McMena's St. Patrick's New York City tour of Irish hangouts.
Upper East Side:

(Map coming soon. In the meantime, read on! - Click on pictures to enlarge.)

An Irish pub in New York City? That's hard to find. A internet search reveals there are more than nine-thousand in the area! Mena can't make them all, but click here for links to some of the most popular. In the spirit of the Willabeast's Haunted Tour of NYC, McMena stakes out the Upper East and West sides for places that at least have an Irish feel.


1. Finnegan's Wake
1361 1st Ave At 73rd St

I'm assuming they have good whiskey here. It was the cause of both the fall and resurrection of Finnegan.
You can also order Bangers & Mash, Steak & Kidney Pie, Shepherd's Pie and Fish & Chips.
However, Willamena was intrigued by the green sign looking behind the awning of Finnegan's Wake. So let's zoom in.


Shamrat
1365 1ST Ave

Kinda funny being in the search for Shamrocks we find Shamrat.
Seriously though, a nice alternative to whiskey or the pint any time is Chai. Shamrat has it listed on the menu as Indian spiced tea.
While Willamena hasn't had the Shamrat version, she highly recommends trying it at any Indian place. Her favorite, however, is still at the Cosmic Cafe in Dallas.

2. Cork & Fin
1374 York (between 73rd and 74th)

This place is wishing you a Happy St. Patrick's Day. That's what it says on the door.
Mena was just here too early. She was told by a cute irish looking boy on the corner eating a sandwich that it is usually open. A check of the hours reveals it opens at noon Monday through Friday, but not until 6:00 pm on Saturdays.
Check out choice with your chips: Whiting & Chips, Tilapia & Chips, Cod & Chips, Catfish & Chips, Chicken & Chips, Shrimp & Chips, even Crabsticks & Chips. You can also get Teriyaki and sushi rolls.

3. David Copperfield's
1394 York Avenue at 74th Street

Just a half block from Cork & Fin a Guiness sign screams at you from David Copperfield's. Okay. So Charles Dickens was English, and this is an ale house. But it does serve Irish fare including Bangers & Mash and Shepherd's Pie.

Plus just how happy the four of us look. Proof people in Manhattan are friendly and you can hand your camera over to strangers who ask if you want to be in the picture with your dog.


4. Doc Watsons
1490 2nd Avenue (between 77th & 78th)









McMena had a thing for this Menu. Check out her smile. While you are at it, check the Brunch deal. (Click on the photos to enlarge.) $10.95 includes an entree, such as Baked beans on toast, and TWO drinks. Ten bucks is what one drink will cost you at some NYC brunches.

5. McKeown's
1303 3rd Ave (between 74th & 75th)

This place is all Irish. It offers traditional fare, including Irish Stew and even Irish-style chicken curry.
There is a fireplace as well as stained-glass window detailing inside.




6. Phoenix Park
206 E 67th At 3rd Ave

Check out his lounge the newshound sniffed out. Its menu lists burgers and traditonal Irish fare. Actually, its the first place on this tour to have Corned beef & Cabbage on the menu.
(Even though Patrick Hogan, a Connecticut chef and restaurant owner born and raised in Ireland, told me he never had corned beef in Ireland. He says it became a substitute for Irish bacon here in America. Read his recipe for something he did eat in Ireland, Bubble and Squeak. )
Phoenix Park in Dublin is the largest urban enclosed park in Europe. It is bigger than NY's Central Park.
Has Mena done a Central Park tour yet? Stay tuned.

McMena's St. Patrick's New York City tour of Irish hangouts.
Upper West Side:

Literature is considered one of Ireland's greatest exports. It was the pubs where writers would congregate to meet publishers and other business contacts. So in honor of St. Patrick's Day, we celebrate the Irish pub.



1. Emerald Inn
205 Columbus Ave (between 69th and 70th)

The same Irish family has owned this locals' joint since it opened in 1943. In 2006 it won New York Magazine's listing for the best watering hole of the UWS. The waiters and waitresses have Irish accents.

2. Malachy's Donegal Inn

103 West 72nd Street (between Amsterdam Ave & Columbus Ave)
This is a place you could walk by every day for three years and never go in. You might pause to read about the five-dollar sausage and onion sandwich special, but you keep walking.
However, this pre-prohibition pub is rumored to be an old hangout of Famed writer Dorothy Parker and her roundtable. The reviews call is not trendy, not chic and not pricey, therefore a local favorite.

3. Westside Brewing Company

340 Amsterdam Avenue at 76th
Okay, so not an Irish bar. Not even Irish-themed. But you can get a Guiness on tap, along with about twenty others. There is also about a 40-bottle selection. It doesn't brew its own anymore, it contracts out to Chelsea Brewing Company. However, through the 1950's, this used to be an Irish bar called Sweeney's.

4. McAleer's Pub

425 Amsterdam (between 80th and 81st)
If there is a pot of gold in the window you know you can't go wrong. Plus there are $2.00 beer specials all week. During brunch you can order probably the closest you'll find to green eggs. It's an egg white omelet with chopped spinach and basil and avocado. Served with a side of mixed greens. You can also get unlimited tomato beer, mimosas, bloody mary's or screwdrivers.

5. The Dead Poet
450 Amsterdam Avenue (between 81st
Street & 82nd)

In the true spirit of Irish literature history, this bar is separated from a New York City library branch by only a child's haircutting place.
You can also order one of eight specialty cocktails named for, well, dead poets. The list includes the W.B Yeats, a five-alcohol mixture, the Robert Frost, a vanilla vodka drink, and the Emily Dickinson, a pink lemonade concocture.
You will also get your name on the wall after drinking your 100th Guinness.
Take home your own plaque after drinking 500.

6.Dublin House
225 W. 79th
(between Broadway and Amsterdam)
This neon harp was up as soon as Prohibition ended in 1933. However, this historical bar was run as a full restaurant and bar during Prohibition because of certain business arrangements with the local authorities. Read more about the history of Dublin House here.

7. Hanafin's
2286 Broadway (between 82nd & 83rd)

You SEE there are shamrocks in the window. Plus the name Hanafin's seems Irish. This restaurant however, is rated American traditional. You can get anything from pancakes to sauteed calamari to burgers to Egg Creams. Mena approves of the carrot soup.

8. The Parlour
250 West 86th street (between Broadway and West End)

This is a tremendously popular Irish bar and restaurant, crowded with the real thing on St. Patrick's Day.

St. Patrick's Day Preview
With only two weeks until St. Patrick's Day, the celebrations have already begun in New York City. This past weekend, parades were held in Queens. Manhattan hosts its Saturday the 17th and Brooklyn marches on the 18th. However, Willamena has been busy working on a tour of Irish bars in New York City to help you with your celebration, no matter when you choose to commemorate. In trying to put one together similar to her tour of Haunted New York, she is facing a few problems. First, knowing her love for the pint, she wants to also find places she can actually go inside. That will probably have to be a separate tour.


This is a picture of her this past summer licking off a beer at the SheepMeadow Cafe in Central Park on a break from her Haunted Tour.

Also, she is finding several problems with taking pictures at night in front of bars. 1. Drunks. With the smoking ban they are outside smoking and ultimately want to take the picture of her or just entice her to lose her composure. Don't try to pet the beast when she is working. Or if she has a bone. Or if you are unruly or drunk or a child. You see the problems with this tour already. 2. The nightime lighting isn't as flattering to her features as time closer to magic hour. Hmmm, maybe we'll have to go with happy hour for this tour.
No doubt the pictures will have to be retaken, regardless this one at the P&G Cafe on Amsterdam might not make the Irish Bar Tour. There are more than nine-thousand Irish bars in New York City to choose from and I'm not sure what P&G is other than a landmark from a Seinfeld episode. Yet another tour the beast will bring you soon.

Thank you for the concern from those of you who questioned how Willamena is healing from her dog bite. I am proud to say she is recovering fabulously from the shame of having to wear that t-shirt around New York City. The wound is also healing with great speed. I have to say I wasn't expecting a nearly nine-year-old dog to recover as well as she did. (Shhhh- don't say anything. I'm planning a party in April.)
Willamena didn't come out to the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration. First, the streets were too crowded and second she was still in mourning over the end of the Year of The Dog. However, with St.Patrick's Day on the way, she is already wearing her "Kiss Me I'm Irish" collar and planning her tour of Irish bars in New York City.I figure as mutted as she is, she must have some Irish in her!

My Chinese New Year Discovery
The sign on the bin read "White Lychee." And the man at Kam Man Food Products on 200 Canal said "one per cup only."

However a a search on the net reveals "one per POT."
It's called flowering tea, and is hand-sewn white tea leaves around what I think is an amaranth flower. It's called Lychee because its made to resemble a lychee nut until it opens up when brewed.
Since I don't have a clear pot or mug, I used a wine glass. Why not, right? I use them for everything else.
This flowering tea tastes similar to jasmine tea.
However, like had I opened a beer or bottle of wine, Willamena did not drool over it. But I'm still going back for more tea pods.

Happy Year of the Pig.
These are pictures from New York City's Chinatown on the New Year Sunday the 19th.

Celebrating the 2nd Anniversary of "THE GATES" in Central Park.

Mena DIGS the snow!

Make snow, and Mena will find it.

Yes, they had to make it in Central Park. New York City hasn't seen such a lack of it since the 70's.

But we're not going without. The Parks Department brought in equipment and expertise from local ski mountains, and a mound of snow was made this week for Saturday's

Central Park Winter Jam.

It IS Fashion Week in New York City. And Willamena is turning heads as she prances her runways of hallways, New City streets and Central Park with her attire.
Despite the scoopneck and 80's inspired knot at the waist, I wasn't trying to make a statement or inspire Spring trends.
Willamena's designer dud made it's debut on Madison Avenue in the mid 70's. I was thinking of how having her with me kept me from spending any money in the sparkling stores. Though if a store owner let me in with her, she would cost me big in the damages done by her violent eight-pound tail.
Interrupting my thought, a lady walking her 5-pound mini-Mena screeched, "What a cute t-shirt!
Feeling inadequate to her dog's fur-lined leather parka, I say it's vet-recommened to help soak up any leakage from her recent stitches.
"Oh, well it's still very cute. I just thought you were being CREATIVE trying to use your old t-shirts."
I guess if you can't afford the labels, you can just be creative. But that's what I love about New York City. It's okay to be creative. And respected. Even on Madison Avenue.
The next comment came from a street vendor, "Dog wear T-shirts now!" (Dog is not a typo.)
Other comments I've had to endure include people pointing and saying, "look at the dog in a shirt!"
"A t-shirt on a dog!"
"I guess it keeps her warm."
Uh, no. It's been 16 degrees with a wind chill of zero or below. A T-shirt is pretty much useless.
As fashion week wraps up, it is also time for t-shirt to come off.
Just wait till it snows and she has to wear her booties. (She has very sensitive paws.) I'll never forget the excitement of a tourist once. "Dogs wear SHOES in New York City!"

Willamena Wins Westminster!

Well you won't be seeing that headline anywhere else since I guess her recent dog bite and shaved little patches would lose points.

However, back in 1999 Willamena did win the Wiggle-Waggle Walk-a-thon in Utica. She wan. But hence the title, it was a walk. So no prize.

You might wonder what category this lab-shepard-collie-et all wonder mix would qualify for in Westminster, which is coming up here in New York City in a little more than a week, February 12th and 13th.
I can hear the announcer gloat of her special traits.
"This type of dog was bred to root through all household trash. You throw it away, this dog will make sure you didn't want it by spreading it along your floor."

And he will continue as the judge tries to lift the head and tail at the same time, all while Willamena wiggles in the middle in effort to escape and play. "This is a special breed, one to protect you from small children."
"This type also shows it's smarts when you realize even putting food on top of the refrigerator isn't enough to keep them from eating it up in one gulp."

Maybe next year, Willamena.

It's not cashmere, and it's not licensed to any particular sports team despite the # 1.
And hopefully this outerwear doesn't start a trend, especially for Willamena herself.
But this new little get up was a $ 514.oo set back.

Unfortunately its a bandage from a dog bite. Mena was in a dogrun, and some dog just wanted a taste of her. He didn't just rip some hair out, he left a near four-inch slice.

It happened on what was the coldest day of the season so far, with wind chills making it feel below zero. I wasn't immediately sure what to do, since Mena's normal vet is in Connecticut near her vacation home. But just about a week earlier someone told me I had one of the city's best vets across the street from my apartment; just that there was always a three week wait.

Luckily, even though it was early Friday night, the vet was open and once they saw the gnash, the vet came right out and checked and agreed she'd need stitches.

He said the original bandage slipped, so he had to wrap her up in this jersey.

She is doing fine, though. She even found a new favorite piece of art on her walk the day after the bite happened.

Here, the E in the mid-50's between fifth and sixth, to her, stands for EAT! As in eat lots of treats when she gets home.

15 days into the New Year and discarded Christmas trees still line New York City streets. Actually, I shouldn't complain because when walking by you still get a little whif of pine, a much better scent than one is used to.

This picture was taken last weekend one block from Riverside park where "Mulchfest 07" was going on. Yet instead of carrying these trees another block so that they could be ground into wood chips and scattered in parks, they were piled on the sidewalk, stands and all, to be picked up as trash.

Actually, the New York City Department of Sanitation has to spend extra money each year to deal with all the trees. Tomorrow is the last day it will have crews collecting trees. Special Christmas tree-only collection routes were established from January 5 to January 16. However, only trees stripped of all decorations (and I'm assuming stands) would be picked up and also gound into mulch for use in city parks.

Trees left out on the street after the 16th will be discarded as trash.

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However, if you took the time

to pick out a tree, drag it up into your apartment, decorate, water and take pictures by it during the holiday season, doesn't it deserve a better send off than left out on the sidewalk? If you bring your ch

ild to choose a tree, why not teach the child to dispose of it in an environmentally friendly manner? The Parks Department had drop off points in city parks so they could be mulched on the weekend of January 6th and 7th. Why make the city spend money to pick up your tree and take it the park. Or even worse, to the dump?

Willamena has her spot in Times Square for New Year's Eve!

When this picture was taken there were only 14 more hours till 2007. The round sign at the top provides the countdown.

At this time, people were already securing their spots for the event. A man with his young son were sitting on a blanket all bundled up in coats, hats and scarves.

For those wanting to stand out in Times Square for New Year's, this might be a good year since the weather is mild. 48 degrees is expected for the high today. 40 the low. Just get home quick afterwards. It might rain after midnight.

Willamena decided she didn't want to spend another 14 hours in this spot without treats, drinks or a restroom. Imagine, looking up at the Budweiser sign all night, knowing as long as you are barricaded in, you can't have one.

Happy New Year!

A New Year's Eve Update:
Crews are busy in Times Square this New Year's Eve Eve working to set up the stage. They also performed a practice ball drop at noon.
Security is also ready. Can you imagine the antics they must witness and put up with? They didn't even blink an eye at Mena and I with our hat and blower.

How do you see yourself in 2007?
At the gym running the rat wheel?
Slaving over the stove because you've given up eating out and four dollar coffee?
Maybe you'll be working longer hours or devoting more of your weekends to family.
At least until mid-February.

For a highly accurate and credible way to find out what people are doing in 2007, I've created a web poll. Please take it, and let me know if I've left out your resolution.
**UPDATE**MY POLL IS NOW WORKING!!!! PLEASE TRY IT OUT!

Get Your Poll Widget

All I want for Christmas and Hanukah... isn't this suit.

Please Santa bring me an I-Paws. I went looking for one at the big Apple store in New York City, but they said there is no such thing! Think of how it would save my big floppy ears. I don't believe those ear bugs could cause half the damage the noise of the city buses and construction sites do. I need I-Paws to protect me from such loud noises. Oh, and the sirens! Please.


Second wish. A place at the Plaza. Look. My tongue is even the same color as the sign. Plus its talking right to me. "I'm a City Girl."
I am! So I should live at the Plaza Hotel in New York City!

Rockefeller xmas 013
Originally uploaded by hrkovar.

Since it was too crowded to take Willamena to the lighting of the Rockefeller tree Wednesday night, we made our annual trek the next day.
I was taking pictures of her alone, when a stranger asked if I wanted him to take our picture.
It was actually a challenge because Mena is used to me taking pictures of her. So she kept facing me and looking at me. I yelled out at him to say the word "treat" but in doing so she looked at me again. I'd say he did a great job. But he cut off the star. If you go, look for the people from NBC taking pictures. They take several, then give you a card letting you know where you can find them online. They don't pressure you to buy any, but you will want to. I am ordering several of Mena and me. I would post one for you to see, but they are copyrighted.