OK, I am pretty dumb. I got this press release the other day about Calvados, and I didn’t know what the hell it was. So I learned from Wikipedia:

Calvados is an apple brandy from the French region of Basse-Normandie or Lower Normandy.

Alright? And the thing is, I WAS IN NORMANDY in July, for 4 days, and I never came across any Calvados!! (But I did have a hell of a lot of reds and whites, trust me). Anyway, here is the press release in all its glory, it seems like a cool competition:

Boulard Calvados, the number one selling Calvados worldwide, is pleased to announce the BOULARD CALVADOS BARTENDER COMPETITION, scheduled to take place on Monday, October 20, 2008 at Club 230 Fifth in New York City. Bartenders are cordially invited to come out, test their skills and vie for the title of NUMBER ONE RATED CALVADOS MIXOLOGIST!

The Grand Prize winner will receive a Caribbean trip for two, and $500 cash prizes will be awarded to the first and second place winners. The winning bartenders and their cocktails will be announced to the press and incorporated into a future Boulard promotional campaign.

Calling all bartenders and mixologists! RSVP to BoulardContest@palmbay.com to secure your spot in the competition!

Date: Monday, October 20, 2008
Time: 3:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Location: Club 230 Fifth, 230 Fifth Avenue, New York City
The expert judging panel will consist of:

VINCENT BOULARD – Managing Director, Boulard Calvados
CHRISTOPHE CLAVE – Chairman of the Board, Boulard Calvados
ALLEN KATZ – Director of Mixology, Southern Wine & Spirits New York
OUMY DIAW – Boulard Brand Ambassador, Palm Bay International

Among connoisseurs of Calvados, the famed apple brandy from the orchards of Normandy in northwest France, no other name commands greater recognition than that of Calvados Boulard. Known for its output of super-premium Calvados, this family-owned producer in the Normandy town of Coquainvilliers accounts for almost a third of all Calvados sold in the United States.

Founded in the late 1820s by Pierre-Auguste Boulard, Boulard Calvados is headed by Managing Director Vincent Boulard, the fifth generation of his family to oversee this family-run concern.

Boulard’s time-honored reputation begins in the firm’s 150 acres of orchards and 35,000 apple trees in the Pays d’Auge district of Normandy. This area is the officially designated source of the finest crop of apples in the entire region. The designation Calvados Pays d’Auge is the Calvados equivalent of a fine Grande Champagne Cognac.

Yogi’s may have closed, but The Duck is a worthy sequel to that hit movie. On opening night, more than 70 customers jammed the new bar in Spanish Harlem, located at 2171 Second Avenue, between East 111th and 112th streets. Owner Tom McNeil was on hand, buying shots. “We’re not discovering a new neighborhood,” Tom told me, “we’re ruining another neighborhood.”

I got the first beer. It was served by Bobbie Jean, a Florida gal who used to work Thursday day shift at Yogi’s. Bobbie Jean was called up yesterday morning and told to report to The Duck. Likewise for Kate, a cocktail waitress from The Patriot, who pulled her first-ever bartending shift in admirable fashion in the “back room” at The Duck. The flame-haired stunner served the drinks with a big smile.

Tom was asked about the name. The Duck was just a name he used on his business papers when he was trying to think of a name for the new place. He said it doesn’t mean anything; but recently he found out that a firehouse around the corner from the bar has a duck mascot. Tom is encouraging customers to come in with letter “D” signs for the bar walls. He would prefer they be stolen, and in true Tom fashion, would most like ones that were shot off from “SOLD” signs. OK…

A few hours into the opening night party, after the jukebox started pumping out familiar tunes and the crowd picked up, Tom treated us with a free ribs spread from Green Apple BBQ, an excellent ribs joint at 362 East 112th St. “Try the pulled pork!” Tom told us, as he slapped down a tray of pig. Poor Kate, a vegetarian… it was dynamite food. So far there is only one giant TV in the front bar, but Tom says they are buying more. I hope they do not come from Yogi’s… another great thing, and worth a trip soon, is the bathrooms are pristine. I predict within a week they will be destroyed.

Since I was the first customer, I got the first beer. A Bud Light. Another guy came in behind me and got a PBR. My first shot was Weller Reserve bourbon, on Tom, who said its much better than Jack. “It costs more, but I won’t charge more,” he said to me.

About the bar: It is twice the size as Yogi’s. The front bar is smallish, with an unusual curve design. It has a high ceiling, perfect for dancing. However, it is not long, so it would be hard for more than one bartender to be back there. The back room is pretty long, and has a door that opens to the side street (112th). It has a pool table and lots of seats. The low ceiling would be good for midgets to dance on the bar.

Good news for country music lovers: the same jukebox CDs were moved from Yogi’s. Even the song numbers are the same.

It was a great crowd on opening night. Some of the regulars from Yogi’s came out, such as Paul Katcher (customer 3) and Bass Ale Man.

Expect good things from The Duck.

More photos here.

It was the last Tuesday night at Yogi’s for Theresa, who is the longest continuously working bartender at our beloved dive. She was joined by Brie for this last Tuesday before the bar closes this coming Saturday, October 4, and the real estate cockroaches have it ripped down.

Theresa said she will be one of the all-star crew working the last night at Yogi’s. I asked her what she will be doing after that, and she said she planned to join the circus. I, for one, hope to see here again somewhere, sometime, even if it means watching her let a thousand clowns out of a car.

(Photo by Eddie Goldman.)

It was a surreal Monday night at Yogi’s. Mondays have been one of the liveliest nights at this bar over the years, and Monday, Sept. 29, was just that, with girls dancing on the bar, outlaw country music blaring from the jukebox, and the gorgeously frenetic bartender Patience looking as radiant as ever.

But this one was different, as it was the final Monday before Yogi’s closes for good on Saturday, October 4. For those who hadn’t heard or believed the news yet, there were signs posted outside and inside the bar:

There was a countdown clock facing the street:

Even the legendary sewer of a bathroom had graffiti with the news:

It will all be over Saturday. Hopefully, however, it will all resume Thursday, October 9, at The Duck and, we wish, at a new Yogi’s near the present one sometime in the future when the economy, finance, and the real estate markets, i.e., the “big money” which is closing down this Yogi’s, allow.

(All photos by Eddie Goldman, thank you.)

On October 4 Yogi’s will join the list of shuttered city bars and saloons. It will be quiet at the spot, 2156 Broadway, at 76th Street, for the first time in many years.

This has been a bad year for dive bars. We have lost Red Rock West, Scruffy Duffy’s, Collins Bar, Kevin St. James, and Time Out. Now comes word that the most beloved dive on the Upper West Side is closing up. The building was sold and will be torn down.

Yogi’s has been in the Tom McNeil empire for 10 years. Prior to that, the space was the Bear Bar. For decades before that, it was an Irish pub. As Yogi’s, it has been an oasis for country music lovers and fans of cheap bar and rowdy barmaids since Clinton was in office. It always delivered the goods: low-price drinks and raucous times. It has several hallmarks: disgusting restrooms, peanut shells on the floor, broken chairs, and sticky surfaces.

But Yogi’s always made the list of great NYCBP bars for it’s bartenders. Over the years there have been dozens, maybe hundreds, of women to work behind the bar. Some lasted just one night, other clocked in for years. Who was a regular customer of Jenn? Chaundra? Steph? Myriam? Patience? Theresa? Teresa? Lisa Marie? And so many more…

Tom still has The Patriot, and rumors are that he’s opening The Duck in Spanish Harlem soon. But for the next week, make a final stop to Yogi’s and pay your respects.

New Places, Same Faces
By Eddie Goldman
Photos here.

Rest assured, dive bar lovers, boozers, rednecks, and country music aficionados. The clock may be ticking on the lease of Yogi’s, the beloved Upper West Side haven for cheap beer, cheaper women, and Willie, Waylon, and Merle, but, according to its founder and dive bar impresario, Tommy McNeil, the era of these places in New York City is far from over.

The scene was a get-together organized by the NYCBP.com crew Tuesday night, June 24, at Yogi’s. Behind the bar was the gorgeous Theresa, who also is the bartender who has been working there the longest. Tommy and his trusted partner Chardee were downstairs interviewing young women to join their legion of all-star, all-rowdy bartenders.

As the NYCBP.com gathering progressed, and I was sitting at the bar, contemplating the meaning of Miller Lite, suddenly Tommy emerged from below.

“Hi, good looking’,” he cracked to me as he ambled past, holding a shoulder full of toilet paper rolls and headed for the door with Chardee. I followed them out shortly, since I had been trying to reach Tommy by phone for a few weeks, and only had some unanswered and unreturned calls for my efforts. A good journalist knows never to count on anyone walking back in a door once they have left.

I caught up with them as they were loading up their vehicle, parked right across the street on the northeast corner of 76th Street and Broadway. Finally, in light of the persistent rumors that Yogi’s was due to close some time soon, I had a chance to ask Tommy directly what was really happening.

“The snow will be flying before we are out of here,” he promised.

If that is the case, you still have a few months to get drunk at this legendary bar, take photos, get drunk, and make some new memories there.

Next, I asked him what his plans were for opening new bars. He revealed to me that in about three weeks, he will be opening a new bar at 112th Street and Second Avenue, which is in East Harlem, or El Barrio. The name, as my ears heard it, will be The Duck.

I also asked him what type of bar this will be, and he replied, referring to Yogi’s, “The same as this.” It will be interesting to see how that format fares in that largely Latino neighborhood.

Tommy also confirmed that he is looking at opening another bar in the vicinity of Yogi’s, but that nothing has been finalized.

“You’ll know when we know,” Tommy and Chardee said in unison.

Tommy also said that he would agree to do a more extensive interview with me right before the opening of this newest bar.

Then, as he prepared to leave, Tommy said he wanted to put me to work. He handed me one of those huge batches of toilet paper and told me to give it to Theresa. I did just that, although this was kind of ironic since the men’s room toilet in Yogi’s still has no seat.

They then drove off. Back at Yogi’s, I told a few people about the news that we had just discussed. I also said that I would write up this encounter.

But there also was other business at hand. I was sitting next to a cute girl who came in holding a bouquet of flowers and with a guy wrapped around her. When the guy went to the bathroom, I asked her if she had just been married. “No,” she said with a smile, “I just got divorced.” Hence the celebrating and smooching at the bar.

Soon the NYCBP.com gathering broke up. Those girls from Colorado who came in after that and who had been sitting on the other side of me ended up leaving with the female bartender from Malachy’s who had brought them there. I eventually left, picked up some food at the Westside Market, and took the subway home, until next time, knowing that Yogi’s will still be open when it is time for me to return.

- Eddie Goldman
Music Editor, nycbp.com
No Holds Barred blog
No Holds Barred podcast
No Holds Barred on MySpace.com

So I finally got around to visiting Uncle Mike’s. I was there last Tuesday with a couple of jokers, part of the NYCBP Monthly Party. It is located at 57 Murray Street, at West Broadway.

As luck would have it, Michelle was working. What a star bartender. It took a few minutes for her to warm up, but then she was on a roll. She did a long stint bartending at a strip joint, so this Colorado native can pretty much put up with anything. When she said her two favorite things are baseball and porn, I was hooked for life.

I asked why the hell anyone should visit her, and Michelle said she’s a good hang. I’ll say. At $4 a Bud Light, I’d have moved in. Why oh why did I like this bar? I found out the owner is none other than Dave McWater, who also owns Doc Holliday’s, Nice Guy Eddie’s, and scores more good bar. They have a pretty stupid happy hour, two for one, but only from 1-5, which is good if you are a construction worker (don’t drop any steel on me, please).

One really, really good thing about Uncle Mike’s: it is next door to New York Dolls. A little past 8 p.m. around nine strippers got off work and came into the bar for their dinner and post-stripping bullshit session. Overheard at the bar: “I love seeing strippers get off work.”

You can catch Michelle:
Tuesday: 11 AM to 8 PM
Wedneday: 11 AM to 8 PM (with Cindy from The Patriot)
Thursday: 5 PM to 2 AM

Michelle is also a notable fetish photographer, so check out her web site.

Be sure to visit and tell Michelle you saw her on NYCBP.

I am not calling Lauren short. I think the term is height-challenged. It does not matter. She is a bad ass bartender with lots of attitude and good skills. We saw her Saturday night filling in at Yogi’s, but she says she has been a regular drink slinger on Wednesday at the sister bar, The Patriot.

If she is 5 feet tall, I’d be shocked. Don’t matter. She says that if you come to The Patriot, you can watch her dance on the bar. And try and match drinking shots with her. A few of the customers on Saturday mentioned that fishnets and plaid skirts are fine with them; on Lauren, killer. Go and see her, and say you saw her on NYCBP.

Meet new Red Rock West bartender Erica-lynn. She just started, after a stint at The Patriot. She is at Red Rock: Monday nights, Thursday (day shift) and Saturday (dayshift). Erica was cool enough to answer our NYCBP questions:

Q: What is your favorite part of bartending?

A: My favorite part of bartending is meeting amazing people and having fun while being the center of attention. Though I love sharing my attention with all the lovely ladies, making fabulous money doesn’t hurt.

Q: How does bartending in a dive bar differ from other bars?

A: Well I love working at dive bars because I can be myself. I don’t have to worry about any Corporate bullshit.

Q: Why should people come and see you?

A: I’m full of good energy… I can be a little devious but always with good intentions. I’m Fun. I’m sweet and I’ll always have a smile.

Q: What’s the funniest/craziest thing you’ve ever seen while working?

A: I’ve only been working at Red Rock for a hot minute but I’ve seen some krazy funny shit that everyone else needs to come and see.

Thanks! Go and visit this woman! Her birthday is this month, so buy her some shots, and for your friends too. Be sure to mention that you saw her on NYCBP. She is reading the message boards too.