Vesuvio's

Our last stop was the infamous Vesuvio's Bar. This was the long ago hangout of Jack Kerouac and other great Beat poets. One night in History Kerouac a rising writer was suppose to meet with Henry Miller who rather enjoyed Kerouac's work, But Kerouac could not get away from Vesuvio's. He called Miller every hour telling him that he could not get out of the city. Kerouac decided to party hard that night instead of meeting up with the great Henry Miller; the two never did meet. Maybe this is why they put Kerouac alley right next to the establishment.

We went in an enjoyed a cappuccino, relaxed, and took in all the history. When we were leaving Jonathan noticed that they sold Absinthe; we were just talking about them allowing absinthe back into the states the day prior. So, we sat down at the bar and had a glass. The stuff taste like strong black licorice. It was a pretty cool drink, that had a weird drip system where you poured water (to lessen the impact) over a sugar cube. For some reason, I don't have any pictures, but I remember taking a couple...well that's absinthe for you!

that Bartender was really friendly, when we were leaving everyone (the bartender, a regular, and an old guy talking through a hole in his throat) in the bar wanted to how we heard about the place, why we had stopped in, and what we did for a living. The first two we had no problems answering; we were of course on the Beat Trail and had heard this was ground zero, the place to start or end the adventure. But Jonathan and I felt a little weird telling the generally liberal loving crowd that we worked for the MAN! I make sure that innocent people stay behind bars and Jonathan is a torturer of animals. Maybe, we were in the wrong place after all. The crowd had weird looks on their faces when they told them, but they were still a gracious host and invited us back.

Overall, Vesuvio's is a great place to stop for a drink, whether it's coffee or Absinthe.