There is such a thing as masculine food. Just like feminine food—which features lots of French flourishes, chintz and salads—is served at restaurants where you are likely to take a female date, masculine food forms the centerpiece of any pub or sports bar in the city. This, too, can be an art. And no one seems to execute this specific type of art better than the folks at Bully’s Pub. How can you tell this is a masculine restaurant? The décor is a start: dark wood paneling surrounds a liberal sprinkling of small tables and high stools ripe for boozy evenings with the guys and a pool table in back. Another obvious clue: scantily clad waitresses bearing pitchers of beer. But unlike the typical Bangkok pub, Bully’s is not content to rest on its beer and pretty waitresses alone. It also offers an extensive range of good-value American food, much of it hard to find anywhere else. Still skeptical? Consider the Philadelphia cheese steak sandwich, rough-cut beef slathered in onions, peppers and cheese and served on a baguette. Or the steak and eggs, a breakfast truck stop favorite. And the kitchen does not hesitate to take liberties with other hard-to-find dishes. The high school cafeteria standby, Sloppy Joe, becomes a poshed-up open-face sandwich thanks to the addition of melted cheese and bay leaves alongside the requisite ground meat, sweet tomato sauce and hamburger bun for soaking up the excess juices. Other attempts at gourmet flair can be found in the interestingly named “Bully’s girlfriend Jenny’s favorite salad”. In a place where a wedge of iceberg lettuce steeped in Thousand Island dressing would be par for the course, this little arugula number boasts slivered onion, apple wedges, sun-dried tomato, parmesan pieces and an ample helping of balsamic dressing. (The sole nod to Bully’s laddy origins: the salad section goes by the name “Bully’s Bush Gardens.” Classy.) But Bully’s shines when it sticks to what it knows best: basic American food. The “Bully burger” , though small, is a beautifully executed beef patty with all the fixings—quite possibly the best burger in town. The Buffalo chicken wings, though not the best in town, are excellent for what they are: deep-fried, meaty chicken pieces in a piquant, if overly sweet, sauce. The one disappointment: the 8 oz tenderloin, which, true to laddy tradition, came too well done. But so what? At Bully’s, the lads will be a bit too sozzled to really care.
