Josh "You Can't Pick Your Own Nickname" R.'s Profile

THe hamburger was fantastic and should not be missed. It felt like it was melting in my mouth and it was melting my mind. I couldn't be bothered to stop eating it for a moment and continue my dinner conversation as I devoured the delicious combination of brisket and short rib ground meat and pretzel brioche bun.

The fries would have been perfect had they not been over the top with garlic. I hope that next time I can get them w/o the garlic, because they were great otherwise in both shape (shoe-string, my favorite) and texture (twice fried? yessir!).

The beer selection was also pretty varied and the waiter was keen to share his interest in the beers with opinions backed with tastings. I didn't try any of the cocktails, but each sounded fantastic. They also make their own sodas which are tasty and refreshing and not too sweet. But they are too small and not cheap. The glass was mostly filled with large ice cubes, leaving perhaps only a few ounces of the actual drink. If the cocktails come the same way, I wouldn't recommend them.

The atmosphere here is also nice. The music is loud enough that you can hear the lows, mids and highs without having to speak loudly to have a conversation. I love when the acoustics of a place match the sort of atmosphere of intimacy without going over the top in either too loud or too quiet a direction. I think they were playing perhaps 10 cds on shuffle, but the selection of which was pretty good, so if you like the music they are playing when you go, great, but if not, you may be forced to listen to it more than you would like. I happened to like what they had (Radiohead's The Bends, Weezer's Green Album and one other, and various hip-hop).

But the biggest draw back here are the prices. Yikes, it's very expensive for what it is, and for that reason, I won't be coming here regularly, despite how close it is to a good friends apartment. $15 for a burger as good as this is a bit high considering that the fries/salad side are add ons with high prices themselves. I would give it a higher rating but for the prices.

I have a strange love / hate relationship with Muncan. The meats are wonderful, but the service is horrid. Even when no one else is in the store, the servers will rush you and not explain their selection without much prodding, and even then, they will walk away as you ask questions. If the owner is in, he will help you without this problem, but if you get anyone else, you are SOL and you better know exactly what you want. Every time I have been here, it has been like this, which is exactly the opposite experience of David S, so this unsettles me.

They have a large selection of smoked and unsmoked bacon, and I have been trying to try them all, but other than the "double smoked" and "regular" bacon, I can't get an answer out of these people. I will say that the double smoked bacon is superb and I just bought a unsmoked peppered bacon.

Why are all my favorite bars so far from walking distance to where I live? Well, perhaps this is a good thing, or I might waste my wallet and any chance at being a sober and productive member of society away if I lived near to this wonderful beer bar.

**DING DING**

The bartenders here are fun, fast and attentive: one gave me a sample without my asking for one when I said I'd never heard of it. I like that kind of service. The patrons on Friday night was a friendly mix: people made room for each other and and were unusually polite for such a neighborhood and densely populated spot. The musical selection is perfect (I heard Led Zeppelin, Kings of Leon and other rock bands musically in between), but it's not so loud even with the music and crowds that you can't have a good conversation, and honestly, isn't that why we go to bars?

**DING DING**

That, and more importantly, for great beer. Here, they serve US Craft beer, which are all $5 (so cheap for NYC). Some of the higher alcohol content beers come in 8oz glasses rather than a full pint, but this satisfies me as I can try several kinds in a night this way. It appears that in the winter, the bar stocks up more darker full bodied beers like stouts, porters and IPAs, while in the warmer weather, they carry more easy drinking lighter beers, like Pilsners (not to be confused with that beer that proclaims to be less filling in their advertising: as if less filling were a selling point to someone's taste buds). They even had 2 cask beers, which seems to either be catching on across this city lately, or else I've just been blind to one of my favorite beer styles availability for the past few years.

**DING DING**

The beers rotate constantly through the night as they finish off kegs, which happens quite a lot when it's crowded. This makes it easier to get through their challenge of drinking 100 different brews from this place, which they track on a card, after which you get a shirt. I like a good challenge (I am "meh" about the shirt, but will win this contest of the liver by years end).

So when you next hear a

**DING DING**

join the crowd and yell out "NEW BEER!" and give it a try.

Reasonably priced sushi and the pieces don't skimp on the fish. Everything tasted really fresh and now that my go to Sushi place around the corner from me has closed down, I am going to have to see how the other places in the area compare.

While I love my H&H Bagels in the city, this place happens to be right down the street from me and I feel just as good without the trek.

The bagels are perfect: soft, HUGE and smell great in a bag of a baker's dozen (which for some excellent reason, equates 14 bagels here). I will literally stick my face in the bag and inhale as if hyperventilating just to get the aroma to wash over me. I may not be able to eat them all at once, but I can sure feel like it!

The bagel sandwiches are pretty good too, but they give my jaw such a work out that I don't get them that often.

I have yet to find a real discount on these overpriced random goodies, but sometimes, you just want something fast without having to hunt for a better bargain. I came in today for a Shovel to clear my car out and my roommate needed an old-lady cart, both of which were marked up due to demand for such things this time of year. I wound up also getting a picture hanger that was cheap and noticed a bunch of random cables and houseware goods that weren't too expensive, but the quality looked pretty cheap. I'm going to go back on a day after which it didn't just snow to see if the plastic saucer sled comes down in price because I really want to go sledding!

Spicy pepper beer*,
I could not drink you every day.
But Spicy pepper beer,
My mouth sings about you,
when my brain is without you,
And I'm sad that you're so far away.

So travelers, have no fear,
Do not fear the Spicy pepper beer,
It will warm your heart, your soul, (and that spot on your tongue),
it will make you scream out
"EN FUEGO! I must wash this down
with another round,
and maybe get some of the awesome food while I am in town."

*Spicy pepper beer is going to turn your brain sideways and you may be fully incapable of rhyming properly or doing a sing-song sentence with any hope of it being awesome. This is because all pales in awesomeness to the spicy pepper beer. Except Chuck Norris.

With a wash and fold price at 79¢ a pound at the time of this writing, I had to give this place a try.

Well, that was several months ago and I have been dropping my laundry and getting it delivered pretty consistently since (discounting the days where I was a smelly lout, which cannot be entirely blamed on them). There is the usual sock or two missing over time, but I have had that experience with every drop off wash and fold I have ever used. The owners are friendly and nice and tried to find my missing clothes, but never did.

The food was only OK, but the real problem is that, well, I don't know how to put this delicately, so I am not going to try. A friend of mine coined the term "Anal Fury: from the fiery pits of your stomach" when we are younger, and now I know that he must have been eating here enough to have to coin such a term.

One should note that I eat Indian food regularly enough to not have this problem when I eat elsewhere.

It's a bit of a walk from the subway (although you could venture here by bus), it is a cheap bowling alley in NYC and offers the bare essentials of bowling. But if all you want is a pair of two tone shoes, a domestic beer and to hurl a set of big balls down a wooden lane, then this place fits the bill. I just don't expect anyone to make the trek here if they don't live nearby or have a car.

Fancy? No. Cheap? Yes. Are you going to meet someone cool here? Not unless your friend brought them.