ShakesBEER

March 22, 2017 | Angela Voelker

Cost: $45 per person. Includes 4 drinks; beer, specialty cocktails, and wine.
Time: 3:oopm – 6:00pm, pub crawl happens about 4 times a year. Check site for details.
Who: Friends, and/or significant other would be great to do this with!
Where: Various bars around midtown
Note: Get your tickets now for the crawl on Saturday, June 13th! Click here for tickets!

Juliet’s Nurse a la’ booze in hand. Cheers kind sir, ya bastard!!

Luis heard, “crab walk,” I heard, “pub crawl.”

Pulling an unsuspecting bar patron into the scene. Well done.

Rosalind flashes us a pornorific pic on her 12th century phone. You’re welcome.

“And I shall ride my gallant steed off into the summers night…”

“ROMEO! Where fore art thou ROMEO!?” Oh, wrong play? OOPS.

“Oh my god.” Luis, please, there is business being conducted behind you. *Queue my serious face*

Wait! Don’t go!! We want MORE!!!

ShakesBeer is exactly the sort of thing I dreamed I would experience when I thought about moving to New York City when I was 10. Shakespeare? Yes. Beer? Yes. Together? Absolutely! Why would you NOT put it together? There’s nothing like hearing Juliet’s nurse, Gin and Tonic in hand, inform Juliet that she was to be married as she straddled a window ledge in the middle of the bar.Or watching Rosalind recite lines from “As You Like It,” perched next to the draft beer taps.

We started out at Albion Bar in Kip’s bay and made our way to three other stops before ending at Tonic East for a Shakespearian mash-up. Throughout the crawl we had no idea who was an actor and who wasn’t, they would just pop up and start their monologue. There were a few moments that Sarah and I wondered, perhaps, were we allowed to jump in and improvise? Probably not, we decided. Clearly we were not going to be showcasing our high school level acting chops BUT we did find a nice little spot at the last bar that reminded us of a stage.

Stage it was, as they informed us before the scene that we were in a prime spot and the actors may interact with us *music to our ears. If, by interact, they meant spit liquor our way, then yes they were correct. First it’s carrots and then booze, what is with people wanting to spit on us!? We like to think that even though we aren’t on stage – we’re still part of the show *wink.

The bartenders of course knew a head of time that people were going to randomly break out into scene but the unsuspecting bar patrons had no idea. That was evident by our interruption of a seemingly serious soccer game going on during our crawl (See Luis, CRAWL, not CRAB WALK…these Guatemalans, I tell ya *eye roll). The game guys were good sports about it with one group shifting focus from the game to our activities and actually enjoying it. At least they pretended like they enjoyed it.

This is something that I’m sure we will do again. I’m counting on a scene from “A Mid Summers Nights Dream,” next time. Until then, I shall wearily count thine slumbers until thou shalt place beer in thy hand and recite woes from yonder lands and restless seas…or something like that.