I like you National. We began our night on a rough note as I stood in line for 15 minutes impatiently tapping my foot. Yeah I know you are the hottest thing on 17th Ave but soon enough, something hotter will come along and you'll be teasing me and whatever joe shmoe that comes within your proximity. In fact I came by myself so when I say "I'm here to join a group of friends that have saved a spot for me" and when one of them comes up to let you know...let me in!
Finally when I walked in I get why everyone wants to flock to this place. It has a different vibe than any beer hall in the city. They have a great selection and I'd love to talk about the different beers I tried, but Sabz's BF Chris made sure I remembered very little of that night :/
Still I do remember snippets. Our waitress was super awesome.
Despite having a small selection of spirits and liquor, they were able to put together strange shots for us. I kept having to gargle this weird mix of Jamesons and Jaeger and they even managed to put together a whiskey shot chased with pickle juice for our crew.
I didn't' get a chance to try their food because it seems that at around 10pm, the kitchen closes.
There is a friendly vibe to this place. The large tables make it easy to huddle with your friends and ignore society but give you the option of turning around and making friendly conversation with a stranger. At the end of the night more people stand around the bar area where one could take a bar stroll towards and randomly spark conversations.
Drunk enough I like to pull out a classic conversation starter:
"HEY GUYS WOAH BIG GULPS HUH? WELL SEE YOU LATER!"