Heavenly Night in Hell's Half-Acre Pt. 1
Rachel came up from Austin this weekend for a quick visit. You know, sunday brunch with her mom...tearing it up in downtown Fort Worth saturday night with me.
It was one of those fantastic, organically planned nights. The only thing we knew we were going to do was go to Flying Saucer so we started there around 7:00. Had a few pints there and some cheese fries an soft pretzels to fuel the nightlife engines. We could have stayed longer but our waitress was getting done with her shift so we had to close out our tab anyway so it just felt like the thing to do to hop off to another spot.
We wandered a little bit looking for somewhere else. I knew the goto's. There was always 8.0 if we just wanted the cocktail lounge or live music, City Streets if we wanted to get down & boogie...I remembered my friend blogging about a bar fight he didn't get into at the Black Dog Tavern and how I hadn't been there in a while, so we set off to find it. I knew it was on Throckmorton but gave up at 7th street when I didn't find it. It's on 8th and Throckmorton...so close, but so glad that I didn't find it because the sequence of events that followed were not only insanely fun but renewed my love for downtown FW.
Cutting back up 7th towards sundance square I see a sign in glorious green and white: "Paddy Reds Irish Pub". We had to stop in. I also took note that next door was a dueling piano bar that I had never seen before either that looked interesting. Paddy Reds was just a great atmosphere. I wouldn't call it a traditional pub, at least not in the english/irish sense, more like a lounge in it's setting and atmosphere but that really didn't matter. There is a bartender there that all the other bartenders there say is 'the man' and with good reason. Rachel, who I trust to know such things, tells me he is either training for or in the bartender olympics. Even if he isn't he's that good. He pours Guinness' with the clover design in the head and with the head magically extending well over the top of the pint glass. I got snobbishly annoyed at the people who neither took the the time to notice how awesome that is, nor did they let their beautiful Guinness' "settle" before chuggin'. Any bad beer etiquette was quickly forgotten though. Said bartender was now setting up a structure at the other end of the bar. Regulars were pulling out camera phones. Something special was about to happen.
Someone had bought a round of drinks that from where I was, appeared to be a line of 2/3 full pint glasses that had a line of old fashioned glasses with whiskey shots in them (perhaps?) stacked on top of them. The bartender was rubbing something on the bar by them as well. I, being a former childhood pyro, immediately thought "Fire!". (Yes, Beavis still talks to me) The bartender takes a shot. I notice that he is holding it though, not swallowing. He lights two small flames on the bar on either side of his structure. He then spouts flame from his mouth and his structure has become a towering inferno. With a quick chop with his hand he knocks over the first shot glass into the pint. This dominoes down the line of glasses until all are combined and the flames are snuffed. It was quite impressive and I hope I have done it descriptive justice.* Furthermore, I experienced for myself the liquid treasure that is known as the peanut butter and jelly shot and modest mouse was in heavy rotation on the juke box. We left Paddy Reds and I glanced at the dueling piano bar because again "interesting". They had a line going down the sidewalk for this place! I am definitely missing something there so I made a note to check it out in the future and to come early. It was a quarter til 11:00 now and we were faced with the dilemma of where to go next. In true bar hop fashion there was much less discussion than just being cosmically led to the next spot. As I'm stopped looking at the line at the piano bar and Rachel wondering if we should just go dancing at City Streets and I'm winching at that, we see another sign in very simple marquee letters: The Red Light Burlesque Revue...
(to be continued)
*I have learned that this is called the Irish Car Bomb. If you read my comments then you would know this too. Thanks to thump!
It was one of those fantastic, organically planned nights. The only thing we knew we were going to do was go to Flying Saucer so we started there around 7:00. Had a few pints there and some cheese fries an soft pretzels to fuel the nightlife engines. We could have stayed longer but our waitress was getting done with her shift so we had to close out our tab anyway so it just felt like the thing to do to hop off to another spot.
We wandered a little bit looking for somewhere else. I knew the goto's. There was always 8.0 if we just wanted the cocktail lounge or live music, City Streets if we wanted to get down & boogie...I remembered my friend blogging about a bar fight he didn't get into at the Black Dog Tavern and how I hadn't been there in a while, so we set off to find it. I knew it was on Throckmorton but gave up at 7th street when I didn't find it. It's on 8th and Throckmorton...so close, but so glad that I didn't find it because the sequence of events that followed were not only insanely fun but renewed my love for downtown FW.
Cutting back up 7th towards sundance square I see a sign in glorious green and white: "Paddy Reds Irish Pub". We had to stop in. I also took note that next door was a dueling piano bar that I had never seen before either that looked interesting. Paddy Reds was just a great atmosphere. I wouldn't call it a traditional pub, at least not in the english/irish sense, more like a lounge in it's setting and atmosphere but that really didn't matter. There is a bartender there that all the other bartenders there say is 'the man' and with good reason. Rachel, who I trust to know such things, tells me he is either training for or in the bartender olympics. Even if he isn't he's that good. He pours Guinness' with the clover design in the head and with the head magically extending well over the top of the pint glass. I got snobbishly annoyed at the people who neither took the the time to notice how awesome that is, nor did they let their beautiful Guinness' "settle" before chuggin'. Any bad beer etiquette was quickly forgotten though. Said bartender was now setting up a structure at the other end of the bar. Regulars were pulling out camera phones. Something special was about to happen.
Someone had bought a round of drinks that from where I was, appeared to be a line of 2/3 full pint glasses that had a line of old fashioned glasses with whiskey shots in them (perhaps?) stacked on top of them. The bartender was rubbing something on the bar by them as well. I, being a former childhood pyro, immediately thought "Fire!". (Yes, Beavis still talks to me) The bartender takes a shot. I notice that he is holding it though, not swallowing. He lights two small flames on the bar on either side of his structure. He then spouts flame from his mouth and his structure has become a towering inferno. With a quick chop with his hand he knocks over the first shot glass into the pint. This dominoes down the line of glasses until all are combined and the flames are snuffed. It was quite impressive and I hope I have done it descriptive justice.* Furthermore, I experienced for myself the liquid treasure that is known as the peanut butter and jelly shot and modest mouse was in heavy rotation on the juke box. We left Paddy Reds and I glanced at the dueling piano bar because again "interesting". They had a line going down the sidewalk for this place! I am definitely missing something there so I made a note to check it out in the future and to come early. It was a quarter til 11:00 now and we were faced with the dilemma of where to go next. In true bar hop fashion there was much less discussion than just being cosmically led to the next spot. As I'm stopped looking at the line at the piano bar and Rachel wondering if we should just go dancing at City Streets and I'm winching at that, we see another sign in very simple marquee letters: The Red Light Burlesque Revue...
(to be continued)
*I have learned that this is called the Irish Car Bomb. If you read my comments then you would know this too. Thanks to thump!
posted by PostHaste @ 7:00 PM
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