Norwood Inn

After no luck with the nicer restaurants in town (long waits) my boyfriend found this place on Google.

I saw that they only had a so-so rating, so I was VERY nervous upon entering, and when I did go in through the doors to the bar area, I wanted to run out crying. It was totally dead! Like in a horror movie, I was waiting by the bar with some creepy man waiting for him to slash my boyfriend and I.

Thankfully a nice waitress led us to a table where a large family group was seated nearby. The menu looked decent, and I decided to go with a bacon cheese burger, while my man ordered the lobster roll.

Our food came in a timely manner, and I was pleasantly surprised. Loved my burger and I loved the fries! I tried my boyfriend's lobster roll and hated it - imitation meat - but I guess that's what you get for 10 bucks.

Overall, OK experience, the friendly staff and yummy burger made up for the horrible interior and sticky seats.

With a name like Nip Night, it's gotta be good, right?  Mondays - $1 "Nips" (7 oz mini bottles of beer) seemed like a wonderful excuse to check out the Norwood Inn, so we put together a huge group of girls (actually six, but it felt huge at the time) for a night out.  

Coming in two cars, our staggered arrival led to half our party just BARELY making the pre-9:45 deadline and beating the cover. The rest of our party walked in at 9:48 and, alas, had to shell out $5 each for the opportunity to throw back nips with the rest of the clientele.  Upon entry, we were hit with the pungent aroma of standard pub fare and cheap beer, a perfect fit for the "cheap local fratty bar" I was expecting a la Yelp.

Before nabbing my first nip, I head to the bathroom only to walk in on a confused gentleman who didn't realize he'd stumbled into the ladies' room. Awesome start to the evening.  After he left, I walked in to find two small stalls and a teensy sink space, so be warned that the bathroom situation is not the best. Over the course of the night, with lots of nip-fueled use, the flush stopped working on one (or both) of the toilets by the dance floor.  Brutal.

The DJ, Jersey Joe or Jersey John or something of that nature, greeted our early entry with a Pandora-sounding mix of Jack Johnson and Dave Matthews.  Luckily, over the course of the night, he eventually changed it up with a nice mix of "YEAH!! Love this song!" and "Oh, dammit, not this again. Wanna grab another nip?"

It started to get very crowded sometime around 11-11:30 and, by midnight, was packed with folks ranging from the "Dress to impress" to the "just rolled off the beach" Jersey girls, surfer boys, and everything in between.  Normally, I'd love this, but the unfortunate result was that they couldn't re-pack the fridges/coolers with nips as fast as they were selling them. This translated to the bottles being less and less cold as the night went on, though I assume that many of the patrons may not have noticed after their 7th nip.

There's a decent sized dance floor/space and I never felt like I went too long without a drink due to attentive bartenders.  At one point, sick of cheap beer, we ordered some cocktails which were reasonably priced and poured strong for $5/G&T.  

The clock on the wall by the bar was about 15-20 minutes fast, and I wonder if this is to boost the "time" of cover starting AND last call, but that's just a suspicion.  Wanting to grab a cab before the crowds started pouring out, we headed out around 1:30 (or 1:50, according to their clock inside) and had no problem getting a taxi.

Quite a deal for a Monday night, and our final tab for 3 of us (including 2 cocktails) was $37 (tip not included). If nips are your thing and you dig a crowd, head to Norwood Inn (though do yourself a favor and ask them to adjust their clock...)

Beyond awful.  Enough said.  They need to loose the attitude, it's not even a halfway nice place.  It's like if you're not one of their local crowd, you're nothing.  Not on my money.