Tangier Restaurant

It's Where We Drink

by Will Dean

1801 Lombard St., 215-732-5006

If you're not sure what you're drinking, it's probably a sign that you need to go home. Unless, of course, you're at Tangier at 18th and Lombard. During happy hour (Mon.-Fri. from 5 to 7), adventurous imbibers can indulge in some blind drinking with the bar's mystery beer special.

Choices from the bar's list of 100+ bottled beers are shrouded in white paper bags, so even the bartender has no idea what you will receive. Every selection is different, ensuring that intrepid drinkers can try their luck all night.

The idea is to lower the trepidation many drinkers feel when faced with a large list of bottled choices. "People are intimidated by a lot of choices," says bartender Bret Lyons. "They might look at the cooler and say, 'Oh my god, just give me a lager.'"

The element of surprise fits well with the corner bar's namesake and eccentric decor. William S. Burroughs wrote his famously unreadable Naked Lunch while living in Tangier and based the novel's setting on the city, an international zone run by various Western powers prior to Morocco's independence in 1956. The bar emulates that history with '50s-era movie posters and plaster mannequin heads bearing military hats of various European countries.

The real fun, though, lies in guessing what beer you're sipping. For 30 minutes, I tried to puzzle out the name of my strange drink before removing the bag to reveal Lord Chesterfield's smug, bewigged face.

Getting stumped by a beer you ought to recognize is just part of the intrigue. There's a little bit of danger, too. "I will Schmidt on you," warns Lyons.