Sunday, December 17, 2006

Pubcrawl report

Some of us at Asheville Beer enjoy a good dose of liberal politics along with our beer. So for almost a year now we've been attending the weekly get-togethers of our local Drinking Liberally chapter on Thursdays at Asheville Brewing on Coxe Avenue. Last evening we led a pub crawl of downtown Asheville which attracted 12-14 people.

We began at the Wild Wing Cafe on Biltmore with Syntax, Felicity, and Kathryn. The atmosphere here is typical sports bar/pickup joint but I may have to put it back on my pub crawl page since the beer selection has improved. Bass was on special for $3 including the glass. I took the bait, commenting that it would be interesting to see how long the glass lasted before breaking or being inadvertently left behind along the way. More on that later.

Moving on to ED Boudreaux's we were joined by several more folks including Kyle and Jen, Screwie Hoolie, Nicole and her husband, and Kate. Good BBQ and other food was enjoyed along with excellent beer. I had a Pyramid Snowcap which was the seasonal special. Boudreaux's always has suprises in store for beer lovers and this visit was no exception.

Plans tentatively called for the next stop to be the Ebony Grille since I had met the owner at Brewgrass and was told that she expected to reopen by Thanksgiving. A quick check on the fly showed that the place is gone. Evidently another case of the best laid plans going awry. We quickly moved on to the Smokey Tavern where we hung out awhile and were joined by Edgy Mama and Ash. I drank a Rolling Rock since I wanted to see if it had changed since being taken over by A-B. The bottles still state that the beer comes from the "mountain springs" and "Old Latrobe" although it now actually comes from "Joisey" where there are few mountain springs.

Feeling increasingly mellow we headed for Fred's Speakeasy, located in the basement of Fiore's restorante. I had a Sweetwater 420 and played fooseball or the first time ever. Yep, it's true. I always played air hockey or pinball (now I'm dating myself) way back when and this was a new one for me. Felicity won but I managed to score 4 goals. The mens room here should be preserved as a monument to the art of graffiti. I especially enjoyed the limerick about Dick Cheney to the left of the urinal.

On to Joli Rouge, one of Asheville's most avant-guard clubs. Member Felicity signed us in as her guests. Here we also hooked up with fellow library IT person Luke and his new wife. I enjoyed an excellent Maudite. The atmosphere was relaxed and enjoyable with sofas and tables spread around in nooks and alcoves and the regulars seemed like a friendly group. This bar made the evening for me.

Our next stop was Scully's. The Scull-man wasn't in but there was a good crowd. Several people in our group hadn't visited before and thought the old Gypsy Moon was still operating in this location. I enjoyed an Allagash White and good conversation with Nicole who is also originally from Maine. It was here that Felicity, EM and Ash left us, with others having departed earlier. By this point we were down to Kyle and Jen, Syntax, Screwy, Pete (where did he join up?) and me. We moved on to BoBo Gallery but there was a cover charge. The Brazilian band would have been great on another night but for now we had "other priorities" as the VP would say.

Pushing on to the Bier Garden we hung out awhile, just gnoshin' and sipping a fine Old Foghorn barleywine. Screwie did a live blog post as we debated whether to continue. Consensus being reached to call it a night Kyle and Jen left in a cab while Syntax and I left in Pete's VW Rabbit. As we dropped Syntax at his home I exited the car to move into the front seat only to hear the sickening sound of breaking glass as my Bass ale souvenir slipped out of my jacket pocket and shattered in the middle of Syntax's driveway. Well, it almost made it! I picked up as much of the glass as was possible in the dark and Syntax promised to deal with the remnants in the morning. Pete dropped me at my house shortly thereafter and did me the undeserved kindness of not breaking anything in my driveway. Thanks for the ride, Pete. The next beer is on me.

The crawl was a great success and people seemed to enjoy themselves. Is anyone up for a summer crawl on a steamy evening?

5 comments:

  1. Great night! Thanks for organizing. Yes, let's do it again!

    I can't believe you remember what beer you drank at each stop. Amazing!

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  2. I had an excellent time as well. Foxy's party was kickin' with a few rounds of Never Have I Ever. I think we should make that part of the next pub crawl.

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  3. Great crawl, AP! Thanks for organizing.

    And, yes kathryn, NHIE is a great idea for the next one.

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  4. FINALLY! I found a good beer blog in my home state! Thanks!

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  5. I'm glad you like the blog.

    Welcome!

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