Bronx Week Part IV: Where to Drink Near Van Cortlandt Park

As I said yesterday, without any plan on my part this week turned into Bronx week. Since it's Friday, I figured I would end the week with something on the less serious side.
 
Van Cortlandt Park, New York City's 4th largest at 1,146 acres, is a runner's paradise. With its miles of trails, famed cross country course, and a full-size track, there's plenty to keep runners happy. Of course, all good runs must come to an end and what better way to end a run than with a beer or two (or three, or four). You've got plenty of choices in the area so here are four of my favorites:

Taps at the Bronx Ale House

Name: The Bronx Alehouse
Location: W 238th St and Review Place
Why it's worth checking out: First, they have an awesome beer selection. This was the first, and probably still the only, real craft beer bar in the Bronx. It gets pretty packed in the evenings but they just expanded so there's a little more breathing room. Another great feature? Free popcorn! And for those of you who are veg-heads like me, the Daily News recently names the Bronx Ale House veggie burger one of the best in the city. Only problem? If you're like me, with so many good beers to choose from you won't be able to stop at one or two.


Name:An Beal Bocht Cafe
Location: 216 W 238th St (b/t Waldo and Greystone Ave)
Why it's worth checking out: Although A Beal Bocht pours a mean Guinness, their drinks aren't the reason to schlep up a steap flight of stairs to Riverdale. Why go so far out of your way? For the great live music! An Beal Bocht features live music almost every weekend night plus with amble seating indoors and outdoors this is a bar that's just as much fun on sunny afternoon as in the wee hours of the morning (not that I would know...)  

An Beal Bocht's weekly line-up.

Name: The Punch Bowl
Location: W 238th St and Broadway

Why it's worth checking out: The Punch Bowl is a dive bar in the best sense. There is ZERO pretension here but the folks are all longtime Bronx locals. Sit down at the bar and you're almost guaranteed to strike up a conversation with someone who's been boozing since before you were born. This is the kind of spot you go to do shots or drink cheap beer so don't try ordering any fancy cocktails. If you really want to live life to the fullest, go on a Friday when Dawn (possibly my new best friend) is hosting karaoke.  You may regret everything you do once you get here, but you probably won't remember enough to feel that bad about it.

Name:Mr McGoo's Pub
Location: Broadway and W 231st Street
Why it's worth checking out: If the Punch Bowl is a dive, this is a double-dog-dive. Seriously, I'm not sure I would recommend this place at all except it's so unbelievably cheap. The problem with that, though, is that the clientele are cheap too. Also, I think this is where underage kids from Manhattan College (just a short walk away) go to drink because everyone in here seemed to be around 18. On second thought, I don't recommend this place at all.

Okay, so by now maybe you've realized that this is simply the pub crawl I did on my birthday (minus the pubs I went to when I got back to Manhattan). I'm surprised I have such a good recollection of my escapades given all the cheap sh*t I drank territory I covered.

Mid-Week Musings

As the Olympics continue it's been really nice to see all the positive coverage that American runners are getting. Given all that coverage, I figure you're probably getting a healthy dose of Olympics from your TV watching, newspaper reading, and water cooler talk so I'm not going to touch on the games today--though I'm really excited that Galen Rupp and Mo Farah will be in the 5000m final, especially given their great 10000m performances. (Oops, couldn't help myself).

Anyway, I offer you three haikus inspired by my recent training experiences.

 
The Ice Bath
Fill the tub with ice,
Water, time to soak, get in
Jesus Christ it's cold


Gu
Solid food is rough
Scientists created gel
This stuff tastes like crap


Post Run Meal
Post run must refuel
Ingest carbs protein and salt
Beer and nachos work

Winning!

My apologies to Charley Sheen for the title, but remember that guess-your-time run I mentioned on Wednesday? Well, I "won." Before I tell you how close my guess was, let's talk about how awesome the overall run was.

Everyone met up at the 14th Street Park. Since this run was posted on the National Running Day website we got a ton of first-timers to join us. Out of the 30 or so people who showed up, at least half were new to the team. The captains made sure nobody was wearing a watch and we made our way to the Hudson River Greenway. The course was simple: two-miles out (downtown), and two miles back (uptown). I predicted 32:00 as my time since I wanted to do a super easy run but plenty of folks picked near race-pace times. Their logic, I guess, was that if you know what your maximum pace is, you can pick a time near that.

Me and Emily nearing the finish.

I forgot to mention the weather. The whole time we were getting ready to run dark clouds were rolling in. I figured it what a matter of when, not if, the sky would open up. Sure enough, soon after we took off we heard thunder and a light rain started.

I ended up falling in with one of the other Whippets, Emily, who had put down 34:00 for her time. A new runner, Bob, also joined us for much of the run. When we got to the turn-around Emily was sure we were doing 9-minute miles, but I knew we weren't going that slow. Somewhere on the way back the rain changed from a light drizzle to an open faucet but I think that just added to the fun.

About 800 yards from the end Emily said pointed out the finish to Bob who took off (later he said that was his fastest ever 4 miler--awesome!). When we crossed the line Annette, our "official" time keeper said 32:01 and I did a little touchdown dance. The prize? A NRD t-shirt and hat, oh, and even better, a free beer.

We all headed to the Chelsea Brewing Company where many beers were consumed along with some delicious greasy fried food. Not a bad Wednesday if you ask me!

Beer Review! Sam Adams 26.2

Usually after running a marathon I indulge in several rounds of beer and nachos. This year, because I was pretty darn dehydrated, I decided to play it safe even after finishing 7L of sports drink. Still, there was no way I could pass up trying Sam Adams special 26.2 Boston Brew which they made special for the marathon. Since they only distributed this beer to a limited number of Boston spots, I figured a review would be in order so those of you unable to make it to the Hub over Patriot's Day weekend could live vicariously through me.

26.2 is a Gose beer, a relatively obscure style closely associated with the German city of Leipzig. One thing that makes this style so special is that it departs from the standards of the Reinheitsgebot (the German beer purity law).* Gose is a top-fermented beer, brewed with more than 50% malted wheat and finished with malted barley. So far, sounds pretty standard, right? Well, in addition to hops, the beer is spiced with coriander and salt--yes you read that correctly, salt. It's also relatively low in alcohol, with the 26.2 interpretation coming it at 4.5%. Now you see why the Sam Adams folks figured it would be a good post-marathon beer!

I had this beer on tap at Fenway during the post-marathon open house so I was drinking from a plastic cup. It had a nice light golden color and was a little cloudy (though since my cup wasn't completely clear hard to say how much of this was the cup). I could certainly smell the coriander, but also some citrus rind. Anyway, I was far more interested in drinking this one than smelling it--I was still very thirsty.

At first taste you certainly notice the citrus notes and the breadiness of the wheat. Next, though, you notice the salt which gives the beer a nice dry finish. This is really perfect on a hot day and Monday was a very hot day. The brew was moderately carbonated which helped to add to the overall refreshingness (that's not a word, but I'm using it!).

My overall verdict? If you're in Boston in the next few days and see this on tap, it's certainly worth a try.


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* The Reinheitsgebot was a Bavarian law while Gose hails from Saxony. That means Gose brewers weren't subject to the law's restrictions until the unification of Germany by which point the style was so established as to be effectively grandfathered in.

Countdown to Boston: The Eliot Lounge

Note: With Boston only days away (10 to be precise), I'm going to begin a countdown to Boston series of posts. In the final days of the taper, it's hard to get my brain to focus on much other than the upcoming race, but with plenty of Boston-related topics, hopefully I can at least keep the blog interesting.

The Eliot, just before it closed (from Sports Illustrated)

1996 marked the 100th running of the Boston Marathon, but it also marked the end of another Boston institution, the Eliot Lounge. 25 years earlier, in 1972, the same year that Frank Shorter won the Olympic Marathon in Munich, a man name Tommy Leonard began tending bar at the the Eliot.

Tommy was a runner--he had run the Boston Marathon as far back at 1956 and he founded the the Falmouth Road Race in 1973--so he set out making the Eliot a welcoming place for runners.

The bar was located in the Eliot Hotel, at the corner of Mass Ave and Comm Ave, just blocks from the marathon finish. Starting in 1973, Tommy gave every marathon finisher a beer on the house. He covered the walls in race bibs, photos of famous runners, and even had a pair of Bill Rodger's running shoes. There was even an electric sign counting down the time until next year's running of the marathon.

In 1975 after winning the Boston Marathon, Boston Billie told reporters he was heading to the Eliot to celebrate. In 1980, the year that Rosie Ruiz initially fooled race officials, Tommy invited the real winner, Jacqueline Gareau of Canada, to the bar where she was treated to a dozen roses and a spirited rendition of O Canada.

Unfortunately for us younger runners, the Eliot closed in 1996, the victim of a greedy landlord. There's no shortage of great watering holes in Boston from what I've seen, but I don't think any place has stepped up to fill the void left by the Eliot.
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Today's Run: 4.9 miles at 7:57 pace.