An Irish Story for this day...

I was on FB talking to an old gf.  She reminded me of a place we used to go to in NYC. And since this is St. Patrick's Day I thought Id tell the story.

There's a place (not sure if its still there tho) called the John Barleycorn. Its an Irish Pub in an old building that we wandered into one day. We used to go to NYC at least once a month for a girls day out. We would shop and eat and go to museums and often not get home till 3-4am. lol God how I miss that. And so one day we wandered into the Barleycorn. 

They used to have  a steak and kidney pie that I would always order. Its rare to get that anywhere and I loved it. But whatever you ate, they would always put a bread basket on the table. There were assorted breads in it but the only one I would eat is the Irish soda bread. I swear it was the best I ever had. The problem was my gf loved it too and they would only put 2-3 pieces in a basket. So we would often fight over it lol and then beg the waitress for more. They never would give ya more!!! I would even pay for it if I could.

This pub had two floors tho and the bands would play half the night upstairs and then the rest downstairs. Downstairs I think is where the dining was so that made sense. Once the main dinner was over, the band came downstairs. We just loved the place tho. The atmosphere made you forget you were in the middle of a big city. The food was great and so was the music. A few Irish coffees and you would forget there was a world outside. And so we did.

One time tho was really special and so much fun. We spent the day with a friend of my friends. We wandered all over, went ice skating at the Sky Rink and ended up of course at the Barleycorn. Her friend had this crazy rubber frog head. Just this green head with an open mouth and big eyes. We got to eating and drinking and the frog came out. We started to get silly with it. We perched old froggy on top of a glass at the end of our table. We made silly hats for him, rolled a cigarette and other things from the paper napkins. Every time the waitress went by Ol Froggy made her laugh. Finally she came to our table with an Irish coffee for Ol Froggy himself. Too funny.

As the evening wore on and we got more and more tipsy.......of course I had to pee. And so I grabbed Ol Froggy. I had a V neck shirt on and froggy had a big mouth. So I put Ol Froggy at the V point of my shirt......with his mouth over it like he was eating it and headed off to Pee. A few minutes later, my gf came up to the potty and said OMG you have to get back downstairs right now. I said why? Couldn't figure out why she was so excited................she said........the guys in the band are singing to the lady with the frog. I guess they were enjoying our frog craziness too. lolol

Boy do I miss that place. I saw Ghosthunters was having a show at an Irish pub in NYC this week. I thought it might be the Barleycorn. I cant find any new references to that place tho so perhaps its gone now. But I'm gonna watch that show cuz I have a feeling it might be the same place under a new name. If not at least it will bring back many good  memories of my times in NYC.  

                                     Happy St. Patrick's Day my friends.