Randolph Beer, Lombardi's Pizza and Manitoba's

Hello and happy Friday! Welcome to this week’s worth of posting, hopefully there’s still some people out there! Since it’s been a while since I’ve put anything up here, I thought I’d give you a treat for tuning back in and give you three trips in one! And there’s loads of special guest stars involved as well, one of them most of you know from her wonderful comments here and on my other two blogs in the past. So where are we going and who are we going to meet? Well, you’ll just have to follow me to find out, let’s go.

And we're off. Why hello, Mr. Green Jeans, please give Captain Kangaroo our regards.

And here we are at the hotel where we're supposed to meet the first two guest stars of the evening. Sadly, moments after I snapped this shot, I got a call that they were running late and wouldn't be at this meeting place for a bit.

Well, when someone's running late, the best thing to do is to start drinking and this place looks pretty good and it's right next door to the hotel.

And speaking of looking pretty good, here's Hayley, the pretty hostess and waitress here. She told me I was more than welcome to sit at the bar and have a beer or three, so who I am I to refuse an offer like that?

Wow, nice wooden bar and it seems to go on forever. Let's grab a chair.

And check out the impressive beer list. This is a craft beer joint and I always get confused if they don't have Budweiser on the menu, so I had the bartender choose a beer for me.

And so that's just what he did. This is Anthony, who's one of the friendly bartenders in here and he told me the name of the bar is Randolph's Beer. The bar is part of the Randolph Hotel and they have a sister bar next door.

Tables are lined up opposie the bar for seating and dining.

There's also booths up front and you can see Hayley in action at one of them.

Here's a sign at the end of the bar announcing specials and new beers available.

A shot of the long wooden bar from the opposite end.

And...ta da! Here's the first of tonight's special guest stars, Biff and Paul! Many of you know Biff from her great comments here at TMW and most of you don't know Paul, so please introduce yourselves, I'll give you a minute...Okay, on with the show.

Cheers, from all three of us stooges! Biff and Paul are in town from Ohio for the weekend, so they'll be showing up on the blog tomorrow as well.

And after a quick beer, we're off for the dinner portion of the evening which takes place at...

Lombardi's Pizza. The oldest pizza parlor in New York City and the first pizza parlor in America.

Smile.

We were told there would be a ten minute wait for a table, which is lucky, usually it's about an hour wait, so we thought we'd wisely spend this waiting time at the bar. And I think I spy a familiar face behind that bar.

And those of you who followed my 365 Bar blog might remember this fellow, it's Ricky who served up beers when I stopped here on the bar crawl with my friends Tim and Colleen.

And since I took a photo of Ricky, he insisted he take one of us, so here we are at the bar. Three amigos or three stooges? You make the call!

And our table is ready. We were led to the narrow back room.

And here's Paul and Biff at our red-checkered table. All we need now is pizza because we are starvin' like Marvin here.

Well, ask and ye shall receive. The pizza here is the best.

Burp.

So did we!

And we decided to have a nightcap or five at Manitoba's Bar on Avenue B. Biff has a friend who's bartending here tonight that she hasn't seen in years. Her name's Debra, so let's go in and say hello to her.

And here we are, Biff says she sees Debra behind the bar.

And here she is, the pretty and fun bartender, Debra. It was great to meet her and she's at Manitoba's every Wednesday night. Stop in and tell her you saw her on TWM and maybe you'll get a discount...then again, maybe you'll get charged double. You'll never know till you stop in!

And even more friends of Biff's are at the bar. She's got more friends in this town than me! Meet Annie and Michael who were nice enough to travel all the way from the Bronx to meet us. I documented Manitoba's a few weeks ago here, so I'm not going to take many more photos. But, speaking of photos...

Photobooth!

Whenever you have five people at a bar and one Photobooth about five feet away, you have to squeeze yourselves in and take some really goofy, drunken photos. It's just the rules. Thanks to everybody for hanging out and we'll see you all tomorrow.

Randolph Beer
349 Broome St. (between Bowery and Elizabeth St.)
(212) 274-0667

Lombardi’s Pizza
32 Spring St. (Near Mott)
212-941-7994

Manitoba’s
99 Avenue B (between 6th and 7th Street)
(212) 982-2511

Further Reading: Grub Street, Serious Eats/Slice and New York Magazine.

Who will save rock and roll?

Surprise link, click on it...I dare you!

Manitoba's

New York City has a ton of bars and some of those bars have great jukeboxes. I thought every couple of weeks I’d visit one and spotlight the jukebox there. Tonight’s destination not only houses a great jukebox, it’s owned by the legendary, proto-punk lead singer of the Dictators and Sirius radio host, Handsome Dick Manitoba. When my friends, Britta and Tom came to town last year, we stopped for a drink at Manitoba’s and met Handsome Dick and took a photo with him. Let’s go see if he’s there tonight!

And we're off, we'll take the familiar trek down 14th Street to the East Village.

One of the great things about Manitoba's is that it's just a few blocks from Tompkins Square Bagels! Let's go get something to eat.

Here's Juan making my sandwich, everyone in here is always very friendly.

The sandwich was delicious...

And moments later my friend Shawn appeared, always great to see him!

After my sandwich, TSB owner Chris, took Shawn and I downstairs to see the bagels as they are hand-rolled by an expert.

Chris introduced us to Celestino who hand rolls each and every bagel for the shop. There's an art to this and Celestino has been doing it for years.

It's amazing how fast he can roll and entire tray of bagels from the raw dough. These are ready for the ovens and I'm ready for a drink or three!

And here we are, Manitoba's on Avenue B.

It's early on a Monday evening, so there's plenty of seats at the bar.

Sean's the bartender on duty and he happily serves up a bottle of Budweiser. He said we had just missed seeing Handsome Dick, he had just left to go do his radio show. Oh well, maybe next time!

A "Welcome to Manitoba's" sign is painted above the bar.

And below it is Handsome Dick merchandise piled above the vintage jukebox.

Here's a long shot of the wooden bar.

We didn't sit at the bar though, we got a table in the back because we were joined by...

Goggla! It appears we've got a mini cash mob going on here at Manitoba's!

Okay, time to check out the jukebox in the back.

It's not the fanciest or most complex jukebox in town, but it's stocked with some great tunes from AC-DC to Johnny Cash to Frank Sinatra to, of course, The Dictators. Let's crank out some songs on this, click on the following links and you can listen to the tunes I picked: The Damned, Johnny and June Carter Cash, Cheap Trick, The Kinks, The Beatles...

Louis Prima, Merle Haggard, Nancy Sinatra, Joan Jett and of course, The Dictators!

Tina put on some songs after I did. I asked if she had a favorite song on Manitoba's jukebox and she just said, "All of them." I agree! Great selection of songs to be listened to in here.

In addition to the jukebox, the walls are plastered with classic rock and roll photos, most of them from the late '70's punk era. That Handsome Dick was a part of.

Here's Handsome Dick and Joan Jett back in the day.

Gabba Gabba Hey, it's the Ramones!

Here's a signed record sleeve from Little Steven. It says, "To Handsome Dick, Who Loves Ya?"

This is a classic shot of Handsome Dick and a friend in front of CBGB's. My photo is a little fuzzy, click here to see the photo in all its glory.

A framed cover of Punk Magazine featuring the Dictators.

I love the hand-painted bathroom doors in here.

And one glance out the window and it's time to call it a night.

And as I venture out, I see the night has fallen on Manhattan, you got to love that! See you tomorrow!

Manitoba's
99 Ave. B (Near 6th St.)
212-982-2511

Further Reading: Rolling Stone, All Music and Maniblog.

I live for cars and girls,
There's nothing else in this crazy world,
Except for cars and girls.

Surprise link, click on it, I dare you!