By Lincoln Anderson
Chris Solarz has snagged yet another Guinness World Record — his fifth — though he had some help. Earlier this month, the East Villager’s 12-member team set the new mark for most bars visited in 24 hours, and it was all done in his neighborhood.
The previous record had stood at 102 bars visited in 24 hours by a nine-member Maryland team in Chicago two years ago. Solarz and his crew shattered that number, more than doubling it.
“We had a great time, and we set a great record — 250 bars!” said Ivan Wanat, one of Solarz’s teammates. “We started at 8:45 a.m. and finished at One and One — the nexus of the universe — at 12:30 a.m., keeping everything entirely in the East Village.”
Solarz, Wanat and their drinking partners definitely lived up to what they had cockily trademarked in advance as the Greatest Pub Crawl of All Time TM.
Chris Solarz, left, and Ivan Wanat at bar number 250, celebrating their record-breaking pub crawl with — what else? — a beer.
The epic event started out at the International Bar, on First Ave. near Seventh St. From there, they didn’t have far to go to find the next bar, and the next, and the next, since the East Village’s 10003 zip code has 474 establishments licensed to sell alcohol — more than any other in the U.S.
Under the rules, one drink had to be purchased and consumed by one team member in each bar. The bar’s owner or bartender had to sign a witness log to attest to the consumed beverage. Teams were not allowed to take private transportation and had to arrive at and depart from each bar on foot.
Before the crawl, Wanat had declared, “Ocean City is a pleasant but sleepy village. But a record of this magnitude belongs in New York City — the capital of the world.”
Speaking of the world, Solarz set his fourth Guinness Record earlier this summer when he ran in the Rio de Janeiro Marathon, giving him the fastest combined time for marathons on seven continents.
Wanat takes one for the team at Veselka, 144 Second Ave., which apparently does qualify as a bar under the pub crawl rules.
