Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden.

It's not an easy sell to get me to Queens. A Met's game was the first successful trip, the Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden was the second. In celebration of Ben's quarter century birthday, a group of twenty trickled in, over the hours. The N train was fickle, in fact we waited for nearly thirty minutes- for eleven police officers to arrive to detain one docile, seemingly homeless man, from a car.

When we eventually arrived in Astoria, I had nearly finished a novel, and had many times over been tempted to turn around. Unsure of which direction to take,Vadim led us astray. Quizzically, we wandered the sighing streets of Queens. Suddenly, we noticed a familiar face cowering under the overpass. Jimmy?

Jimmy was lost too. After several pleading words, they broke down and called for directions. We linked up with other familiar faces at the door and picked up a few pitchers. We trailed to a back corner to locate Ben and Company. The Open-air Czech owned Beer Garden is massive in comparison to other NYC hot spots. It almost feels like you're in a prison in Thailand- but with board games, french fries and burgers. Swarms of people, mostly foreign, encompassed by painted brick walls. The tropical humidity of Summer and exhaustion.

The bartenders have well developed attitudes and their talents do not extend beyond pouring pitchers and straight shots. This is to be expected, but difficult to explain to already intoxicated friends, that for whatever reason are requesting Red Headed Slut shots...