The Bunker, Crazy Harry's (smoking weed in public and homophobes)

After my zumba class, I was going to a bar I've never been to, Charlie O's in NoHo . When I got there, I saw a sign saying closed to the general public. Crap! I've always passed by this place now its closed. There is a Swedish restaurant next door. I saw a guy have dinner with a glass of wine at the bar it was nearly 9pm, close to their closing time. Hmmm, Swedish, next time.
I was hungry and I went to Tommy's. A greasy eatery in a sleazy neighborhood. I was having a chili cheeseburger, fries, chili dog and a large diet coke. A black homeless woman whose age I would guess would be early to mid 30's, started talking to me. She said, "What are you doing here?" "Eating.", I said. "No, I mean you don't see too many Asians, here.", she said. "Yeah, we're like all over the place, kinda like cockroaches.", self-deprecatingly I said. She then went into her story about how she was a mistress for this Korean guy and he'd do things for her and such. She rambled on about how she needed a job or else her voucher would run out. She then said as soon as she got her own place she would let the Korean guy have intercourse with her. But the way she put it was (but in more graphic terms), he'd let him put his genitalia into her genitalia. I was nearly rendered speechless with "shock and awe" by her giving me too much information. But I managed to say, "Well, that must be love." She said, "I wouldn't call it love, but I do have strong feelings for him." Certain stories need to be kept to oneself, especially when I'm trying to eat a hot dog, burger and fries. I got the hell out of there and went to The Bunker.

 I've never been to The Bunker. I will have my requisite 2 beers and trying to take get a feel for the joint. The jukebox was playing Radiohead, and I thought  I could get to like this place. But some country western tunes came on and my interest in the place went fizzled. The ratio of women to men was lousy. Two guys with their wive or girlfriends were there. Their were 4 other guy, including myself at the bar. The bartender, who was in her mid-30's was cute. The good thing going for the place is they had a laundromat about 15 feet away. I could do laundry here, walk to the bar have a few drinks while I waited for the wash to finish. Then again I could go to the Thai Place, the Pizza place, or the Middle Eastern place while I waited for my laundry to finish. Maybe next time.

Guiness at the Bunker.

I took off to Crazy Harry's. Girly 2 was bar tending, she was just learning how to bar tend. She is Jay's assistant but since Girly 1 was not feeling well she was called step in. The Viking was there we talked about how we spent our St. Patty's Day. He came into Harry's for a little bit in the early afternoon, he thought he might come back but decided against it. He said it was pretty dead. I was surprised the place I went to in Eagle Rock was happening. The valley does suck, given the demographics of older folks here. Shaman came in and he took up a collection for the music to be played on the jukebox. I gave him my dollar. Shaman started playing some Hank Williams Jr., Willie Nelson, Nirvana's All Apologies, Jimi Hendrix's Angel (that was a revelation to me), etc. Shaman has a very eclectic taste in music. Shaman talked about coming to Los Angeles, seven years ago. He said he couldn't take the weather anymore and he decided to come to Los Angeles. So he was at the airport bar waiting for his flight, but you how it is at a bar, time passes you by and all of a sudden he missed his flight. But actually his plane was stuck on the tarmac for over an hour with mechanical difficulties. They got all the passengers off the broke down plane and had them board another plane. Shaman's timing was impeccable, he wandered onto the other plane feeling good and tipsy.  Shaman went to the front of the bar to openly some marijuana in public. He said he had a card and he said under the law he could smoke marijuana anywhere somebody else was smoking a cigarette. I don't know the law, but I think even in Amsterdam they frown upon people smoking marijuana in public.

Anchor porter.

Softball started calling everybody a faggot. Clearly a homophobe. Shaman had to remind him a faggot is wood that is used for kindling or a cigarette. Shaman offered me a cap of  marijuana. I declined. I just didn't feel a need or a want.

Full Boar, scotch ale. (not like  Wee Heavy)

I though Girly 2 was coming onto me, the way she was talking herself up. She like to hang out at another Irish pub in Santa Monica, etc.

Saint Patrick's Day - Ireland 32, Johnny's, and Hermosillo

"I wish you health, I wish you well, and happiness galore.
I wish you luck for you and friends; what could I wish you more?
May your joys be as deep as the oceans, your troubles as light as its foam.
And may you find, sweet peace of mind, where ever you may roam."

The band, the Shenanigans, opened with this toast Sunday, 9:42 am. With raised glasses the crowd let out a resounding: "Slainte!"

Ireland 32 opened their doors at 8:00 am by the time I go there at 8:50 am the place was packed, standing room only. Fortunately, I found myself a little place to put down my drinks and my Irish breakfast. Like any good Irish place there were authentic Irishman and Irish woman tending the bar. I had been here before on a Friday afternoon and Allan was serving. Like any good Irishman he enjoyed boxing and football. Today, all the Irish were about and the bar was open to the wee little people. By wee little people, I mean kids, like all authentic Irish bars you can bring your kids in with you while you have a pint or two. The only Irish place I know that also allows kids in is Griffins of Kinsale. By 9:00 am the place was already loud and boisterous.

First Glass of Guiness-Slainte!

Irish car bomb - Slainte! I forgot to take a picture of the bottle of Magners (Irish cider very popular at Ireland 32).

Irish breakfast:  Black pudding, white pudding, sausages, bacon, eggs, backed beans, roasted tomato, brown soda bread and butter.

This was an expensive early morning St. Patty's Day celebration: $10 cover charge at the door, $10 Irish breakfast, $8 for the Guiness, $10 for the Irish car bomb, and $8 for the Magners Irish cider. $46 for the morning, throw in the tip its about $50. They do a bit of price gouging on St. Patty's day,  Guiness is normally $5.00. I had to take a mid-morning nap just to recover.

After my nap, I headed out again. I caught the Metro Red line at the No Ho station, sometime at 3:30 pm. My plan was to hit all the Irish bars via the Metro. I got off at the 7th and Figueroa station. I popped my head out like a gopher to check out the action at Dublin's, there was line about half a block long just to get into the local "Irish" bar. Forget that and I might as well forget about going to Griffins of Kinsale. Might as well go to the Hermosillo. I got back on the Red Line, transferred to the Gold Line and got off at the Highland Park station. I walked over to the Hermosillo about 1/2 mile but the bar was not open. So I walked down to Johnny's.

Holy shit! The place was packed. On a typical lazy Sunday afternoon there would be at the most 5 guys at the bar. But the place was packed. There was a line just to get beer. I do get antsy/impatient before my first beer and my moxy will pretty much show because I'll start waving my hands and trying to flag down the barkeep. Fortunately, I was only behind one guy. Two girls were tending bar Joanna and Lana. The girls looked like suicide girls, if you know that look. I decided to double fist it i.e. take two beers in hand and find a place to drink, who knows how long before I have to wait for another brew.

Green Beer and Guiness

The guy who was ahead of me, his name is Brian and we got to talking. We started talking about the bars in the area and the history of  the bar. Johnny's used to be known as the Wild Hare. It also used be a cop bar. In the 80's, the bar  was the watering hole for cops from the Highland Park station. The Highland Park station is now a police museum. 

There were some wild times at the bar. Brian said once in a while one of the girls would get drunk and perform a strip tease and go shirtless. Another time, a girl was passed out in the ladies room totally naked and they had to call an ambulance. Back in the bad old days, you couldn't get into the men's restroom because somebody would be in there doing drugs.

Then I segued into a bar in Sunland where the guy in the restroom would deal drugs... Brian says "Yeah, I know that one"...I used to get me coke from the guy in the men's restroom. The place is a paisa bar. There would be these paisa girls who would preform illegal lap dances for money and if the price was right you could take one of these paisa girls with you. (Where the hell is this place?! I thought. I could be like Sir Galahad on the quest for the Holy Grail in some perverse obscene alternate universe.) Brian said, "One time, I took my girl friend there to make a buy. I told her to stay in the car. This is going to be quick." The girl friend said you're not to leaving me in the car and wanted to see what was going on inside. So Brain goes to bathroom and comes out with a vial for $20. When he comes out some paisa girl has one leg up on the bar and some borracho is performing cunnilingus on her. The girl says to Brian so this is why you come, its not for the coke its for the paisa action.

Brian left he had to catch the Laker game. So instead of a pool table Johnny's had a ping pong table. The city won't allow Johnny's to operate a pool table without a license. Another creative way the city of Los Angeles generates income for itself. I was up for the challenge and wanted to play the winner. So I got to play and naturally I lost because I had a self imposed handicap of one green beer and three Guinesses in me, not to mention the winner refused to present the ball when he served. (Ping pong cheats I hate them.) The best part of drunken ping pong is my accidental whacking of some girl's glass filled with beer. The glass with beer shatters on the floor. A crowd erupts with a loud caterwauling, "Wwwooooohhhhoooo!!!" I play it off by going after the loose ping pong ball. James the bouncer comes over but doesn't bounce me and instead does does clean up  on aisle # 9. Cool another reason to fall in love with Johnny's.

I started walking back up the street. I avoided going into the York, a bit yuppie for me and found out the Hermosillo was open. Yes. I was famished and wanted something really hoppy.

Hopocaplypse

I asked if they had any corned beef in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. The former paisa bar, Hermosillo, had corned beef and cabbage. Score!!

Corned beef and cabbage with country Dijon style mustard.

I took the 83 bus line to connect with the Metro Gold line which connected to the Red Line. The only thing of interest was at the Hollywood and Vine, St. Patty's Day revelers came on board the train
 with their loud boisterousness. I had pretty much sobered up but still enjoyed their merriment. I got to bed by 10:30 pm.

Footsies in Highland Park

I only heard about Footsies from a girl on okcupid.com. I've always roamed the Highland park neighborhood and I had seriously overlooked this place. I took the Red line to the Gold line and got off at the Lincoln/Cypress station.

Eagle Rock Imperial IPA, double the hops.

My expectations were that this was just going to be a paisa bar. Since it was so close to Broadway, where there are a bunch of paisa bars. Gladly, I was proven wrong because they had a good selection of craft beers. Some guy from the bar says, "Don't I recognize your? You were at  the Verdugo, right?" I didn't recognize him, until I remembered he was one of the guys Lisette was chatting up at the Verdugo. Rene and I talked about the bars in the area and how the bar culture has really flourished as the Highland Park, Frogtown,and Eagle Rock area became more gentrified. Rene works in Compton doing sales for some auto parts place, he came here on his scooter.

Allagash black stout, aged in bourbon barrels very sweet, yet malty.

Some guy with crutches showed me his video of him at the beach jumping off a rock and crushing his heels on the sand. I got talking to Raymundo he talked about how he went to an all boys catholic school. He said it was self imposed because he realized he was such a rotten kid. The catholic school he went to was Don Bosco.

An old standard, Yeti.

Don Bosco had this reciprocity agreement with Immaculate Heart where they would allow the sexes to mingle and get to know each other. This blew my mind because I thought the priests had mutually exclusive rights on all the boys at their school and all the nuns had mutually exclusive rights to the girls at their school.

Pork cutlet with egg over rice, koika, ocha, and a large sapporo beer.

I decided to sober up at Suehiro's, well not really because I was having a large Sapporo.

Crazy Harry's (dropping LSD & meeting HS Thompson)

On March 14, 2013: at my usual, Crazy Harry's I didn't have any photos, my SD card wouldn't mount up on my phone. I was there with Richard and Merideth (regulars at the bar). We talked about beer, Pliny the Younger and Merideth's financial insecurities. Another regular came in and we got to talking about beer, the Yardhouse in Northridge and Yelp.com. The regular started satirizing the people who Yelp by doing a pretty good imitation of the comic book guy from the Simpson. "In reference to Crazy Harry's, the service was not up to par because the napkins were not folded in the correct orgami swan style. Further, there was a pubic hair in my beer."

March 7, 2013: At Crazy Harry's again the workers from First Bank (regulars) were here making for a sizable crowd.

Hangar 24, IPA

Lagunitas, IPA

 What was memorable about the evening was some worker from First Bank was talking about how he had gotten his credit card bill down to $2,500.00. Then his office mate started razing him, "Yeah, that's what you said last year. Then you got yourself a playstation, wheels for your car, and a DUI."

Old Guardian

Hangar 24. Peachy and lightly hoppsed.

I was talking to Tim who called himself a shaman. I've met two other shamans before like Tim (but that's another story). Tim talked about how all tempoarilities are occuring at once and it reminded mye of the unified theory that all events have equal probability of occurring. But as creatures within one time sphere we only can relate to it within our own temporality. Tim said when he was in NYC he had met Hunter S. Thompson at some roof top party. He met Hunter after he had dropped some acid. I believe this is wholeheartedly true,  because Hunter and Timothy Leary will magically appear for anyone who has  dropped acid.

Old Rasputin. I forgot take a pic of the bratwurst.

Water

The Verdugo (Trivia Night), Hermosillo

I was hoping to bump into Lisette. Unbeknownst to me it was Trivia Night at the Verdugo. Great, I thought I love trivia. The bad part is I came in late and they were more than half way into it and what made it worse was almost all guys were playing. I consoled myself by drinking heavily.

Art of Darkenss - a stout (I believe)

How many Blade Runner film release have there been? Seven.

Hopocalypse

In the video game Super Mario Brothers, Mario is a plumber, what was his original profession before the creators changed it to plumber? Carpenter. In the TV series:  The Walking Dead, in what state does the series take place in? Georgia, specifically Atlanta, Georgia.

Pliny the Elder

What rock star played a porn star in David Lynch's film "Lost Highway"? Marilyn Manson. Sidenote: Henry Rollins also a punk rock star played a prison guard in "Lost Highway". Who was the last female contestant winner in American Idol?  Jordan Sparks.

Norwal stout by Sierra Nevada. Sweet, malty, flowery and bitter (hopsy).

On the Sunset Strip, the night club known as the Avalon was formerly known as this musical venue? The Palace.

I was being checked out by a girl who happened to walk in, but she was here for what was her first date with some guy.  Apparently, he was trying to impress her with how special the Pliny the Younger is. I agreed it was special and I told Fausto's story. The guy bought the girl a take gift of Pliny the Elder which cost $9.00.

I left and headed for the Hermosillo.

Noble Rot. Saison. Good aromatics and hopsy.

For a Tuesday, the Hermosillo had a good crowd. Three other people I recognize from the Verdugo walked in.  Stefan, Daniel, and Iolene. They tried to get into the York, but they were denied entry because they were too drunk. I was getting too far gone myself and decided I should call it a night. Stefan, Daniel and Iolene said they were going to La Cuevita. Good luck. I really thought they were too drunk to get there. The bartender confirmed it for me when he asked, "Do you know those three people? They left their credit card behind." I ran out the door and called Iolene's name and told her she forgot her credit card. She hurried back to the bar to collect it.

miso soup, tamago, and sunomono

 I decided to sober up at my favorite Japanese eatery, Suehiro. I got in to the place at 12:12 am and I pretty much closed down the place.

Koika, and sukiyaki. Drop the raw tamago into the sukiyaki and let the tamago cook in  the broth.