Quantity & Quality at Big Daddy's Boozy Brunch - NYC

When insomnia has you in its grips, and there’s not a single lullaby to rock you unconscious, the only place to go is outside. Don’t let the grim flickering lights of your urban environment ruin your adventure. To say, “Its cold” on a Monday night in January is a total understatement of obvious evidence. With cold wind chills and sharp drops of drizzling rain to punctuate the evening, I wasn’t going very far. Since I was tethered to the Upper West Side, I only had one real option on my mind, and that was a deliciously juicy burger and a handful of Bloody Marys at Big Daddy’s Burger & Shake Restaurant.

Big Daddy’s is a retro 1950’s throwback to the days of poodle skirts, vinyl spinning jukeboxes, and good old Americana — when your favorite show was on the radio, when nice girls dated squares, and when tough guys wore leather jackets, penny loafers and packs of cigarettes in their t-shirt sleeves. The musical playlist may be from the previous two decades but the place was retro as hell.

The initial entrance almost changed my mind, when I saw a gaggle of people standing around like Yankee flamingos waiting to be seated.

I sat at the bar and tended to my own business. It was the kind of night where the only thing lower than the sidewalk was sewage and my self-esteem.

The service was quick on my corner of the establishment. I silently conversed with a vinyl Liberace album staring at me from an even darker corner of the bar. It was the “Stangers in the Night” LP. Someone must’ve bought it at a dingy Salvation Army or worse, a Bazaar, and thought it would look nice among the other trinkets of yesteryear.

I needed a boost of ego-juice and needed it immediately. When my attendant approached, I knew just what to order: the everyday “Boozy Brunch” special, $12 all-you-can-drink (Bloody Mary, Screwdrivers, Mimosas) for 90 minutes and only with the purchase of an entrée.

They’re served in the typical plastic party cups. The party cups aren’t the large “Red Plastic Cups” of fun from the Toby Keith song. No, just regular medium sized cups with the Big Daddy’s logo on them.

To an average drinker or the weekend binger, this seems like a waste of time. However, it is all you can drink for a ninety minute window. Ninety solid minutes, man. And they’re served with Sky Vodka. You’re basically getting a small caliber bang, but after two or three rounds, it all comes together very nicely.

I think I stayed well past the time it took for my burger to digest. The waitress asked if she could take my empty cups, but I requested she leave them be so I could keep track of my score. She laughed. I laughed. It was funny, and my mood was elevated.

I felt a warm feeling of fuzz in my extremities, and after paying my debt to Big Daddy’s, I was ready for the cold and harsh winds of reality just outside the door.

Three Celery Stalks

- Sam HaiNe

BIG DADDY’s Burgers, Shakes & Tots 2454 Broadway New York NY 10024 Phone: 212-677-2004

[wpgmza id="130"]