I’ve spent a lot of time grousing about restaurants, bars, and coffee shops from youth that progress replaced with a Walgreen’s, a cell phone store, or a Starbucks. So I’m taking a moment to salute the ones that still exist.

The Abbey Pub was my first “local” bar in New York. It was ten minutes away from my very Upper West Side apartment. It was demographically similar to The Globe in Athens, Georgia. It was where Columbia professors, grad students, and locals (to clarify, I was strictly the latter) hung out. There’s an assortment of great beers on tap, and cool pew-like booths if you’re with friends and comfortable seats at the bar if you’re me. It was the first bar I took my friends Kim and Beth to when they came to visit me at the end of 1996, and not coincidentally, it was the first time I sat at one of the booths.

I have no great stories related to the place, unfortunately. For about six years, it was a home from small cramped room. I tended to just soak in the atmosphere… and the beers. There was also a wonderful video rental store directly above the pub that had buy-one-get-one free specials over the weekend and picked up and delivered. Pretty much every old movie my friend Erin and I watched came from there. Sadly, it is long since gone now, and… well, I promised that’s not what these posts would be about.

Next time, I’ll be more loquacious.