J.A. Murphy's turns 1, celebrates with free drinks
Wow. It's hard for me to believe that J.A. Murphy's is a year old already.
It feels like the Fells Point haunt (which replaced Lulu's) just opened yesterday.
Baltimore Magazine's Jess Blumberg wrote a nice heads up about J.A. Murphy's birthday bash, which features all kinds of free shots and such from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. tonight.
If there was a No. 6 on my Five Best New Bars of 2009 list, it would have been J.A. Murphy's.
A few Tuesdays ago, when a couple friends and I stopped in and had a few rounds there, I was reminded of how much I liked the spot.
It seems like the owners are trying really hard to make J.A. Murphy's a solid neighborhood spot. For the most part, they've been successful ...
I've never had bad service there, and have always been surprised by the silly bar games. For a while, they were doing a Word of the Day, and whoever said the word of the day won free drink.
When we were there earlier this month, customers could have the bartender spin a wheel labeled with various drink outcomes -- some good and some bad. A guy next to me spun the wheel and had to buy everyone in the bar shots at $1 each. Good thing the place wasn't slammed.
My friend Tom spun the wheel, and had to buy someone a shot. He picked me, and ordered a Shave and a Shower, which was a mix of Rumplemintz and espresso vodka. It sounded awful but was actually not bad.
If you haven't been to J.A. Murphy's yet, check it out sometime. I've been two or three times, and have always had a good time.
(Photo by me)
Erik Maza is a features reporter at the Baltimore Sun. He writes for several sections of the Sun paper and contributes weekly columns on music and nightlife. He also writes and edits the Midnight Sun blog. He often covers entertainment, business, and the business of entertainment. Occasionally, he writes about Four Loko, The Block, the liquor board, and those who practice "
Comments
One of my favorite spot's in Fell's!!
Posted by: DaveS | January 26, 2010 4:05 PM
Fernando!!!
Good for everyone at Murphy's...except Keith :)
Posted by: Kory | January 26, 2010 4:17 PM
Lulus > JA Murphys
Posted by: Geoff | January 26, 2010 4:26 PM
Your post has the exact same title as the blog you linked.
Posted by: George | January 26, 2010 5:22 PM
(smacks head with hand)
Oopsy Daisey!
I think it's time to stop blogging for the day and check out some country bars. Cheers, folks!
Posted by: Sam Sessa | January 26, 2010 5:28 PM
Plus Marka is hot!!!
Posted by: DaveS | January 26, 2010 9:17 PM
Here's one of my (very) few critiques for this blog. I've been reading it for a solid year now, just fyi. I would say that I stop by to check for new posts on average three times a day (weekdays only). I would really like to take advantage of pop-up events like this one, but it seems to me they are many times posted late in the day, the day-of. If at all possible in the future, could you try to post this type of heads-up at least the morning of the day-of? It would be much appreciated.
Posted by: Matt | January 27, 2010 8:09 AM
@Matt: want some cheese with that whine?
Posted by: MattL | January 27, 2010 9:13 AM
Matt's got a good point. In the future, I'll try to get more advance notice on some of these events. Cheers, and thanks for reading!
Posted by: Sam Sessa | January 27, 2010 10:08 AM
Damn! missed it. Love this place too.
Note: The owner was featured in Baltimore Mag's top singles. Never can tell why I'm not featured....
Posted by: duffster | January 27, 2010 10:24 AM