Philly pub crawl

Saturday, the wife and I had tickets to the Rangers game here in Philly. Due to a ticket office mixup, we got seats in the club box section for the cost of corner upper level tickets. This section includes a much nicer bathroom, waitress service, a bar in the club and a wider food selection. The liquor selection at the bar was decent, but I was more in a beer mood and their beer selection was quite poor (Not even Yuengling). The food options were definitely better than on the normal concourse levels, including a dessert bar and a coffee stand (with optional addons such as amaretto). Overall, it was a step up from our typical seats, but not so much better as to warrant the face value price. Also, it helps when the Rangers win 2-0.

Since it was an afternoon game, we decided to hop the subway back to center city and commence a pub crawl. I had made a list of place to hit, some old favorites plus some new places we have been meaning to try.

We started off at Tria (18th St location). I had the Victory Baltic Thunder which was excellent. I've had it before in bottles, but this is the first time on tap. I also got a little appetizer, some goat cheese and pesto on some toasted bread, which was tasty. The place was quite full, but we were able to get a table.

From there we moved on to Nodding Head. The main reason for heading there was to try their Chocolate Stout which I'd read about. They brew it with actual chocolate. Its a more subdued chocolate flavor than say the Southern Tier Chokolat, but still good.

After Nodding Head, we stepped it up a notch and went to Mahogany. Although I've never been there, I've been interested in checking the place out for a while. It is a cigar bar, but my main interest was in the extensive scotch collection. The inside really is set up like a smoking lounge, with couches and a fire place. I had the Aberlour A'bunadh, which was very good. Since none of our stops were intended to be too long, I skipped the cigar.

Next we went to Jose Pistola's, another new place for us. The beers here were very good, I had a Oaked Stone Arrogant Bastard and the Schlenkerla Rauchbier. On a side note, more brewers need to make rauchbiers, I know their not incredibly popular, but I love them. The food menu was not extensive, but I did get some tasty empanadas and the wife had a meatloaf special that was also good. We sat at the bar upstairs and I have to say I enjoyed the atmosphere a lot. The bartenders and people at the bar were all friendly and they were showing some crazy Japanese tv shows.

We next took a bit of walk, in the rain, to South St, where we hit Chick's Cafe & Wine bar. They have a limited, but decent beer selection, focusing on Belgian styles. Their wine selection looked good, even if it was a bit pricy.

After Chick's we headed down south st and stopped in at Blarney South. We didn't spend much time there, partially because I wasn't overly impressed with the atmosphere and it was also an unintended stop.

We finished up the night at Beneluxx tasting room. Again, this was a new place for us and I like the concept. They allow you to order smaller "tasting" sizes of differnt beers. I also had some Manchego cheese which was ok.

By the time we finished up there it was fairly late and we needed to catch a bus, so we left. The pub crawl was a lot of fun, although I did feel it the next morning when I woke up hungover at 6:30 ...

Eli Manning won a super bowl MVP?

And yet hell did not freeze over.

I'm still somewhat in shock and very happy (as a Giants fan) over the result of the super bowl last night. So here are my thoughts on the outcome.

1) In the regular season, the Giants lost to Dallas twice, Green Bay and New England. They proceded to beat each of those teams in the playoffs. I don't feel like figuring it out, but I suspect no team has ever beaten 3 teams in the playoffs that they lost to earlier in the season.

2) The Giants regular season was about as mediocre as you can get. They lost 6 games, 4 to very good teams (see #1 above), and to Minnesota and Washington, which were average teams. They beat every bad team they played, but their best win was probably the other game against Washington. This is about as perfectly as you define an ok team, lose to those better than you, beat those worse than you.

3) And my last point about the Giants regular season is that they lost 6 games, tied for the most of any super bowl winner. The 49ers lost 6 in XXIII (1988 season). Also, the Raiders lost 5 games when they won in XV, but that was a year of freakish parity as 3 teams finished 12-4, and 6 finished 11-5 (5 from the AFC). And the Patriots lost 5 when they beat the Rams in their first super bowl win. And the Steelers lost 5 when they won 2 years ago.

4) I really hate sports fans/sports media members who love to proclaim championship success as the first and last measure of a player's greatness. Before Peyton won the super bowl last year, all we heard was how he was a decent QB incapable of winning in the playoffs. Then he wins and he's a champion, able to handle the pressure. Excuse me, but as a player he is the same before and after that game. He did not suddenly learn how to play football. Similarly, people who were ready to crown the Patriots the greatest team of all time are now saying that the teams will go down as good, but nothing great. As much as I hate to say it, this Patriots team is still great, one of the best I've seen in my time as a football fan (which admitedly only stretches to the late 80s). I guarantee that if we had some magical power to switch the 2 Giants-Pats games (Giants win the regular season by 3, Patriots win the Super Bowl by 3) then people would continue to argue that the Patriots may be the best ever. The real result (18-1 with a 3 point loss to the Giants) and the imagionary results (18-1 with a 3 points loss to the Giants) are not really that different, but the perception is huge.

Now on to more frivolous things ...

5) I was very impressed with crowd at the game, many more fans of one of the competing teams than we usually see at the super bowl.

6) Very few of the commercials were memorable. And even those were not too funny. Are companies trying to be more conservative or are they hiring less creative people?

7) I attribute at least part of the Giants victory yesterday to my conscious effort to drink beer from NY (Brooklyn brewery to be exact).

8) David Tyree went from a nobody to one of the most popular people in NY in the span of 1 quarter.

9) Plaxico Burress got ripped for his prediction of a 23-17 Giants victory. First by the media for prediction a Giants win, and if the media doesn't want players making these kinds of predictions, stop sticking microphones in their faces for 2 weeks. And secondly from Tom Brady who sounded shocked and amused at the notion of his fantastic offense only scoring 17. I doubt he's as amused after scoring 14.

10) Now that football is over (the Pro Bowl is not football), I can better concentrate my efforts on hockey, college basketball and baseball (2 weeks until pitchers and catchers).

11) All 4 super bowls that the Belichek era Patriots have been to were decided by exactly 3 points.