Blogging It Beer By Beer

Marty Wombacher plans to visit 365 city bars in 365 days and blog about each experience
BY Simone Weichselbaum/ NY DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Cheers.

A Manhattan man is on a mission to drink at 365 city bars in 365 days and create a poor man's guide to New York's watering holes while he's at it.

Marty Wombacher, 51, is heading to his 59th bar today, No Idea Bar on E. 20th St., to embark on his usual routine - take loads of pictures, drink lots of beer, and post the adventures on his Web site www.aguywalksinto365bars.com.

"My ideal New York bar is a dive bar with really interesting characters," said Wombacher. "If you have the coolest bar in the world, but it is filled with jerks, then you will have a rotten time. Who wants to drink in a room filled with jerks?"

Wombacher, a single guy who lives alone in a W. 16th St. rent-stabilized studio, works as an ink jet operator to support his beer habit.

His favorite drinking spot? Winnie's Bar & Restaurant on Bayard Street in Chinatown.

"The bartender brought me a free fried pork chop. He only cooks for employees. It is his way to say that he likes you."

Proof of the free pork chop is pictured under bar entry 54 on Wombacher's site.

The city's worst bar, according to Wombacher, is House of Brews on W. 46th St. Wombacher wrote an expletive-filled review on his site blasting the bar for not having a $100 bottle of 101 oz. Stone Double Bastard that was listed on its online menu.

House of Brews manager Tony Quinn was not pleased.

"Why did he have a psychotic meltdown because we didn't have a beer," said Quinn. "He goes into bars and tears them apart. He doesn't understand the business."

But New York barflies seem to think Wombacher is doing just fine.

"It is a service, he is going to all these bars so people have information." said Klous Saltzman, 40, at the White Horse Tavern on Hudson Street in Greenwich Village. The 57th bar Wombacher visited.

This seems like a really good idea for a blog. Something you might even get a little advertising dough for. When I read it I thought about the possibility of going to every bar in the Odessa/Midland region but then came the realization that I'd probably get stabbed in the process.

I'm pretty sure a visit by me to the Cotton Patch, the 10-4 or the Buckhorn would probably end in me being either robbed or having the shit kicked out of me for saying something "Democrat like." I'm not going to even address the possibility of going into whatever Mexican night club is popular these days. The only thing that might make such a venture possible is the fact that most of the dive bar proprieters in Odessa probably don't have internet access. I'll keep this in mind but its probably not going happen.

P.S. - Does this guy have the whole tip of the bottle in his mouth? I sure as hell know he couldn't go into every bar in Odessa. He'd get stabbed right when he walked in the door at Crossroads.