BY HEATHER DUBIN | The Super Bowl may have been a bust as far as a competitive game, but lots of East Village locals were content drinking regional Western brews.
At ABC Beer Co., on Avenue C near E. Sixth St., co-owner Zach Mack stocked the shop with beer from Washington and Colorado, the home states of opponents the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos. The idea stemmed from last year’s postseason playoffs, but this year’s beer selection was a hit.
According to Mack, sales were busy all day Sunday, and he had to replenish the dwindling beer supply every five minutes.
“My Colorado beer is gone. Some guy came in and bought cases,” Mack said. While he usually carries Denver Pale Ale and Titan IPA by Great Divide Brewing Company in Denver, Mack ordered extra. He also added Avatar Jasmine IPA, by Seattle’s Elysian Brewing Company, known for integrating food ingredients into beer, to his list of regional growlers.
Over at 7B, also known as the Horseshoe Bar, on the corner of Avenue B and E. Seventh St., East Villager Debby Cohen was anxious for the game to start. She was wearing an orange Peyton Manning T-shirt, and her fingernails were painted with the numbers of her favorite players on one hand, and “Omaha,” the Denver quarterback’s quirky battle cry, on the other.
“I was born in Vail, Colorado, and lived in Bellingham, Washington, for four and a half years,” she said. “I’m Broncos through and through. But when the Broncos aren’t playing the Seahawks, I’m wearing a Russell Wilson T-shirt,” she said, referring to the Seattle QB.
Her enthusiasm waned as her despair deepened with each passing quarter that left the Broncos further behind.
Ashley Phelps, originally from Bothell, Washington, lives in Brooklyn, and journeyed all season to 7B for Seahawks’ games.
“A bunch of people from Seattle watch the games here,” she said.
Many of her friends traveled from Washington to attend the Super Bowl, and someone got her a ticket.
“I sold it,” Phelps said. “The experience would’ve been amazing, but I prefer to watch it on television with all my friends.”
Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were more of a draw for East Village resident Damian Kukulj.
“I’m not a football kind of guy,” he said. “I’m here for the 7B ambiance, and the halftime entertainment.”
Jamie Yu-Ramos is from Seattle, and lives around the corner from 7B.
“I’m shocked we’ve done this so far,” he said of the halftime score, which had the Seahawks ahead of the Broncos, 22-0.
“It’s a chess match — it’s not a bunch of guys running blindly,” Yu-Ramos observed. “Everything is orchestrated. I’m very invested in the outcome.”
Derek Milhem, also of the East Village, was feeling disappointed with the game by the third quarter, which saw the Broncos now trailing by 29 points.
“Even though I’m from Portland and have family in Seattle, I would’ve liked to see Peyton do better,” he said. “If not win, at least not get embarrassed, and get closer than that.”
As the game ended with the Seahawks taking the title, 43-8, Axel Burboeck, from the Upper West Side, who was watching at Zum Schneider on Avenue C near E. Seventh St., was not pleased with Denver.
“We were about to ban the Broncos from the Super Bowl,” he said, “except they won in the ’90s, so we realized we can’t.”
After failing to win the big game in four previous tries, the Broncos notched back-to-back Super Bowl victories in 1997 and ’98. Yet, their defeat by the 49ers in Super Bowl XXIV in 1990, to this day, remains the event’s biggest blowout.
“We thought they might break their record of their worst [Super Bowl] loss, 55-10,” Burboeck said, “but unfortunately, they couldn’t do that either.”
