buybacknyc does Blue Ruin

For our inaugural “buyback mission”, we decided to take a cue from Midtown Lunch's happy hour guru Mamacita and treat ourselves to a recent Friday night out at a not-so-old yet still very-old-school-feeling dive bar. Located in the most scenic of homeless-ridden, cheap-food sellin', I-can't-believe-I'm-still-kind-of-in-Midtown stretches of Manhattan, Blue Ruin is sandwiched on 9th at 40th between the newish $1 slice joint and a rundown tortilla shack.

Blue Ruin offers 2 for 1 drinks from 5-8 weekdays, so every paid round gets you a ticket for a free one – probably not the ideal time to test for buybacks since we were already getting every other round “free” but what the hell do we know, it's not like this is an exact science or something.

Blah, blah, blah did we get buybacks or not? Find out after the jump... (Read more)

With the “rules” in mind, we cozied up to the not-so-crowded bar about 5:15 and laid down $2 to show the bartender we were serious about taking care of her tonight. BIG MISTAKE:

Bartender looks at the cash: “that's not from you, right?”

Me: “Uhh, no. Oh wait, yeah, that's from us!”

Bartender smirks, purses lips: “yeah, sure it is”

So we were already down two bucks with nothing to show for it. No rapport with the bartender and not a drop yet to drink UNTIL...she asked for our IDs and was completely charmed by my drinking partner's Belgian Passport! Turns out she's a French-speaking francophile who's crossed the pond on several occasions – pay attention fellas – Port Authority is a hotbed of culture!

Merci a toi this, non merci a vous ma belle that and the first round is served.




Paid rounds two and three follow, each with a free drink in between (we tipped $1 per drink, paid and free drinks alike).



So, by this time we've consumed 6 drinks each – and this on an empty stomach inside about 80 minutes. We decide that we just can't stomach a 7th and start to freak out that this has all been for naught.

Then...in a moment of uninhibited desperation...we ask the bartender flat out: “if we order a 4th round, would you give it to us free?” to which she replied “yeah, I usually give buybacks on the 3rd or 4th round.” BINGO.

Turns out all we had to do was ask...but if we had asked earlier, we wouldn't have gotten to know Yvril, Carlo, Nacho, or their pal Cruz, the hard-drinking Broadway stagehand getting loaded before his 8 o'clock showing of the Lion King. Amigos por vida.