Rudy's in New Haven

[Pipenta]

For some reason Rudy's had fallen off my radar for a few months. I'd forgotten about it when I was trying to think of some fun casual place to eat.

It used to be a dive bar, my favorite dive bar and then it closed and then it reopened around the block. It's more upscale now, but I still like it. The bar is a nice place to sit and enjoy a drink. I wish they still had the cartoons playing instead of the sports, but I guess that's the price of moving up in the world. There's a good selection of beers and the like. And the food is quite good. They have always done Belgian-style frites and a half a hundred kinds of mayo, but now you can get mussels with them!

When they first reopened I went on a fried chicken kick, because it was scrumptious. But at my age I can only eat so much of that kind of thing. There's a very good endive salad and the little pizzas are lovely.

My latest favorite is the avocado sandwich. You order it and think you are being restrained. And then it arrives on a big beautiful glossy hamburger bun and it is all flavor and texture and yummy. And the damn thing is flanked by those frites, so screw the diet.

Has anyone else eaten here lately?

[shoes]

We went a few weeks ago. The fries were as good as always. Great beer selection and good cheap eats - burgers, bratwurst, salad.

My one complaint involves the chairs. They are the most uncomfortable things I have ever perched upon in a restaurant. Those chairs are the reason I would never go there if I planned to have a few - my butt could not take it.

[Pipenta]

I could not agree more with you on the chairs. The tall stools at the bar are, in particular, torture devices. And if you are an average sized woman, your feet will not touch the support bar. The whole damn set up is designed to dislocate your hips.

I looked for fried chicken on the menu last week and it was gone, alas.

[mmalmad]

We stopped in there last Saturday night after the concert on the Green. I had the bratwurst on a pretzel roll, it OK, too much roll for the wurst. The fries were ordinary nothing like what I remember at the old location. SO had a veggie burger, which she kiled quite a bit but also said the fries were like you get at any diner

[algct]

You just can't get a good "dive" bar nowdays!
No more beer soaked real wooden tabletops, sawdust on the floor, pitchers of beer.
Great photos on the walls.

The smoke I can take or leave - they didn't smoke cee-gars in there.

[Pipenta]

There is the Elm Bar in Rudy's old location. It's not bad and it's a bit of a dive.

[avazora]

Elm Bar is running by the Main Garden owners who kicked out Rudy's. It's a dive with no soul.

[mels]

Say it ain't so! Rudy's went upscale??? That was my dive bar of choice in the late 1990s where friends and I would down pitchers of very cheap beer.

[lsnhc]

yep...it's true. In a modernized facade building on the corner of Chapel and Howe (formerly a vegetarian restaurant). Nothing like the old place!

[bagelman01]

No, the last time I was there was in 1979 in the old location, cheap beer, greasy food and loud music, lots of smoke too!