Beer weekend

If you are not experiencing happy hour on a regular basis, you are missing out on life.

Nothing kicks off a weekend better than pouring beer down your belly and forgetting the prior work week. When a bar has two for one taps, it gets even better.

Festivities started at the Home bar. It is located on the revitalized KK Ave next to a video store. When I arrived two rather skanky looking girls were hanging out in front of the video store. I was kinda hoping they were prostitutes and maybe I could get a two for one deal from them too. But there other friends (or Johns) were walking up so I would have to take my business into the bar.

The Home bar itself is nothing fancy. Decent size bar with tables. In the back they have a beer garden- always a plus in my book- and dart boards. Strangely enough there are also two funhouse mirrors back there. When I walked in, the bartender gave a warm "Welcome Home!" greeting. I looked at her and laughed a bit. That was cheesy but effective. I then started in on my first of maybe 8 Spotted Cows. It was a 2 for 1 tap special that I was going to take full advantage of. The music selection on the box was satisfactory. Even with a crowd, it still seemed like it would be comfortable inside. Only problem I could see was getting wasted and staring at the wave shadows just above the bar. That was kinda annoying.

Slowly but surely the gang showed up. Some surprises in the group as I didn't expect E or Mike to show. Guess that will happen on a Friday. We shot the shit for a while before we decided to try the next bar down. Of course, trying to get a dozen people to leave a good bar is not easy. Thankfully (did I type that?) the happy hour special was over and it wasn't too long before all drinks were consumed. Next stop was Lee's Lounge just down the street.

Heading into Lee's was like taking a strange step back in time. They had the 70's thing going on in there, with basically 3 split levels. There was the bar area, a loungy like area and the "game room". Interesting to say the least. It was bigger on the inside than it first appeared. It had been a sports bar prior to a lounge. It had last maybe half a year. Could see why as the layout is not conducive for a sports bar unless they had a ton of tvs that were taken out.

The gang seemed to enjoy this place right away. As well as my beer. I ordered a Lakefront White just to have it hijacked by the Kims. They stole my beer right out of my hands. Wenches! So I get another and walk around the place. We find an old pinball machine in the back. No action on the flippers whatsoever. Kill some time playing that and catching up with a friend. He ended up buying the $7 beer. Yep, one bottle of beer was 7 bones. The stuff wasn't bad, quite strong, but good body. Not quite worth 7 bones but hey, I didn't pay for it. Somewhere in there I ended up drinking Pabst too.

I do recall then going across the street to the Groove. Sat down on a couch and drank my beer in there. Rule 1- bars should not have couches. I guess they were trying to pull the lounge thing off too. Anyways there was nothing really distinctive about the Groove that was appealing to me. Too dark. That is what I remember along with the couch which I spilled some beer on. Didn't stay too long there until we decided food was a good idea. Following my own guidance, we headed out to have someone else make our food before calling it a night.

Saturday was going to be a long day as well. I had to be at the brewery by 1. No problem for me as I recover well. I was at the Lakefront but no one else was. One call later I find out the organizer of this thing is barely out of bed. What a wuss! So I get a glass and begin to partake in the fine lagers and ales being made around me. Thankfully someone else showed up soon thereafter so I wouldn't be drinking alone. Had talked to K in a while. She had started playing volleyball with some co-workers at PJs. She doesn't mind the new owner of Big Mamas but wishes Pete was still running the show. A couple more showed up but that didn't matter. I was already going through the beer quite well.

Here is the deal at Lakefront. You sign up for the tour for 5 bucks. They give you a pint glass (yours to keep!), 4 drinking tokens and a coupon for another free beer at certain bars (a nice way of kicking you out). I am a bit surprised when K sits down and she has like 8 tokens. She knows the girl who is working and mentions how she always gets more beer from her. Ok. I then watch her go up and get a full pint, instead of just filling it up to the 8oz line like they are supposed to. WTF? Another guy shows up and gets a full pull. I go up and get 8ozs. I am getting screwed here!

So I listened to K and got her top tips on getting a full beer at Lakefront. Tip them. It will put them in a good mood and can distract them from the pour job they are doing. Begin a conversation with them about the beer. Again, distraction from the pour can be affective. Flirt. That is the tough one as there is only one chick working. Plus the bearded guy looked like he would ask me out if I did flirt.

So I tried the first two to no avail. Oh well, the hungover host of our group gave me his tokens so I got my fill anyway. After a couple hours at the brewery, we headed out to redeem the coupons. We decided to find one of the legendary taverns of Milwaukee- Wolskis. It is not uncommon to see an "I closed Wolskis" bumper sticker on the cars. I think those stickers are like the number of people that went to Woodstock. More people claim to close Wolskis that have ever been there. Wolskis is somewhat hidden. You need to know the general location to find it. It is in the middle of a residential street, off the beaten path. And it feels like a path as the street is somewhat narrow. The pub itself is unique. You can't help but have a great time. Nothing like it being 5 o'clock on a Saturday and you are drinking with a bar full of drunks! Good stuff.

We had our fill there before everyone decided they needed food. We headed over to G-Daddy's BBC by the UWM campus. Can't quite recall when they became "G-Daddy's" but I do recall getting kicked out of there. Well, actually I didn't get kicked out. I got someone else kicked out for something I did. The meathead bouncer booted him because I put a bumper sticker on a bar stool. Hey, they shouldn't have had the stickers laying around. I just had a beer there before heading out to a friend's birthday party.

From there it was a haul out to Waukesha to catch Johnny 3 Note and drink in celebration of Corey turning 30. I had bought a nice bottle of Old Crow to celebrate the occasion. I figure he hasn't aged enough to receive Old Grandad. Best of all, the beer was free! There I am with the 3rd group of friends over the weekend getting sloshed watching the band. Shots are flying, chicks are dancing in a cage, beer is free. It don't get any better. Thankfully the band was good too, much better set than the last time I saw them. Only problem was the party ended at like 12:30 and my ride wanted to bug out. My bender was over.

I had mistaken the booze exposition for being on Sunday. It is actually next Sunday and is not a booze exposition. It is a restaurant/bar exposition. I am wondering how they manage to go to this thing and get ripped like they do when they say that there really isn't much alcohol served except for Bud. But you don't know unless you check it out. Guess I will be cleaning out the flask just in case.