30 to Midnight

Molly's, Gramercy

Friday, 11pm

Molly's
287 Third Ave. (St.), Manhattan

Fireplace! Age Appropriates! Beer! The feeling that you're not in Manhattan! (should that have an exclamation point? but it's pretty, the sequence). History: Opened as a bar in 1895. Operated as a grocery during Prohibition. Named after an Irish folk song in the 60's (Molly Malone's). Renamed in 1991 (Molly’s Shebeen; a shebeen is an illegal drinking establishment). That was the year Sara graduated from high school. Also the year Seinfeld debuted. Also the year Elizabeth Taylor has her eighth wedding. 

Fairy Tales Can Come True: Public House, Midtown East

Wednesday, 5pm

Public House
140 East 41st St. (Lexington Ave.), Manhattan

Did you ever wonder if anyone actually ever wins those prizes offered to those who drop their business card in a fishbowl? Did you have to read that sentence twice to make sense of it?
Fishbowl. Business Card. Prize.
Karina won one -- a 50-person one-hour happy hour at Public House. 50. The best part is that the bartenders hustled, making sure everyone ready for second and third drinks got one. Impressive. Bartender says the crowd is generally after-work-AA. We like the high high ceilings and the wings and how easy this place is for a midtown drink.

Patrick Kavanagh's, Murray Hill

Saturday, 10:15pm

Patrick Kavanagh's
497 3rd Ave. (33rd St.), Manhattan

The decision to enter Patrick Kavanagh's happened after Karina noticed the two seats at the end of the bar while Sara noticed the balding heads. Later, Paul noticed that we were the oldest girls in the bar so he sauntered over and offered to buy us a drink. We accepted, primarily because Sara initially thought he was the guy who'd been unapologetically leaning over her to obtain Miller Lites. She was willing to accept half a pint of Guinness and an Absolut Pear an apology. Instead, it turned out, she accepted the drinks as a pick up line.

"Order your drinks," Paul said, smiling and somewhat swaying. "I'm going to make room for mine and I'll be back."
Since euphemisms delight us, we immediately liked him. He's 36 and seeking same-age entertainment, so we gave him our card (matches out of range of current operating budget).
"There's nothing on this!" he said. "What is this?!"
"You don't think it looks like the card of a stripper?" we asked in self-deprecation.
"It looks like the card of a weird 60-year-old man."
"There was a disconnect between online font size and actual font size."
That, as far as he was concerned, was not the main problem, but we moved on to discussions of Mormonism and meeting women while the bar's median age decreased.

The important facts: If soccer (that other football) or playoffs (the actual football) or any sort of professional sports are on the tele, the crowd will be of mixed ages. If the bar is actually a drinking establishment, the crowd will be AI.

One more thing: The bar is named for an Irish poet who said, among other things, these words: Actors are loved because they are unoriginal. Actors stick to their script. The unoriginal man is loved by the mediocrity because this kind of ''artistic'' expression is something to which the merest five-eighth can climb.

Lady Gaga at Pat O'Brien's, UES

Thursday, 8pm

Pat O'Brien's Bar
1702 Second Ave. (88th St.), Manhattan

Usually we avoid Pat O'Brien's because it is a Red Sox - Patriots - Celtics - Bruins bar, and because the clientele is almost always AI (we walk by here all the time). But we were compelled to enter and give the place a fair shot because, no, not the Beer Pong sign, but the Lady Gaga Look Alike Contest sign. This is hilarious. Oh, it's AI for sure - kids fall out of here nightly - but it can't be ignored.

Muldoon's, Midtown East

Friday, 9:45pm

Muldoon's
692 Third Ave. (43rd St.), Manhattan

When The Moody Blues are singing and more than half the crowd knows all the words, you know you're in an Age Appropriate bar. Since it's Karina's daytime local (yes, DAYtime local), we had high hopes, and they were met, which may or may not be how we ended up in a $300 Superbowl box, and is surely how we got some special treatment, which we so love and appreciate. 

Here's one side of the text conversation Sara had with someone she thought might join the fun:
10:02pm -Drinks happening. Karina says hi.
11:35pm -Shots and extra drinks happening.
11:48pm -I'm in college. It's ugly
12:17am -I'm at Muldoon.S
12:20am -Are you coming? Might be drunk. Third Ave 43
12:27am -Are you coming heidi
12:41am -Are you coming hen
12:45am -
12:46am -Another shot
1:05am -Cab

If not for the wonderful scarfed-down burger and onion rings, circa 10:30pm, Saturday would have been gruesome. Instead, it was merely grim. We will most definitely be back to Muldoon's.
I wonder if you know; I wonder if you think about it

p.s. "heidi" and "hen" were attempts to type "here"

Jake's, Midtown West

Sunday, 10pm

Jake's
875 Tenth Ave. (57th St.), Manhattan

It might be surprising to hear that the bar closest to Terminal 5 is AA, but it is. And we're told the food tastes great though we can only confirm it smells great. And we really thought we had more to say but it seems we do not. It just felt good in here. Too bad Tenth Avenue is so far away. 

O'Flanagan's, Upper East Side

 Sunday, 1:30am

O'Flanagan's
First Ave. (66th St.), Manhattan

What's more surprising - that we were out well past curfew on a Saturday-turned-Sunday, or that the bar was not overwhelmingly AI? If you've been paying attention around here, you'll know the more surprising is the latter: gray hairs plus the low end of AA out late late listening to live music. Yes, live music and people over-30 after midnight. Wow. To what do we attribute this phenomenon? $7.50 beers aren't the City's cheapest.

House of Brews, Hell's Kitchen

Sunday, 12:15am

House of Brews
363 W. 46th St. (8th Ave.), Manhattan

"Weekends are totally different," says waiter Jena, looking around the bar half-full of Bridge+Tunnelers. We felt okay, age-wise, and Jena agreed House of Brews can be AA.

Usually it's mid-to-late-20's (office types, Broadway types, musicians), she says. Plus the 30something regulars who sit outside and smoke (patio open until 12am on weekends, 10pm weekdays). We can't believe we found such a normal bar in such an abnormal location (with such a lame name). We wouldn't go out of our way to come here, but it is a legit post-theatre option.

Update (we like to keep our info fresh): Three months after our first visit we returned to House of Brews. This time on a Thursday, 9pm. The crowd was indeed mostly AA, and mostly corporate casual, and mostly male, plus one aqua-sequin-tank-top.

Mr. Dennehy's, West Village

Thursday, 8:30pm

Mr. Dennehy's
63 Carmine St. (7th Ave. South), Manhattan

30toMidnight did not remember that our first trip to Mr. Dennehy's was the birthday party of researcher Annie. That was forever ago. Not that we're calling Annie old, just Age Appropriate, of course. Anyway, we were pleased to see exclusively AAs - some eating, all drinking, some watching soccer - when we entered the bar. Bartender says it's always this way. Annie had another birthday this month, perhaps we'll be back to reminisce.

11th Street Bar, East Village

Saturday, 10:30pm

11th Street Bar
510 East 11th St. (Avenue A)

At 11th Street bar we verified our theory that Midnight is the witching hour. When we walked in the general volume was lively but low enough for regular-voiced conversation; Traveling Wilburys gently sang in the background. Karina and a silver-haired Man (not a CNN newscaster) struck up conversation over (literally and figuratively) the barstool between them. When Karina got up to investigate the bathroom she deemed "acceptable" Sara picked up talking to the Man, who'd already called her "fiesty" for teasing him about his interest in said barstool.

Man: This is my first time here. I came because I heard it's a Liverpool bar. I mean soccer, which I call football.
Sara: What's your team?
Man: Barcelona. Do you follow?
Sara: No. But I watch the World Cup.
Man: Have you watched any qualification matches?
Sara: No.
Man: Do you know who is in so far?
Sara: No.
Man: How do you know what to watch?
Sara: I go to a bar and pick a team.
Man: How? Color? What's your favorite color?
Sara: I don't know...blue? red?
Man: You're impossible. Just kidding.

Karina returned and the three continued to converse. The Man was careful to qualify his harmless jabs (you're stubborn; she's got a little fire) with an immediate "just kidding." The Man, it turned out, is about a month shy of 51 (Karina guessed 46; Sara guessed 47).  He was disappointed that  soccer was not on the TVs. But he lingered and chatted with us until we asked him his profession. That's a question he does not like. He'd rather get to know someone first. We said that was a way to get to know someone, but he did not agree. Eventually he succumbed (as soon as we said we no longer cared). And guess what? He's a colorist. How awesome is that? Very. Guess that's why he guessed color would be our soccer-cheering-guide. Then he wouldn't tell us how much it costs to come in and get color. Eventually he succumbed...