Empty Glass is a weekly post devoted to furthering the alcoholic rock star image and mythos. That's right, kids -- drinking has no negative side effects and makes you look cool, to boot.
Steve Tulipana is a musician who's traveled the world as part of Season to Risk and the Roman Numerals. He loves music so much, he opened the Record Bar with fellow Roman Numeral Shawn Sherrill almost five years ago. If you've ever been to the Record Bar, you know Tulipana is a man who knows his bars, as that venue is among the best in the Midwest, and an obvious choice to answer, "What do you like to drink and where do you like to drink it?"
The obvious answer is that I like to drink at recordBar as I get a pretty great discount. My poison of choice is Tito's Vodka and soda. Best American vodka hands down.But I would be remiss if I didn't mention one of my most favorite places to drink in the whole world. The Mars Bar in New York City. I recorded an album in NYC in the mid-90s and I probably spent more time in this tiny hole in the wall than I did in the studio. Ridiculously amazing juke box. Outsider folk art on the walls and is packed w/ about 20 people in there.
Never have I been able to visit the city w/o heading by this royal shit hole and spending way too much time but very little money. That said I haven't been back for a couple years and I had heard rumors it was closing but a quick Yelp search and I found out it is still going strong but now only serves beer and wine. Sitting at the Mars after hours drinking well vodka out of glassware that tasted like 1954 is high on my lists of favorite memories. Oh yeah, and don't forgot the Grand Marnier chasers!
The Molly R review on Yelp is what Tulipana says "sums up my attitude/experience of this
legendary dive."
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Oh, Steve. When I think of Mars Bar, I think of so many different things. And as nasty as that place is, somehow all the memories are good. One of the best: It's 3 am- ish, and I'm supposed to be at Javits Center in 5 hours. But that reality doesn't count because I'm at Mars Bar with John Berry (ex-Beastie Boys) and Mary Wills and we're going to have another round, dammit, right after I brave the loo. As I exit (checking for foreign objects stuck to my boots), I hear a familiar voice shout my name and I nearly fall over when I see it's Steve Tulipana! I'd forgotten they were in town to record, so you can imagine what a delightful surprise that was. For as often as that place managed to repulse me, I have to confess that I love Mars Bar too. There's no other dive like it in the world (thank God!).
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