Uptown Happy Hour Tour - yes there was a stop 3 - Bar Abilene

. . . but we missed happy hour. It was a long night (and subsequent weekend), so it's taken a while to get back to finish the series.

Let's just say we were seriously enjoying the beer and cheap snacks at stop #2, so we lingered. They had Gose, which is a brew the Herkimer rarely releases so I had to get my fill. We were joined by another bud, who proceeded to enjoy more beer and then we met up with his fiancee, Dr. Sam, at Bar Abilene. Abilene, to celebrate it's 11th Anniversary, had just abandoned their "Crazy Happy Hour" deal where everything on the menu was 50% off from 4pm - 7pm everyday. Great way to celebrate - kill the deal that everyone was talking about! They replaced it with a much less compelling offer that left us wondering "are they going to be okay." They are doing extended happy hours this week with $1 taps - if you are so inclined.

Didn't matter - we arrived too late for those specials so we settled for a couple of rounds of margaritas and dinner (but no guacamole, which is really the only reason to go to Abilene). I had their southwestern sliders which were edible, but not something I would have ingested had I not been touring happy hour spots all afternoon.

Happy hour tours are fun, but they defeat the purpose of happy hour in the first place - friends lingering over drinks, bitching about work until the specials expire and you get too "happy" to do anything but stay for dinner and continue to bitch about work until you are too blitzed to care. Then the fun begins.

Stop 2 on the happy hour tour - Herkimer

Okay, so Moto I and Herkimer are owned by the same folks, but low hangin fruit.

I am having a Gose which is a limited release and among my favorite brews. Other beers are 2 for 1 and there are $4 apps. We are rocking mini corn dogs and tater tots. Bring on the grease!

-- Post From My iPhone

Happy Hour Tour - Moto I

Trying to sample some of the happy hour opportunities near my home. Friday funday, right? Started at Moto I, a sake brew pub on Lyndale.

Right now they have Summit Scandia for $1, $5 sake and $3 other beers. Noshing on salmon Rangoon, taro shoestrings, and lime fried peanuts.

All tasty and less salty than the other fare.

-- Post From My iPhone

Tickled Pinkberry

Years ago I kept hearing all this hype about Pinkberry - a frozen yogurt shop whose product inspired something akin to a cult following on the west coast. It has since expanded into a chain making its way all the way over into Asia. While I have visited their web site, got their freaky song stuck in my head, and mapped out locations to visit from LA to NYC (in case I ever had time), I had not yet had the pleasure of tasting the stuff. That changed today.

My assistant manager and I had spent the morning visiting grocery stores in Marina del Rey, CA taking note of prices and product assortments (only on the west coast could you seriously sell pancake mix for $10), and we needed a break. Luckily, there was a little Pinkberry shop nearby.

Calling the place a shop is generous - it was more like an a broom closet where an anime bomb went off with crazy colors and bright happy patterns assailing you from the narrow walls. After tasting a sample, we both settled on the original Pinkberry flavor (which is neither pink nor does it taste much like berries). The also had pomegranate and green tea flavors, but we'll save those for another time.

I had mine topped with white chocolate shavings and Cap'n Crunch cereal. The taste was more tangy and yogurty than standard frozen yogurt. It was incredibly thick, just rich enough to be satifying without making you feel like a fat horse after eating a cup of it. It also melted very little in the 10 minutes between when we picked them up, transported them to our noon meeting and started devouring them, which concerns me just a bit - but it is supposedly all natural . . . .

I can't say it changed my life or turned me into a zealot, but if all frozen yogurt tasted this good, I would certainly eat it more often.

Memphis Gravy Biscuit Overkill

A note to the food operaters at the Memphis Airport: except for a few
pockets of France and rural Quebec, putting sausage gravy over a
biscuit already stuffed with sausage is generally considered to be
excessive.