24 - I'll Be There For You
(Aka Cheap beer and free hot dogs)
Keep your notepads ready because you may need this information in a future. I am about to tell you one of those things that everybody knows here in New York but tourists may not know, and as I assume mostly tourists would be interested into this and are actually reading this blog, keep your ears open: Rudy’s Bar and Grill, Ninth Avenue and forty-four street. Yes, now you can close this article and move over if you are a New Yorker. And I wonder why you are here; this is a guide you may already know.
Anyway if you are still reading this let me tell you something; are you an unpaid intern seeking for luck abroad? Are you a twenty one to thirty years old thirsty of glory? Did you come to New York to study art or theatre or movies or other hippy craps? Well then what you need are two things: beer and hot dogs. Trust me there is no better medicine to face a tough day at work, a bad grade at University or just a rainy day. And that’s why we had to find a place that could be our shelter.
See until last Wednesday we were used to go to the Empire Rooftop to have fun after work, fun that in most of the times meant just cheap booze and tons of people. This Wednesday the Empire was reserved for a private party and we felt lost. We had nowhere to go, like ten souls looking for peace, a stool and some friends. So they asked me, as everybody knows I am the one inside of the group that proposes new places (everybody admitted my superiority in this field and I feel like the king of the lonely planet). I, with the collaboration of a dear friend of mine, theidealintern, chose Rudy’s place as it was listed into the darkest spots of the New York Magazine rankings as a cheap and iconic place. Damn New York Mag, it just can’t appreciate nice things.
Well everybody followed my choice, even if at first they were trying not to as I picked a place called Mars where the bar is built like a space station, and I swear I will visit it someday. Anyway we arrived into Rudy’s and it didn’t seem so full, a couple of guys with ebooks, one outside the little patio and the two grannies as bartenders. We took our sit outside and hesitating a bit we went to take our cheap beer and free hotdogs as reported on Yelp. The beer was three dollars a pint, seven dollars a pitcher and free hot dogs for real.
It was a highway to hell, we ate and drink like there was no tomorrow. Our number continued to grow until like fifteen or sixteen people, at the end of the evening (for me) we were like twenty. A success. Very nice place and very nice music, everyone appreciated and decided to elect this bar as our new place, our place, wher we could find relax any ay of the week eating a hot dog and drinking good beer. I recommend it. But now, let me tell you what happened after the cheap beer and hot dogs. I will just tell you that three friends of mine started to travel around the Tri State area because fell asleep in the subway.
One got to Coney Island, going out of the bar at twelve thirty and arriving home at the end at a quarter to four. A quarter an hour later the second one got home after visiting the cute station of Jamaica at the end of the E line. The third, the champion of the evening, got absolutely lost and no news of him have been found until lunchtime the day after, when we discovered he got home “late”, as he said, and he lost his phone after staying at the bar until it closed. Luckily for him New York is a city were even cab drivers are more kind than what you think and his cab driver called another friend of our in order to bring the phone back. A very nice person that really deserves to be mentioned here, even if it’s just a blog post.
In the end, we chose the place as our new super spot, our new house and our shelf for a devastating after work. I even came back there yesterday before going to another happy hour, in order not to leave my place alone for the evening. Who knows probably later we’ll go again. Anyway follow my advice and get lost. Get lost with cheap beer and free hot dogs and enjoy the life after work, don’t be oppressed by it and continue facing the challenge. Obviously, ask a friend to come with you, can give you the stimulus you need to relax, reset and restart. But I warn you, this is our spot now, find your own bar.
(Pic unrelated, just a beer a found in some friend's house)