October 12, 2011

It’s Tuesday and that means it’s time for the weekly hunt for a bar that uses swizzle sticks in it’s mixed drinks. Tonight I’ve chosen a bar up on the Upper West Side called Hi-Life Bar and Grill. I kept meaning to go there on my 365 Bar Crawl and never made it, so that’s tonight swizzle destination.

It's another really nice night out, I really like this time of year.

And here we are, The Hi-Life Bar & Grill. I love their neon sign. It looks pretty packed out here, I hope there's room inside at the bar.

Shit, it's really crowded in here. There's no seats at the bar and it would be tough to take any photos in here. Looks like it's time to take that lonely walk.

Let's see what we can find down the road.

This place doesn't look too bad, let's check it out inside.

Wow, the entire bar is open, let's snag a seat and get a drink. Could a swizzle stick be in our future?

We'll see in a moment. Here's friendly bartender Caesar mixing the drink up.

No swizzle tonight! They just use a straw. But it's friendly in here and I like the bar, let's take a look around.

Some of the lit up bottles behind the bar.

There's stools in front of the bar that look out onto Amsterdam Avenue.

Here's Lars who was seated at the front of the bar. He's from Oslo, Norway and is visiting New York to attend the Comic Con this week. Cheers, Lars!

Some of the beers on draft.

There's tables and chairs in the front corner of the bar with wall to wall windows overlooking the Upper West Side. Nice view in here.

And speaking of nice views, here's Elena who's just joined Caesar behind the bar. I told them I was going to title this photo, "The Beauty and the Beast," and Caesar was a good sport about it and told me to go ahead. So here you have it, "The Beauty and the Beast."

And an obligatory mirror shot and I'm out of here. Goodnight everybody and see you tomorrow after dark.

Swizzle Stick? No swizzle stick tonight.
Price of double gin and tonic: Fourteen bucks.

420 Bar & Lounge
420 Amsterdam Ave. (@ W. 80th St.)
212-579-8450

Further reading: Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York, Shecky’s and facecrack.

Hey, you, I wanna be your girlfriend,
Trying to say I wanna be your number one.

(Surprise link...click on it...I dare you!)

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Bonus Link: Gumby and Google!

Mad commenter, Ragin' RR sent in this link about Google memorializing Gumby and the man who created him, Art Clokey on what would have been Clokey's 90th birthday. Biff also acknowledged it in yesterday's comments. Here's the link: Gumby!