I could cry.  Champagne bars, on the other hand, can frequently disappoint by either trying to hard, being too serious or just flat out not knowing what they’re doing.  The Bubble Lounge – while not completely perfect – is quite an agreeable place to gulp down the bubbly. [...]

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by / on April 16, 2013 at 10:28 pm / in Monica Byers, New York, See

NEW YORK: A STROLL ALONG WEST BROADWAY

By MONICA BYERS NEW YORK, NY – It’s hard to wander around New York City without suffering a degree of neighborhood envy on a nearly daily basis.  So many awesome areas – can you possibly pick a favorite?  Against all odds, I think I have managed to do just that. West Broadway is, in my opinion, the very best-est street in [...]

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by / on March 16, 2013 at 10:10 pm / in Drink, Go, Monica Byers, New York

NEW YORK: NEW YORK VINTNERS

By MONICA BYERS NEW YORK, NY – Tucked away on a quiet Tribeca street is New York Vintners, which calls itself “more than a wine shop.”  And, indeed it is. As the name implies there is wine for sale in the front-of-store shop, which offers a good selection of great wines.  But New York Vintners also wants to teach you [...]

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by / on January 5, 2013 at 10:34 pm / in Drink, Monica Byers, New York

NEW YORK: RACCOON LODGE

By MONICA BYERS NEW YORK – I stumbled across Raccoon Lodge while making the trek from the Financial District to the Tribeca Whole Foods.  Based solely on the name I was dying to try this place and – when I finally visited – I was rewarded with pure dive bar joy. I can’t say this is a strictly locals place [...]

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by / on December 9, 2012 at 10:21 am / in Drink, Monica Byers, New York

NEW YORK: WELCOME TO THE JOHNSONS

By MONICA BYERS NEW YORK – I’m somewhat bi-polar about my drinking and dining preferences.  On the one hand, I love dressing up (sort of) to go out to a classy cocktail lounge for an evening of dirty martini indulgence.  On the other hand, I equally love finding a fun scuzzy place for slumming away the evening.  The thing that [...]

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by / on November 30, 2012 at 8:49 pm / in Drink, Monica Byers, New York

NEW YORK: ROLF’S

By MONICA BYERS NEW YORK – I’m just going to put it out there – while I love Rolf’s any time of year, I really, really adore this German bar/restaurant during the Christmas season.  I’d never heard of Rolf’s until a friend described it as being a place where “Santa threw up.”  Beginning right around the 2nd week of November [...]

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by / on October 19, 2012 at 3:53 pm / in California, Gary Fong, San Francisco, See, USA

SAN FRANCISCO: ALTERNATIVE PRESS EXPO

    SAN FRANCISCO  – So, I’m what you’d call comic book challenged.  I’m the guy who asks (while watching the recent Avengers movie) whether Captain America can die and whether Black Window and Hawkeye actually have super human powers and, if they don’t, then how can they be super heroes, let alone members of the Avengers (okay, perhaps in [...]

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