Fat Cat
A friend of mine decided to have her birthday party in a bar in the
I was pleasantly surprised when I entered the space. After walking down a flight of stairs the bar opens up into a huge basement area. The whole place is filled with couches of the old and used variety, chairs, and tables. This particular night there were a large amount of people in attendance, but the place is so spacious that it was easy to navigate and find a comfortable place to plop ourselves down.
The whole place is filled with pool tables, ping pong tables, shuffle boards, foosball courts, chess/checker boards, and scrabble boards. Basically everything you need to have a good time.
A live band played jazz in the front. There was a small bar out of which all the beer and cocktails were coming – at first this discouraged me as it seemed the bar was much too small to support the amount of patrons. Somehow this was not an issue; getting libation was relatively easy.
Oh and what libation there was! They carry a beer call Delirium Tremens – which has little pink elephants all over the tap from which it was being poured. Apparently this beer is made of three different yeasts and packs a punch at about 9% alcohol by volume. After a short conversation with the bar keep about the price ($9 for a pint!) I had myself a glass full of yellowed amber beer. This is first beer I have ever had that I would refer to as “dry”. It had some wonderful citrus notes, but was so extremely clean on the pallet – something I usually expect from a nice crisp white wine. This beer was definitely a highlight of the evening. Fun fact – in 1992 the “Confrerie van de Roze Olifant” (Brotherhood of the Pink Elephant) was founded to promote this beer.
In the interest of fairness I have to admit that I thought the place a little pricey. They charge per person per hour to use the games like shuffle board, ping pong, etc. However, they don’t really keep track of whose playing, so you can, with ease, sign up two people and then have four people play. The beer prices – excepting the Delirium Tremens – were regular NYC prices, around $6 for a pint. There was a $3 cover charge. All in all a cool place to hang every once in a while – definitely a great place for a large group with something to celebrate or the simple need to have a fun night out. Cheers!
