Suddenly, last Sunday (or Adventures in and a review of the Spring Street Lounge)

For those of you who may not get the reference in this post's title, I'm talking about the movie as well as the song by Missing Persons. But anyway, on with the show...

So, I'm hanging out at Spring Street Lounge, a.k.a. The Shark Bar, with Dave (a co-worker and generally all-round good fellow). Now some of you may know Spring Street and some of you may not, so, in the interest of those of you don't know about it, here's the lowdown: Shark Bar, on what my favorite bartender--we'll call him X, since you never give out a bartender's name (always let them introduce themselves; it's good form, plus it usually means you've been coming in enough or know enough people that the bartender knows to be called a regular)--calls "pro nights," (known to the rest of us as Sunday, Monday and Tuesday), is about as good a bar to sit down in, listen to some good tracks (they have a pretty damn good jukebox, even if the selection is small) and drink in as any place I've ever been in New York City. It's so good, you'd think it was a pretty well-kept secret. That is until you show up on a Friday or a Saturday. But anyway, that's a post for another time.

Where was I? Oh, yeah. Dave and I walk in and X spots us and shouts, "Evil!" since that's how I'm generally known around town. I walk over and shake his hand, introduce Dave to X and, of course, X leans in, winks and says, "ready for shots?" I must now remind you that it's Sunday, it's just barely 8pm and we've just switched the clocks ahead (hurray, Daylight Savings Time!), so it's a weird, weird hour. That and the fact that I've met X only a week before, so he's seen me like 3 times in life, so it's strange to me to be getting free shots as soon as I walk in the place... But now the Jameson's is out, X deftly pouring 3 shots and tossing them casuallydown the bar to stop right in front of Dave and I. X lifts his shot and gives us a look, so what are we to do but raise up and shoot? So, we do. "OK," says X, "so now what are you drinking?"

I look over to the left, where the placard sits that shows the beers on tap. The selection is actually fairly decent. A Brooklyn porter--hmm, I'll have to try that sometime--Boddington's, which Dave selects and the Six Point Sweet Action, which I take. We pick, pay and turn to find a seat. Spring street has one of the nicest layouts for bars I've ever seen: There's a long wood bench that runs the length of the window (which gives you a great view of Mulberry Street), with low wood tables and small wood stools. Very "I found this stuff on the streeet" kind of Lower East Side, but tastefully done. Just past this is an archway and 3 large barrels, with stools that turn the barrels into tabletops and, behind this, a couple of tables.

Pretty much having our pick of the place, we settle in right smack in the middle of the bench that faces the whole inside of the bar. Which leads me to another reason that I like Spring Streeeet Lounge so much: Dave and I proceeded to watch the mix of crowd that comes into the place. From girls who just turned 21 (or have fake enough IDs to get in), to old time regulars to a guy in a suit reading the Times, you get a great mix. And the bar always has people in it. Pro nights it doesn'ty ever really get too crowded, but there's still people coming in and sitting down and stirring the musical pot that is the jukebox (from Frank Sinatra to The Replacements to The Kinks to Billy Idol, there's something in there that just about anyone would play and like). And conversations happen all over the place. And you may know that I love randomly talking to people, so you know that I like this place for that all on its own. And, if you didn't know that I like talking to people, well, 2 things:

1. I like talking to people
2. Like Biggie says, "if you don't know, now ya know"

As an example of the kind of people I've met, I met the guy who runs this website and was a San Francisco cabbie for years (he's the guy hysterically laughing in the photo on the main page). I also had these lovely young things come sit down and start asking me questions (I dunno, maybe I have an invisible-to-me neon signs that reads "INFORMATION" that floats above my head):
Yeah, they're kooky. But they did get me to quiet the whole bar and ask the bar to sing one of them Happy Birthday, as it really was her birthday. The bar didn't sing to her, but she did get some bridge & tunnel guys come over and buy them all shots. I didn't get a shot, but I guess that how it goes.

So, all in all, on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best, I'd give Spring Street a 4, at least when it's not Friday or Saturday. On those nights, it's a 2.5 or a 3 max, but that's because it gets like a sardine can and meat market.