Stamford Summer Bar Tour - Stop [1]

BlogStamford has reconsidered the bar tour. We are instead embarking on a Townhouse Café tour.

First stop... drumroll… Murphy’s Townhouse Café.

Classification: Neighborhood Haunt/ Downtown Outlier

I wanted to kick off the journey with something low key and unpretentious so I grabbed a buddy and headed down narrow side streets towards 97 Franklin, a world where 1950’s houses, 1970’s office buildings, 1980’s condos, & 19th century cemeteries nestle together. Sounds jarring, but its strangely fitting for a place like Murphy’s. Whereas the bar flies spill into the sidewalk outside Brickhouse, here I think you could step right out into the street and take sip. (Not necessarily endorsed)

Murphy’s is made up of a tight barroom, a down home dining room, and a wrap around patio. There’s a kitchen at the end of the bar no bigger than my bathtub. My buddy keep insisted the place reminded him of something out of the 1930’s. Something about the ceiling. I didn’t see it, but he persisted. He also claims to have purchased a painting worth thousands for twenty bucks at the Treasure Shop across the street.

Inside a lively, everyone knows your name crowd lined the room. Outside, my acted out tale of a unisex office bathroom embarrassment (not my own) made us some new friends on the patio.

New friend wanted to give me a light.
I don’t smoke.
New friend wanted me to use his lighter regardless.
I had nothing to light.
New friend wanted me to just press the lighter button.
Ok…some things only make sense in bars.
Lighter delivers me an electric shock.
New friend laughs, wants me to try again.
I understand the gimmick now, no further need.
New friend insists.
Some things only make sense in bars.

That wraps a quiet weekday night. Easy walk home, if available, the best feature of any bar.

This concludes the Summer Townhouse Café Tour. We’re left with no choice to re-embark on the original mission. Until then…