Peculier Pub

Tonight I rediscovered beer. Beer was one of the first things to go when I started a diet nine months ago - it's hard to fit good beer into a low-calorie diet. I mean, sometimes I'll have one beer on a special occasion (promotions, weddings, Barry Bonds's 666 home run) but I haven't been out drinking since October. But tonight some friends took us to Peculier Pub (145 Bleecker St.). Peculier Pub claims to have over 300 beers available. Now, I generally expect an average bar to have some beers I like, and a good bar to have some beers I've never tried. But Peculier Pub has beers from countries I've never heard of. I took a random walk through the menu and was really happy with the results.

During the school year, it's probably overrun with NYU students. But it was not too crowded this time, the bartenders had time to give suggestions, and the music was quiet enough to have a conversation. It reminded me of my favorite bar in Pasadena, Lucky Baldwin's. Lucky's had a few dozen beers on tap on any given night, but rotated semi-randomly through a much larger selection. As college seniors, it was our goal to try every beer available at Lucky's; according to our written records (crayon-marked beer menus), we got through maybe a third of it. Anyway, both places had a similar vibe - the best way to describe it is the sort of place where you wouldn't be kicked out for standing on a table and chugging a Guinness while yelling The Philosophers' Song.