Owl Bar sells yards of beer

The Owl Bar

1 E. Chase St.

Phone: 410-347-0888

Price: $10-$15

Location: Mount Vernon

Hours: Mon.-Fri.: 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m.

Sat.-Sun.: 11:30 a.m.-12 a.m.

How does one measure beer?

The obvious answer is that we, as Americans, measure our beer in ounces. Beer comes in 12-ounce cans and bottles when we buy it at stores. At bars, the hefty pint clocks in at 16 ounces. Of course, at the top of the list (or the bottom, if you go by classiness), is the mighty 40-ounce bottle of malt liquor.

Sure, the more scientific and worldly among us would prefer that we measure our libations in milliliters, but we're Americans, and we won't switch to some socialist, one-world system of measurement just because it makes intuitive sense. If some among us are so ready to tell us that our measurement system for liquids is anachronistic, they should try another option -- measure it by height, as the Owl Bar does. After downing a yard of lager and noshing on some spectacular bar food, metric proponents will likely leave with a different perspective -- a perspective that is more then likely blurry and spinning.

The point here is that the Owl Bar offers beer by the yard and half-yard. The yard glass itself is something to behold: wide at the top, narrow in the middle and wide again at the base, the yard glass is so tall that one cannot drink it at a table -- it should be consumed at the bar.

Drinking from a yard glass is as much as an art as the crafting of the glass itself. At the top, it's easy, but about halfway down, it becomes simultaneously a battle not to get your shirt wet and a lesson in the behavior of waves. Since one has to tip the giant glass a great deal to get at the beer -- shame on anyone who thinks a straw is an option -- the beer comes cascading down at a fast pace. You must either gulp it all down, risking choking, or tip the glass back at just the right time without jerking it too fast and spilling it everywhere. After all, there are sober college students in Africa who don't have enough beer to drink.

Aside from beer by the yard, the Owl Bar has many other things going for it. Located on the ground floor of the Belvedere Hotel, it is very close to Mount Vernon, as well as the Penn Station shuttle stop. Since it is in the same building as the 13th Floor, one can have a hearty dinner and a few drinks during happy hour before going upstairs and enjoying a spectacular view and a similarly hard-to-miss yuppie atmosphere. In addition, the Owl Bar itself isn't too hard on the eyes. The stained glass above the bar, the high ceiling and the carved wood are a material expression of the clichZ that "they don't build 'em like they use to."

Of course, any article about the Owl Bar would be incomplete without mentioning their food. The menu is a selection of classic American staples, centered around brick-oven pizza and hefty sandwiches, all of which are hearty and filling. Nevertheless, I would recommend the chicken tenders as the dish to get. Possibly because so many other bars and restaurants look down on the chicken tender as a lowly cheapskate option to soak up booze, the Owl Bar's tenders stand out. The meat is tender and juicy, like the archetypical Thanksgiving turkey. The breading is well textured and never soggy. The tenders themselves are substantial in size without getting to the point being unruly. The sauces offered for dipping are wide in variety, not overly thick and tangy in flavor.

Are there drawbacks to the Owl Bar? The only one that is apparent is that it is fairly expensive (yards of beer cost around $14), but you can't expect this sort of quality for free.

Pick a day -- any day. Grab a few pals and head down to the Owl Bar for happy hour. Order the chicken tenders and have yards of beer all around. Then come back up on the shuttle. Treat yourself.