Remember the van that drove around your college town at night, picking up alcohol-warmed students and their bottles of Old English, ostensibly protecting women from threats in the bushes? According to a Times Style piece, New York has its own neon version of the free drunk bus except instead of dropping you off at your outdoor drinking destination (the cemetery was always a good bet), it runs on a circuit from Williamsburg to a West Village bar called the Rusty Knot, where riders—lubricated by the free Buds on board—are deposited to empty their wallets.
A gallery depicts the bus overflowing with booze and fun: there’s shot gunning, air guitar, high-fiving and more. “This is raging!” yelled Ryan McGaffigan, a 32-year-old sales manager reportedly wearing a wool cap, plaid shirt and ’50s-style glasses. In short, the “cocoon of debauchery” is a Williamsburg art nerd’s version of the prom limo he never rode in.
According to the old cliche it’s about the journey, not the destination, but let’s not forget there is one. Sixty minutes after boarding the bus, passengers will put their dollars down on a bar that isn’t moving. “This bus is a little bit like going back to the New York of the ’70s or ’80s, when it wasn’t about the money, it was about the spirit,” philosophizes Richard Mark Jordan, an actor from Bushwick while “gyrating in the aisle with friends and high-fiving strangers.” Hope you don’t get carsick Mark: the Rusty Knot is taking you for a ride.
