A Diamond in the Downtown Rough

I'll just come right out and say it- I like to go downtown on the weekends. I like to go dance, watch the frat boys get crazy and see the homies cruising around with their spinnin' rims. I will say however, that you can only go to Distillery and have your $2.50 Jager shots for so long before you start looking for another great place to go get a decently priced drink, perhaps without the drunk kids yelling and going on.

We have found that place. The Blackbird Buvette- a beautiful oasis in the downtown noise.
(Buvette (boo-vet)- French meaning "Refreshment Bar")

I had gone there once before this weekend for an Abq Web Geeks meet-up but I didn't get to stay long enough to give this little gem a real review. This past Saturday we spent the majority of our evening there enjoying the great staff, awesome priced drinks and super-cool hidden back patio.

The small patio in the front would be enough to give any people watcher a whole evening of fun. The back patio is a little different. Once you walk out the door it's like you've taken a secret passage and been transported to a big city. Towering buildings with exposed brick walls surround you a pergola provides great shade and nichos, complete with veladoras, bring back a little Nuevo Mexico to the big city feel.



They offer a great menu including breakfast, and drinks will not put a huge hole in your wallet, in fact a round of drinks for my friends only cost me $21 (much more affordable than a Moloneys or Lotus). They have a full bar and offer lots of beers on tap, wine and one of my favorite vodkas- Hanger.

The staff was friendly, energetic and knew how to make a great drink. They handled our big party well and even had a minute or 2 to come take a picture and dance with us. Finally, they had a great DJ inside playing music that made you want to get up and get moving. (Click here for the live entertainment shedule)

All in all I'm VERY impressed with this awesome little place. I'll definitely be stopping in again for a drink, some food and maybe try out the front patio this time. :)

I'm backkkk...with some haikus

After a few beers and a dare to write a haiku using an f-bomb, I created this masterpiece. Not only does it fit the proper 5-7-5 format but it also describes the number 1 reason for attending happy hour. 

The topic for the previous haiku was the happy hour clientele. I mean, we've all had our fair share of uncomfortable encounters at happy hour so I wanted to warn our readers that they wont know what to expect. We want to keep our fellow happy hour enthusiasts around. If you refer back to our blog from O'Niels, we discuss some of the interesting characters we have ran across. 

Sorry but you are going to have to turn your head for that one. I tried forever (like 10 mins) to get it formatted correctly, but that is all I was able to do :( Anyways, one of the great reasons to know where to go for happy hour is because of the wonderful dinner specials. For example, Monte Vista has $1 enchiladas on Wednesdays. That's a steal! Cant beat happy hour dinner prices. Unfortunately, it isn't like tapas in Spain where you get tapa (appetizer) when you order a beer, but hey it is the next best thing! 

Last year after I was published in the alibi's yearly haiku edition, spenatalie, mirevj and I were standing in line at Imbibe. We have had numerous terrible experiences there and never understand why anyone would want to go there. Anyways, we had an epiphany. Lets write haikus about how much Imbibe sucks. As spenatalie stated earlier, that night is what encouraged our haiku happy hour. So after months of preparation, I created the above haiku in honor of Imbibe's lameness.

Moral of this bloggg: haiku's and happy hours go together like glasses and tap beer. Also, Imbibe sucks. 

It hasn't happened before, but I would like to give you, our loyal readers, a homework assignment. Write a haiku or two and post it as a comment. You probably forgot how much fun they are!