Читать книгу New York City's Best Dive Bars - Ben Westhoff - Страница 19

Billymark’s West

332 9th Avenue, (29th Street & 30th Street) Transit: A,C,E to 34th St, 1,2,3 to 34th St

(212) 629-0118

Shortly after my friend Jeff and I arrived at Billymark’s West, co-owner and bartender Billy Penza cranked up The Weather Girls, singing along to “It’s Raining Men.” Dressed in a short-sleeved shirt the color of Fruit Stripe gum and wearing thick black glasses, he proceeded to guzzle a glass of ale and light up a cigarette before scurrying outside. When he returned a little while later, he told us about the framed platinum albums behind the bar, which belong to his brother Mark, who is the establishment’s other owner (Billy—Mark, get it?) and a former session drummer for Blondie.

Later on in the evening, Billy offered up a very honest assessment of the beverages available at the bar. Blue Moon is “delicious,” while a grenade-shaped energy drink called Bomba is, “terrible. Do not try it.” All along, he wasn’t writing down what we had been ordering, instead tallying everything in his head, which was not a very accurate system; when the bill came due at the conclusion of the evening, he ended up undercharging us. We found this to be fair enough, however, as the prices here are a tad on the high side.

The good news is that the energy level is similarly elevated. The plastic-paneled jukebox belts out disco songs like Jeff Redd’s “Keep Dancing,” which you might want to look up. People keep score during their dart games by writing directly on the aqua-colored walls in chalk. The clientele runs from servicemen to softball players to mailmen. The postal servant sitting next to me, armed with a shot, mixed drink and beer, told me that I couldn’t leave until the bottles behind the bar were empty. While it may sound like a silly thing to say, it’s actually a drunkard’s platonic ideal: Imagine a bender so epic it leaves the bar utterly extinguished, every drink drunk dry.

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