I love how me, Howard and Matt all hate this bar, well I don’t really hate it as much as they do. On the weekends before 5pm it’s basically baby town. Parents bring their kids while they have a refreshing beer. One time we even saw a kids party with 10 or so kids running/crawling around. Now the manager decided to put up a sign that said “No one under 21 after 5pm” thaaaaaaank goodness. But that still doesn’t make Howard and Matt like the place any better. For some reason this place gets REALLY LOUD AND WE KINDA HAVE TO YELL. Since this is the only hip looking bar in the area (Farrell’s at the corner is anti-hip) this place gets full quick. And now that they started serving food, hot damn, its harder to get seats.

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Meat and whiskey! Thats all you need to know about Char No.4. Oh and I guess their shrimp and grits are pretty good too oh and fried cheese curds. And that pretty much the reasons what brought me, Howard, Matt and Anh to Char No.4 or at least for me. I have heard many good things about their shrimp and grits but what I really wanted was MEAT. Howard showed interest when he found out they served fried cheese curds. He had some amazing ones in his Wisconsin trip.

So we went on a Thursday night and surprisingly we were all on time! Really rare that happens, eh I guess I’m always 30mins late to everything. We went in and got seated right away. The waiter quickly told us that they were out of the smoked half chicken and it was only 8:15pm. I took a lot longer than usual to finally decide what I wanted. But here’s what we all got.

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I don’t remember how I found this place but I did thanks to the internet. Beer halls beer halls! We need more beer halls in Park Slope and not in Williamsburg. Whats not to love about beer halls? Endless beer choices and usually good hearty food to go with beers! That usually equates to meat or something deep fried. I rarely go to 3rd Ave in Gowanus for anything, except the occasional shows at the Bell House. And if you’re familiar with “South” Slope you know how much quieter it is after 9th St on any of the avenues. So to have a beer hall on 3rd Ave between 12th and 13th St well, is that good for business?

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24 HOUR SAKE BAR!!! KNOW WHAT WE CAN BE DOING AT 6AM ON A MONDAY MORNING?! SAKE!! Thats what I told my friend Matt when I found out Haru Hana, a 24 hour sake bar, was opening soon near our work. After coming back from the holidays, on my way to get lunch at Woo Ri Jip, I noticed Haru Hana was opened. I quickly ran back to the office after getting my lunch of course to tell Matt. I believe it was the next day that I IM’ed him to ask, “lunch?” he said sure but where? I replied “24 sake bar of course!”

*Note, I don’t see the sign that says “24 hours” anymore and can’t really find any info if it’s still is “24 hours” so maybe its no longer “24 hours”.

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For pure research and to blog more for Drink To Blog, Matt, Phae and I went to a beer tasting at the Beer Table recently. The guest talker was Chris Munsey of Murray’s Cheese. You can read about the stout tasting here.

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What do I know about Baltimore? The Wire? Even when Anthony Bourdain went to Baltimore for his “Rust Belt” show he did it around The Wire. It seems that The Wire is more famous than the city and from the one episode I saw of The Wire I should be really careful when I go. Baltimore has always been a city that I pass by on my way to somewhere else. Springfield, DC, Annapolis…and etc. Visiting Baltimore has never crossed my mind before until my ex-boss asked me to be her wedding photographer. I was honored when she asked me and then I got excited because I get to be out of town for a weekend. Okay I may have exaggerated a bit about only knowing Baltimore from The Wire, there’s also Ace of Cakes!

It’s so weird traveling by yourself. What do you do? I had spent a lot of time in the hotel room with the free HBO. Didn’t really do a lot of sightseeing nor did I venture out too far from the hotel. It helped that the hotel was RIGHT AT the Inner Harbor, tons of museums and shops for mostly tourists. I arrived at Baltimore around 8pm on a drizzling Friday night. After checking into the hotel, half of me just wanted to crash into bed while my other half wanted to go out. Damit it was only 8:45pm. I was invited by my ex-boss to go have drinks with them and their friends. I’m actually kind of shy and am always afraid of being quiet in front of people, especially people I don’t know. Took me 15mins to debate about it but finally decided to go. It was 9pm on a Friday night and I was in another city. I can’t be a frakkin’ loner. I went out and got a cab.
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