The Castillian Blog

A write up in today's Clarion Ledger about Brian Floyd and his Barman's Fund: Miss. native's Barman's Fund serves charities Also, a feature on the drinks Floyd is serving up at the Vanderbilt: New York drinks get a twist of Mississippi UPDATE: Here is a link to the audio archive from when Brian Floyd was interviewed on Supertalk's Marshall Ramsey Show about the Barman's Fund.

Labels: Being Considerate, Libations and Cuisine, nyc

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Another Round

Great interview in the Village Voice of Brian Floyd. Yes, another story on the Barman's Fund but also serves as good guide for drinking in NYC.

Labels: Libations and Cuisine, nyc

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Wall Street Needs A Drink

Another article about Floyd's The Barman's Fund this time in today's Wall Street Journal:

NY HEARD & SCENE
AUGUST 5, 2011
Bartenders Serve Up Tips for Community Causes
By MELANIE GRAYCE WEST

For bartender Brian Floyd, a tip on a beer is more than just a thank you for good service. He takes his tips, pools them with contributions from other barkeeps and goes out to do good in the community.

Mr. Floyd, 35 years old, works at the Vanderbilt restaurant and bar in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, where he lives.

He is the founder and organizer of the Barman's Fund, a loose association of about 10 members who have agreed to contribute one shift's worth of tips each month to an informal, pooled philanthropic fund. The bartenders decide as a group how to donate the money.

"All of these people in my mind are just absolute champs," says Mr. Floyd of his band of do-gooder bartenders.

"If you asked somebody, 'Will you give me $300 every month?' people would say no," he says. "But that, in effect, is what these people are doing."

Tips pooled as part of the Barman's Fund have gone to help finance several projects totaling around $7,000. Money so far has gone to causes including a scholarship for a girl to attend music camp at the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, the purchase of a barbecue grill and patio furniture for the Park Slope Women's Shelter and the purchase of bulk food for the Greenpoint Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen.
Next on the to-do list is the funding of an antibiotics program for uninsured patients of the Brooklyn Free Clinic.

"It can be really challenging and frustrating thing when people don't have a lot of money and they have to choose between food and filling a prescription. They're not going to fill it and they're not going to get better," says Mr. Floyd.

The idea to start such a fund began in March when Mr. Floyd and his father challenged each other to do something for the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Mr. Floyd reached out to a few bartender friends with the idea to contribute a night's worth of tips to the Red Cross. Out of that grew the fund and the expanded mission to contribute in the community.

Finding projects that can be accomplished with just one gift from the fund is a challenge, says Mr. Floyd.

Another snag is that sometimes during the charity shifts, customers can confuse the offering of a tip on a drink for a charitable contribution to an official nonprofit. To be sure, the fund isn't incorporated and the bartenders consider themselves just a community group.

Mr. Floyd's charity shift is the first Friday of the month at the Vanderbilt. The group hopes to cross $10,000 in donations this month.

He says that Barman's Fund nights tend to be fun and people come out with friends because they know that the tip— even if it's just $1—goes to a good cause.

Labels: Being Considerate, Libations and Cuisine, nyc

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Shot of Charity

Great write up in The Brooklyn Paper about Brian Floyd's "The Barman's Fund" - an organization of bartenders using designated nights of tips to give back to specific charities: The Brooklyn Paper - Drinking for a Cause!

Labels: Being Considerate, Libations and Cuisine, nyc

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The Vanderbilt

If you're ever in Brooklyn, stop by The Vanderbilt and ask Brian Floyd to mix you up an El Castillo or Neshoba County Fizz.

Labels: Castillian Empire, Libations and Cuisine, nyc

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Make Some Noise



Mtv.com - Beastie Boys' 'Fight For Your Right Revisited': Five Things You Might Have Missed: Star-studded film is packed with nods to the Beasties' past and present

The above video picks up where the below video leaves off.

Labels: another word for pirate treasure, antics, Beasties, beer, Hiphopanonymous, History, inter-dimensional cross-rips, kids these days, Music, nyc

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Bike Tour of Brooklyn

Labels: nyc, stories better left untold

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Engrish

Or as the NYT calls it, Chinglish. Funny and Funnier

Labels: Arbitrary and Random, engrish, generic label, nyc, political correctness

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The King Edward in NYC

In between acting gigs, Brian Floyd is pouring some mean cocktails at The Vanderbilt in Brooklyn. ValetMag.com recently highlighted one of his concoctions - "The King Edward" - named for Jackson's iconic hotel.

King Edward
The Vanderbilt, Brooklyn, NY
Named after The King Edward Hotel in Jackson, Mississippi, and meant to evoke cherry vanilla pipe tobacco flavors. Originally mixed by Brian Patrick Floyd in 2008.

1 3/4 oz Wild Turkey Rye 101
3/4 oz Cherry Heering
Splash of a vanilla syrup - made by mixing a simple syrup, Tahitian vanilla extract and Benedictine
Garnish with a brandied cherry. The surface of the finished drink is then sprayed with an Islay Scotch to impart a smoky nose (Floyd uses Ardbeg).

He also serves the Belhaven Cocktail (mezcal, drambuie, lime, orange bitters).

Labels: Libations and Cuisine, nyc

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Gotcha!

For those of you who remember or played Gotcha! at Belhaven, you might enjoy this read from the New Yorker about a similar game being played in NYC highschools.

Labels: aquacurricular activities, BU, nyc, toy guns

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Most Frequently Used Tags at The Castillian Blog

Labels: Agent Tom, Blogs, Castillian Empire, fun for the whole family, incessant ghostbusters references, Matthew Gardner, movies, nyc, politics

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Mississippi in the Park

Greeting from NYC and the annual Mississippi in the Park.

Labels: nyc

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No more pants in New York City.

Labels: antics, Going To "Jail" For A Good Cause, nyc

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Bud

Brian Floyd in the new Budweiser commercial: Unstoppable

Labels: nyc

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BF

Brian Floyd just scored a national budweiser commercial - when it comes out, I'll be sure to link it. Congrats Floyd!

Labels: nyc

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My most recent essay for The Chronicle of Higher Education: The Bow-Tied Penitent.

My editor really earned her paycheck this time and sliced off the last five hundred words of the essay, where (some of you may remember a post from late Winter 2005) I talk about walking through Central Park at night with a beer and peeing on Christo's "Gates" behind Tavern on the Green. It was the best part of the essay, but she said her bosses wouldn't go for my desecrating a NY-establishment establishment.

Labels: nyc

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GW

"Historians just found a document that showed a list of liquor George Washington wanted for his New York headquarters including: a keg of brandy, a box of Claret dessert wine, a box of fortified wine, a basket of cordials, and two kinds of cheese. So not only was George Washington the father of our country, he also invented the mini-bar" - Jimmy Kimmel Live, ABC, 4/4

Labels: nyc

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A good article in the New York Times about Dr. Tim Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC. (HT: World Mag Blog)

Labels: nyc

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The Last Beatnik

Not sure many of you will be interested, but the New York Press has an interview with Lawrence Ferlinghetti. It begins "You're forgiven if you thought Lawrence Ferlinghetti was dead." I did.

Labels: nyc

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The Muster
On the evening of May 13th I will be laying claim, in the name of the Political Unity of El Castillo to a very strategic piece of land (in terms of world domination), and I ask for the help of all faithful citizens of Mother Castillo to solidify this task.

Governors Island, located off of the southern tip of Manhattan near the Statue of Liberty, will be the site of an historic "reenactment" being organized by some blue-blooded Yale educated yankee artist. I have been chosen, along with a fellow colleague, using the guise of an installation art work, to be one of a select group of fifty people to create an encampment, and guard Governor's Island for one night. The island has been off limits to civilians for hundreds of years and has played and important part in every historic American war.

My real intention, of course, is to raise the Castillian flag over Governor's Island on the evening of May 13th. Others will undoubtedly be attempting to do the same, but they cannot prevail. I also intend to bury, that evening, a sealed, time-capsule-like container holding a collection of Castillian memorabilia on the island, forever solidifying el Castillo's important connection to American history, and leaving an artifact that will one day allow us to lay rightful claim.

Here's what I need from you:

Any small artifact that you possess from el Castillo.

A copy, if possibly, of the final report of the Bureau of Archives and Chronicles (I have a copy that I can xerox, but if an original were available that would be great).

A red ryder for defeating the others (I can't find one up here).

Anything else that would help me destroy the other yankee scum on the island.

Mail to arrive by Thursday May 12th to: el Presidente Dayton Castleman, 736 North Terrace Apt. D, Philadelphia, PA 19123

I look forward to documenting this historic moment and will share my photographs and video with one and all.

Labels: nyc

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