Beer, Beer, Beer (Vol II) | The Station Bar | The Beerkeeper | The Wild Goose | 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2... | YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
Last March I played this Irish tune Beer, Beer, Beer by The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Mackem for Pint&Pen&Paper Week 11 (Vol I). I made a joke of it while doing a little research on the Irish pub jig. It didn’t sit right, so this year I really immersed myself deep into the lyrics and this is what I found…
Oh, wait, nope…
…just kidding…
…it’s really only about…
…beer, beer, beer…
…tiddly, beer, beer, beer…
Cheers!
#GuinnessChallengeSeason
@Kids don’t try this at home. Not just because you’re underage and will have plenty of pints to drink if that ends up being your thing when you’re older but also because Guinness is actually best served in a pint glass from a tap. A pint of Guinness varies depending on the drinking establishment. If the keg it sits in is rarely poured, it can lead to some underwhelming taste. Rather than stealing gimmicks, I’d like to start taking Notes while drinking Guinness. My grandfather from Connemara, whom I never got the chance to meet, Thomas Davis, used to drink pints and by all accounts was a self-taught thinker. The one rule I’ve imposed on myself is that I will only have 1 pint per sitting from each establishment I review, so @AnyoneWorrying, don’t worry about my drinking habits. The Guinness Challenge is to “cut the G” on your first sip (more like a gulp and a half). If this is your first time hearing about it, I didn’t come up with the fun challenge @YouTheReader can try the next time you have a Guinness. The 0.0 to 10.0 scale will be extraordinarily nuanced but as a reference point, the only perfect 10.0 I plan ever to give out is at the Guinness Factory in Dublin one day.
Guinness Challenge: N/A (Guinness Gives Back Logo)
Song On In The Background: Fairytale of New York by The Pogues
Notes if you can’t read my sloppy scribble: I’m in Woodside, Queens. RIP Shane MacGowan, 1st pint since his passing. They have Rugby Union games with sound on the TV so I’ll play my favorite Christmas tune of all time on in the background of the story. Paddy is the bartender. After he saw Barstool’s Pizza Reviews, he told the wife he needed to start reviewing Guinness, but she wasn’t sold. The Station Bar was the first pub I saw after getting off the train. It is a proud dive bar through and through. It’s very dark inside with a pool table in the back. Irish lads telling stories on the other end of the bar. They support the Mets and have baseball cards of the 1986 Mets behind the bar towards the corner end.
Located right next to the 61 St-Woodside subway station, you can’t miss it. They show every sport and there was plenty of chatter going about the College Football Playoff. Billards in the back for a buck. The Station Bar is a good neighborhood pub with a good crowd. My guess is it’s been around in some form of a drinking establisment since the days of the Yellow Pages, maybe the 1970s. I continue to try my best to live out Paddy’s Guinness journey. I look forward to grabbing another pint of Guinness at the Station Bar again!
Song On In The Background: Fairytale of New York by The Pogues
Notes if you can’t read my sloppy scribble: Smells like butter on popcorn as soon as you walk in. Behind the bar they have Tayto chips going for $2.50 a bag. Eamon is the bartender. He is a big Mets and Islanders fan. Pete Alonso would be his favorite Met. The Beerkeeper shows all the GAA games. They have a Beer Garden in the back. You can bring in food if you’d like, it’s a bar’s bar with no kitchen, just snacks. Guinness and Magners would be their top sellers, but they have loads of options local craft options as well. Their lines are cleaned every week and I can tell by the quality of the pint. Corona Extra is currently having a promotional party in its seating area. They just handed me a free Corona so please don’t tell Guinness that I’m also finding my beach to clean the palate.
I just gotta say that The Beerkeeper is an excellent name for a bar. Inside they have a nice old style that blends well with modern pubs. My parents would be huge fans of the rustic vibe the place gives. I bet the Beer Garden will be great for Saint Patrick’s Day as well as the spring, summer, and fall. On tap, they have a selection of over 20 craft beers, which rotate in intervals of 10 regularly, however, the Guinness and Magners are always flowing. They show all Irish and American sports, I’m sure they’ll have quite a crowd for Ireland vs Scotland this Saturday. Eamon was very cool and is a huge fan of sports, I’m sure he’s ready for the Islanders to make a run. Most Saturdays they have live music. The Beerkeeper is a warm friendly spot with a nice popcorn smell to it. I look forward to having another pint of Guinness at The Beerkeeper again!
Song On In The Background: Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Notes if you can’t read my sloppy scribble: The quote on the wall reads, “Work is the curse of drinking.” White Christmas lights are hanging up on the ceiling. Marty the patron next to me says, “Life is a balancing act.” He is 100% right. The Wild Goose has a pool table with a Christmas tree up next to their dartboard. “If you hang out at the barbers you’re going to get a haircut,” Marty says to the bartender regarding a friend of theirs hanging out at pubs a bit too often. Nice drinking idiom. The Wild Goose turns into a hopping bar after 10 PM. They have 3 bands playing tonight followed by a DJ. Once I started talking a bit about Week to Week Notes as a sports publication, Marty mentions with journalism, “Once you start throwing shit, you’re going to get covered in it.” He is right, what comes around goes around, that’s for sure. He would be interested in somebody coming up with a book of a list of the 100 best Irish people in sports. That sounds like a cool idea that I need to Note. One of Marty’s favorite bars is down in Ashville, North Carolina called Sovereign Kava. The Wild Goose is setting up a GAA after-party for the dinner tonight, as their owners are heavily involved in O’Donovan Rossa Ladies and Mens Football GAA.
Established in ‘19, The Wild Goose is home of the wild stuff. They are a neighborhood institution and one of the top music venues in The City. The Wild Goose has a nice authentic Irish pub feel along with draft beers, craft cocktails, darts, billiards, and a friendly staff. From 1 PM to 7 PM on the weekdays, they $5 wine glasses, $5 bottles, $5 pints, and $5 shots. On Monday nights, they host a songwriters open mic, be sure to get there between 7:30 PM to sign up as they start playing at 8 PM. It is run by the Astoria Music Collective, sounds fun! Marty was one helluva quote. I look forward to grabbing another pint at The Wild Goose again!
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2…
I did have a few more pints of Guinness in Sunnyside that night but we’ll save those for later. That Friday we all found out about the passing of Shane MacGowan. Usually with the passing of people I’ve never met, naturally, you don’t feel great but you go about your day. This one kind of got me sentimental.