A Little Taste of the Irish

While on our holiday in NYC, our hotel was actually in New Brunswick, New Jersey. So one night after a long day of walking, we decided to find some "night life" near our hotel.

I write "night life" because real night life and I do not mix well. I have never felt comfortable in the bar/night club scene, and would walk around like a deer in headlights the whole night despite the caped Mr. Man (an experienced night-lifer) on my arm.

Nevertheless, we were on an adventure! Out doing something different! I am out of character! Bold! Crazy! Spontaneous! We are in a different country for pete's sake!

We head down the main street and can hear the music coming out of a nearby bar. There is a huge, shaven guy standing out in front holding the typical bouncer stance.

We keep walking.

We head down main street and can hear music coming out of a nearby bar. There are stairs going down into the dark basement of a dilapidated building leading to the entrance.

We keep walking.

We head down main street and don't hear anything. At this point my spontaneity is fizzling. As a last ditch effort, Mr. asks the giant bouncer from the first bar if there is any quieter pubs around. He tells us, not in the grunt I was expecting, but in a normal, I'm-really-a-college-student voice, to head further down main street to find what we're looking for.

We keep walking.

But we seriously can't find it. So we turn around again, and head back. But in order to avoid the helpful bouncer (I don't want to hurt his feelings) we cross the street and take the long way back. Lo and behold, we come across this dark wooden door with a sign hanging overhead. It says, "Tumulty's". It was very quiet, but you couldn't see inside from the street (and it was above ground) so I sent Mr. in to see what it was like.

He goes inside, and then comes out, saying, "I think you're going to like this." We go in and are greeted by a friendly barman. There are people at the bar, laughing it up, but no loud music or scary dancing. There were old wooden beams throughout the ceilings and walls, and even the booths themselves had the worn, wooden, rustic look. They had little candles on the tables, and I felt like I was in The Carrag, from the movie, Leap Year. (FaVouRiTe!!) The TV had the sports channel on, and the smell of the fryer and pitchers of beer were in the air. I was just waiting for someone with a thick Irish accent to come around the corner.

We chose a booth, and a young guy (minus the accent) waited on us. I had my light beer and Mr. had his ale. I was cosy in my dream movie world, and Mr. smiled at me, imagining himself patting me on the head. "That's my girl," he is saying, "Live it up."

---------------------------------------

I should tell you that Tumulty's is a real place, and they do have live music and dancing on Friday and Saturday nights. So there are lots of opportunities for everyone to live it up :)