Don't Look Back In Anger
Last night was good times. Somehow we managed to (sort of) accomplish everything we wanted to do: we wanted to start the night at 219 West at their late happy hour, go to Prague to check out the rumored stripper pole (which immediately improves any photo op, and by "improves" I mean "discredits") and "stay in Grownupland," according to my older, wiser roommate M. Grownupland is what we call 4th & 5th Street, since they're not a full out frat-fest like 6th is. The problem is that the IC is not in Grownupland, so I sometimes venture back to the land of youth.
We got to 219 at about 8 PM. 219, which you may recall from skirt night back in early June, has one of our new favorite bartenders named Duck. It's essential that functioning alcoholics have a large network of bartenders, including one named Duck. In June he made us this amazing champagne and grapefruit juice mimosa which he named "Duck Love." So we decided to see what other drinks Duck had up his sleeve. He made M some sort of raspberry martini using gin that was actually incredible, and I hate martinis. And for having gin in it, it didn't taste like my grandmother, so I was impressed with that too. I enjoyed my new drink of choice, the greyhound, which Chrisy got me started on. It's basically vodka and grapefruit juice but you can get it with a splash of soda for a little extra kick. Duck made mine last night with Absolut Ruby, which was even better because the vodka made it just a bit sweeter.
Okay I just dedicated about 500 words to talking about drinks, so I'll stop myself there. While we were at 219 we met a nice man who knew a ton about wine and let us try one of the pinot noirs he was drinking made by Acacia. It was actually really good and he pointed out it smelled like lavender, which it did.
Then some random guy wandered up to us and I promoted MR.COM to him and promised I'd put this picture up with a witty caption.
I see what you did there.
At one point, we decided to go to Cuba Libre because all this talk Mrhe and I have had about muddling had me craving mojitos. When we were leaving, Duck asked me where we were headed and I told him we were off to get mojitos. He looked offended and said "You don't like my mojitos?" I told him that the Cuba Libre mojitos were better because they had sugarcane sticks in them. He walked off and came back a few minutes later with the aforementioned sugarcane sticks. "There you go." Ha! I actually had scoured stores for those damn things and could only find large bamboo-like stalks of sugarcane which I will tell you are basically impossible to cut. So I snatched up the sugarcane, M and I somehow packed them into our tiny purses, and we booked it.
We walked over to Cuba Libre and met up with the III (yes, introducing the III) and his friend. Ironically enough the mojitos we got weren't served with sugarcane! We briefly entertained the idea of busting open our own packages of sugarcane and handing them out to people but at this point we were sill (somewhat) sober and nixed the idea.
After chatting with the III for a while we were going to head off to meet up with M's friend's bachelorette party to see if we could surf off the wake of their fun. However, we got sidelined on our way as we passed by Prague and decided to stop in to see what the fuss was about. Basically we walked in, walked straight to where the stripper pole was, took some pictures and walked out. We didn't even have a drink, for some reason. The bar is underground and I can offically say I don't like underground bars. Another bar, Barcelona, is like that and it sucks -- and I just realized that there is a Barcelona and a Prague. I'm a well-traveled functioning alcoholic at least.
This is working out nicely for us.
The cheesiest most 1984 thing about Prague is that they have a hidden camera filming the pole and a live broadcast on plasma screen TV's throughout the bar. Regrettably, we realized this after our antics. This could have led to our quick exit.
I realized that we were closer to Lucky Lounge where Renee was, so we formally decided to ditch the bachelorette party and just make our own fun in true roomie tradition. Renee was in town from NYC, and needed to be filled in on some of the necessary CAV events. She just got back from seeing KillaPete for 2 weeks on his R&R in Spain. So we went over to Lucky and it was there that I ran into Louie, yet again. It's almost at the point of ridiculousness.
amigos
I do have something to say about this. Louie has an iPhone and I spent a few minutes poking around on it, literally. I don't think I like the touch screen. First of all, it's impossible to push on some of the touch screen's buttons -- they are so small, you hit L when you want to hit M. At some point Ryan the Backup Drummer (RTBD) met up with us. That's right, I'm infiltrating the IC slowly but surely.
with renee
roommateness
M & RTBD at Lucky
Note the use of sugarcane as a pointer.
The night was a success. I managed to be a productive citizen of the world today, too. Perhaps Grownupland isn't so bad after all. Maybe people with essential hypertension belong there.
But the glory of the IC is that you can always go back in time with a song.
We got to 219 at about 8 PM. 219, which you may recall from skirt night back in early June, has one of our new favorite bartenders named Duck. It's essential that functioning alcoholics have a large network of bartenders, including one named Duck. In June he made us this amazing champagne and grapefruit juice mimosa which he named "Duck Love." So we decided to see what other drinks Duck had up his sleeve. He made M some sort of raspberry martini using gin that was actually incredible, and I hate martinis. And for having gin in it, it didn't taste like my grandmother, so I was impressed with that too. I enjoyed my new drink of choice, the greyhound, which Chrisy got me started on. It's basically vodka and grapefruit juice but you can get it with a splash of soda for a little extra kick. Duck made mine last night with Absolut Ruby, which was even better because the vodka made it just a bit sweeter.
Okay I just dedicated about 500 words to talking about drinks, so I'll stop myself there. While we were at 219 we met a nice man who knew a ton about wine and let us try one of the pinot noirs he was drinking made by Acacia. It was actually really good and he pointed out it smelled like lavender, which it did.
Then some random guy wandered up to us and I promoted MR.COM to him and promised I'd put this picture up with a witty caption.
I see what you did there.At one point, we decided to go to Cuba Libre because all this talk Mrhe and I have had about muddling had me craving mojitos. When we were leaving, Duck asked me where we were headed and I told him we were off to get mojitos. He looked offended and said "You don't like my mojitos?" I told him that the Cuba Libre mojitos were better because they had sugarcane sticks in them. He walked off and came back a few minutes later with the aforementioned sugarcane sticks. "There you go." Ha! I actually had scoured stores for those damn things and could only find large bamboo-like stalks of sugarcane which I will tell you are basically impossible to cut. So I snatched up the sugarcane, M and I somehow packed them into our tiny purses, and we booked it.
We walked over to Cuba Libre and met up with the III (yes, introducing the III) and his friend. Ironically enough the mojitos we got weren't served with sugarcane! We briefly entertained the idea of busting open our own packages of sugarcane and handing them out to people but at this point we were sill (somewhat) sober and nixed the idea.
After chatting with the III for a while we were going to head off to meet up with M's friend's bachelorette party to see if we could surf off the wake of their fun. However, we got sidelined on our way as we passed by Prague and decided to stop in to see what the fuss was about. Basically we walked in, walked straight to where the stripper pole was, took some pictures and walked out. We didn't even have a drink, for some reason. The bar is underground and I can offically say I don't like underground bars. Another bar, Barcelona, is like that and it sucks -- and I just realized that there is a Barcelona and a Prague. I'm a well-traveled functioning alcoholic at least.
This is working out nicely for us.I realized that we were closer to Lucky Lounge where Renee was, so we formally decided to ditch the bachelorette party and just make our own fun in true roomie tradition. Renee was in town from NYC, and needed to be filled in on some of the necessary CAV events. She just got back from seeing KillaPete for 2 weeks on his R&R in Spain. So we went over to Lucky and it was there that I ran into Louie, yet again. It's almost at the point of ridiculousness.
amigosI do have something to say about this. Louie has an iPhone and I spent a few minutes poking around on it, literally. I don't think I like the touch screen. First of all, it's impossible to push on some of the touch screen's buttons -- they are so small, you hit L when you want to hit M. At some point Ryan the Backup Drummer (RTBD) met up with us. That's right, I'm infiltrating the IC slowly but surely.
with renee
roommateness
M & RTBD at LuckyRTBD brought with him C-ROD's girlfriend Lindsey, whom I then convinced that we should all make the trek to the IC and depart Grownupland. They say you can take the girl out of 6th Street, but you sure as heck can't take the 6th Street out of the girl. So off we went, charging toward the IC at about 1:25 AM. I was worried we were going to get there after they closed and I vaguely remember running down Congress Avenue. I suppose I can check that off my life list. At some point the sugarcane came out of the purses (I don't remember why) so I was carrying the sugarcane, hauling ass, dodging bums and drunks waving my sugarcane packages. I am fairly sure I looked like a lunatic. Not to worry, we made it to the IC probably at 1:27 AM and the Dave & Joe Show was in full effect. I enjoyed fifteen minutes of quality IC-ness. At some point Chloe wanted a sugarcane stick, so I opened one of the packages (or she did -- I was more like a monkey and still mastering the use of my hands). I then handed out sugarcane to anyone who looked mildly aware of their surroundings. This led to probably one of my favorite pictures that someone happened to take where I am discussing a bar tab with some pyschopath who reminded me of Edward Norton in Primal Fear.
Note the use of sugarcane as a pointer.The night was a success. I managed to be a productive citizen of the world today, too. Perhaps Grownupland isn't so bad after all. Maybe people with essential hypertension belong there.
But the glory of the IC is that you can always go back in time with a song.
Labels:
6th Street,
drinking,
Grownupland,
Ivory Cats,
roommateness,
Ryan the Backup Drummer,
The Dave and Joe Show,
the III
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Twas an eventful evening. But, where's the pics with the stipper pole and the giant black man? or the tiny asian man?
I figured they can always look at my flickr pictures, since I put them up on there.
Wow. I figured there would be something here after I was internets-free for the weekend, and lo and behold, 50,000 words dedicated to hanging out. Good show!
So this is "Random Guy". I was obviously having a great time and about the only thing I remember was you guys plug for MR.com, which at the time I thought was Me And Rachel.com but I finally figured it out (thats what a long week does).
That picture is awesome. Wow...
Props on meeting Duck, you might not know this but he was voted "Best Bartender in Austin".
Curiously, after reading through it you don't seem that mean. Anyhow nice to meet you guys and nice blog!
Peace,
Ben
Mrhe: You know how I roll.
Ben: I used to be much meaner before I was brainwashed by being nice to customers.
I didn't know that about Duck but it doesn't surprise me. His drinks are awesome!
Thanks for stopping by and holding up your end of the bargain!
what is the III? C-ROD, CAV, 219, what? i demand a mean rachel glossary, or at least a cast of characters, where "characters" includes bars you hang out at.
That last list should read:
1) The Ivory Cat
2) The Ivory Cat
3) The Ivory Cat
4) The Ivory Cat
5) The Ivory Cat
etc.
roo: I shall work on this. My acronyms/aliases have gotten a touch out of hand lately.
Mrhe: You forgot "The Ivory Cat" on that list.
Perhaps I need to unsubscribe from this comment feed.