The Blarney Stone

photo courtesy of the fine people over at Midtown Lunch

This is what I’m fucking talking about!  The Overlook up the street wanted $4 for a PBR and here you can get a 22oz. glass of Sam Adams for $4.  Shame on you Overlook, shame, shame (yes I’m wagging my finger).  Blarney Stone also has way affordable food, like a chicken cutlet with two sides for $7, daily specials for $5-$6, and a half pound burger for $4.  It’s the type of place where OTB races play on the TV’s in the afternoon and the patrons are a mix between after work business people, and local drunks who don’t have all their teeth.  There was a super friendly Irish bartender, who seemed to know everyone’s name, and he and I spent most of the time cracking jokes about the Jews (my people), the Irish (his people) and the fantastic dead travel writer Peter McCarthy (read his book McCarthy’s Bar).  Fuck the dumb shit, this is what a bar in Midtown should be like.  If I had a rating system, this place would get a lot of stars.

The Blarney Stone
710 3^rd Ave. btw 44^th & 45^th Sts.