Asylum   

Bar & Lounge is rather an ambitious appellation, since the space Asylum now occupies is barely enough for one or the other. Asylum is a dark, narrow, and mostly underground alley with a single pool table up front and the bar in back. The decor: black imitation stone wall, motorcycle helmets dangling from above the bar, painted concrete floor, a few instruments of death hanging on the walls, Japanese cartoons playing on TV. The music: metal on the stereo. The clientele: friendly, and mostly black-clad in the "hard-core, dog-collar, torn-garments" way rather than in the expensive, "I-got-this-leather-jacket-in-Florence" way. The matchbooks: apparently stolen from Madam's Organ. The special events: happy hour 5-9PM on weekdays and, if you can imagine, Sunday brunch. Also on Sundays are beer and food specials, free pool, and the blatantly unjust half-priced drinks for women. Drink offerings are always reasonably priced, particularly if you can drag yourself out of the house early enough on a Saturday evening to take advantage of the Shiner Bock Countdown, which features 25-cent draft pints from 6pm to 7pm, with a 50-cent price increase every hour until close. Otherwise, choose from about 20 beers on tap and draft. The menu features about twenty items along the lines of burgers, fries, and hummus, none costing more than $7. Many items are vegetarian, and the menu also declares "we serve no pork" -- in which case the content of the BLT is rather a mystery. -- Gwendolyn Bradley