The Best Way to Spend a Sunday Afternoon

It's true, we normally write about the new places we've been to lately and tell you, gentle reader, about the food, drinks and merriment of each establishment. Today, however, I'd like to talk to you about an important skill every Happy Hour-er -ess needs to have in their happy hour arsenal.

It all started at my favorite place with a Captain and ginger. My brother, Mista G and myself had all bellied up to the bar.

My next drink was served with a cherry, to which Mista G gave a mischievous grin and grabbed his own cherry out of the garnish tray.

Our tradition is

1. eat the cherry
2. have a cheers with the stems
3. tie them in a knot as fast as our tongues would let us

*Yes this seems like a very middle school type of competition, but boy is it fun.

We competed a couple of times just the two of us then invited my brother to join. We soon invited the lovely bartender Nicole and her husband Steve to compete. A new waitress did the honors of counting down and we were off.

We each shoved the stems in our mouths and started twisting our tongues and faces to try to quickly bend the stem into a knot. After about 20 seconds I finished. Mista G finished next, then Nicole, Steve and my brother lagged behind still fumbling with his stem.

What better way to get everyone at the bar involved and having a good time. We all laughed and those of us who didn't finish last celebrated our victories.

Moral of the story- learn to tie a cherry stem in a knot with your mouth and practice your skill among friends. Everyone loves a little good natured competition... especially when there are drinks involved. This activity is sure to make you laugh and possibly make you some new friends. So the next time you're at happy hour and conversation is going downhill challenge someone to a cherry stem contest.

Marble...more than a rock

Let me start off by apologizing for my tardiness. I really suck at this blogging thing.

Marble Brewery-

• Nice little dive (By little I mean little...it's a good thing it was warm and people could overflow onto the patio)
• Interesting clientele (I'm not sure how I would describe this...kind of a biker bar, rough looking crowd. Don't go there expecting to find Mr. or Ms. Right)
• Delicious beer (10 different locally brewed pints of goodness on tap and ready for your consumption...I especially liked the Amber Ale)
• Friendly staff (Very attentive to customers and their needs)
• Fun, random environment (Located just north of Downtown in an industrial area)
• Reasonable pricing (I don't remember how much the beer cost so it must not have been outrageous)
  

Not sure what else to say...

Moral of this bloggg-Marble brewery for happy hour followed by First Friday Night Fractals at the museum makes for a magical time.

cave of wonders

As a professional happy-hourer, I was super pleased with our Monday evening experience at Zinc Cellar Bar. Monday happy hour is billed as “$5 Martini and Movie Mondays.” A silent film was shown on a projection screen and there were 5 different $5 martinis on the menu from 5:00-7:00 p.m.

From the $5 menu, I ordered the Passion Fruit Punch (Skyy Passion Fruit Vodka, OJ, Pineapple & a dash of grenadine) while MistaG had the French 75 (Bombay Gin & lemonade, served with a champagne float.) Both drinks were strong and delicious. Well, at least mine was delicious. Gin tastes like pine tree air fresheners smell, so I can't comment on the French 75. Our waitress was cute and very helpful. She even fixed our wobbly table when she overheard us bitching about it. Bonus points.

Daily happy hour specials include a decent selection of drinks for $3.50 (the Three Olives Cherry Limeade comes highly recommended) and happy hour white and red wine. There are also five or six fancy appetizers on special for $6, including seared Ahi tuna and crispy duck eggrolls. We ordered the buffalo chicken quesadilla and were not disappointed.

Other exciting weekly happy hour deals allegedly include:

Monday-Saturday: 5:00-7:00 p.m. - $3.50 Fat Tire pints and Sauza margaritas, $3.50 house sangria, $4 red and white wines, $6 appetizer specials

Tuesday: 5:00 p.m. - midnight - $7 for a pint of tap beer, pretzel and bratwurst. Count me in.

Wednesday: 5:00 p.m. - midnight - 20% off bottles of wine with free cheese platter. Yes. A whole platter of cheese. I will definitely be investigating this ASAP.

Thursdays and Saturdays offer exciting live music. Elaine and I saw a hot boy play music at Zinc once. Maybe you’ll luck out. The winter schedule is posted below.

Overall Zinc HHG: A
+ Extra credit for the informative Web site.