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Winding my way through
the Meatpacking District and practically out onto the West Side Highway,
I thought maybe Mapquest had once again led me into a dangerous and
exotic scene of violent cussing and frantic cell phone banging. The
brutal sun setting over the line of personal metallic combustion-driven
transport boxes, and getting no bars to speak of on the aforementioned
communications device, I was about to throw myself under a stinky
seafood rig and stay the night on the cobblestones, when the Brass
Monkey materialized mere feet from the edge of nothing. Exaggerated
adventure aside, I stepped inside to a dark wood interior that instantly
settled my work-ditching jitters. I practically had the place to myself
at this almost happy hour hour, and sat at a comfy stool at the bar
to order myself a cold-ish Guinness. The beer was served with professional
flair, and was just one of like forty beers to choose from (my brain
could only say Guinness at that point). Waiting quite a bit for my
buddies to join me, I had a chance to check out the well-crafted interior,
with its high ceilings, large exposed brick wall and tastefully low
lighting. It does remind me a bit of its sister bar, Pioneer,
down on Bowery in terms of the wood and brick interior that is somehow
both upscale and classic bar at the same time. When my two colleagues
did finally find their way to Little West 12th (as apposed to the
"big" one), we had a good time chatting with the attractive and knowledgeable
bartending crew and watching the poor saps in the ties try to look
like they weren't jealous of my jeans and t-shirt ensemble. We drank
enough to leave a place with what we had heard was decent food--and
great sounding choices on the menu--for a fruitless foray to The
Spotted Pig for a Roquefort burger. Needless to say, that didn't
work out, and our lack of sobriety kept us from finding our way back
to the bar to get our Shepard's pie or steak sandwich. While we didn't
stay until what would traditionally be real primetime on a Friday
night, the joint felt like it wasn't going to get ridiculously crowded,
and that we could have snagged one of the great booths and had a really
decent time until we turned into pumpkins, or feared for our safety
so close to the highway. This one is definitely going on the repeat
list. [MF]
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