Imagine, if you will, a place where anyone can go to find peace, to find fellowship among others. A place where the troubles of the day fade away like so much mist and shadow. A place where one is accepted for who they are, unconditionally, and where even strangers are friends.
Sounds nauseating, doesn't it?
Luckily, Peculier Pub is none of these things. Peculier Pub is a small, dank hole in the ground, a pit where one can crawl off to at the end of a day and drink to 'get rid of the pain of being a man'. It is warm, dark, and smells of something not quite dead. It is also the birthplace and the inspiration for a comic strip known to some as 'goats'.
Come, join us for a beer or nine.
Once you recover from the overwhelming ambience of the establishment, the next thing you may notice is the overwhelming abundance of beer. This little bar manages to keep over 500 different brands of beer in stock, ranging from mass-produced, american swill to imported, hand-crafted nectar to bizarre stuff you have never heard of before (and most likely never will again).
Strangely enough, no matter how wonderful the beer available, NYU frat-boys still seem to infiltrate the bar on weekends for the sole purpose of ordering overpriced bottles of Coors Light and other assorted urine.
Once you make your way through the menu, you'll begin to notice names like Paulaner, Weihenstephaner, Erdinger, Corsendonk, Chouffe-Bok (which means gnome-goat, believe it or not... order some and read the story on the bottle), Marston's Pedigree, Chimay, Ipswich Dark, and literally hundreds of beautiful, delicious brews, all waiting to be explored, held, and yes, even loved. Order some.
Take a seat at one of the booths, and let loose your beer into it's glass (you did ask for a glass, didn't you?). If you ordered a Hefeweizen, make sure you know how to pour it, or you'll either be made fun of or end up spilling it all over the table.
Don't be discouraged, however; it takes much practice before one can pour a Hefeweizen flawlessly. Ask around. Odds are good that someone nearby will know how if you don't.
After emptying your beverage, if you make enough noise you may be lucky enough to attract the attention of one of the waitresses. The waitresses at Peculier Pub have been described a number of times as being 'vengeful and moody', and nothing in my experience has given me any reason to disagree with this assessment. Rather than making them disagreeable and uninteresting, as one might think, it is these qualities that make the waitresses of Peculier Pub as intriguing as they are, and may be responsible for much of the Pub's return business (or maybe it's simply my own masochistic tendencies).
Now, this isn't to say that they're all cruel and heartless, ready to tear you to shreds at the first opportunity. Well, not all of them, anyway. There are quite a few excellent conversationalists amongst the staff, and if you're too dense to pick up on their initial attempts to ignore you, they might eventually give in and talk to you. You might even learn a thing or two (what's a Gueuze?).
The jukebox manages to churn out a relatively good mix of tunes (despite the occasional Billy Joel song), playing a wide selection including Talking Heads, Blondie, U2 (the old stuff), Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Doors, The Ramones, Rolling Stones, R.E.M., and my personal fave, Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire". Unfortunately, no one has put a Cracker disc in there yet, but one can hope and pray.
Phillip tends to adhere to the "Two Beer" rule -- once he's had two beers, he has more, and generally doesn't stop. It's a good rule, and one easily followed at the Pub. Be careful, however, as the Pub has a tendency to drain your wallet. But mostly it's a good place to experiment and learn, to explore new styles and brands of beer.
If you're in the neighborhood (the northwest corner of Laguardia and Bleecker, a few blocks south of Washington Square Park in Manhattan), come say hi. Odds are we'll be there.
-- jonathan rosenberg, beer snob
august 1, 1997
