Booth Wars

Beer: Big Bear Ale

Location: Grizzly's La Crosse, WI

Story: A few of my friends, along with myself when out to the local, La Crosse, Grizzly's. It wasn't our first choice but at 7:30pm on a Friday night where else could we get seated instantly. Don't get me wrong, Grizzly's always has been good to me and yet again I had a good experience

The beer that I sampled on Friday the 20th of February was listed as Big Bear Ale coming out of Chippewa Falls, WI. I have done some research and can't really find this beer on the web so I am wondering if it is a special beer done for the Grizzly's restaurant chain? I will do some more research or if anyone knows let me know. It reminded me a lot of the Red Hook ESB that I reviewed this past weekend. It was full flavored but was smooth on drink ability. The aftertaste brought a very mild burnt flavor to your mouth. The best part about drinking this brew at Grizzly's was that they offer you the option for a 22oz at a price of $4. This provides really good value for a really good beer. I will give it 3.5 out of 5 stars and this is based on price value too.

Now, the story that comes from the title. Booth Wars stems from the incident with the children sitting behind me and my roommate. We sat down and were laughing and having a good time when all of the sudden we realized we were sitting against a broken booth. It was a shock when we went flailing forward. Initially we pushed back just in a joking matter and the other side stopped for a bit. It was almost like we achieved victory, but only for a moment. Then our waitress told us it was little kids, I guess that is acceptable. I would have to say the waitstaff was so helpful and the experience was excellent. She even went along with taking the picture for us and by letting me borrow her pen to take notes. The pen and napkin notepad sitting next to my beer(pictured). Grizzly's deserves a little bit of a shout out from the cave!

Then my friends went to comedy night and I went to work. How does that work?

Eagle Street GrilleD Cheese Experience

Beer: Redhook Ale's ESB

Location: Eagle Street Grille, St. Paul

Story: Just by chance I ended up attending the Wild vs. Senators hockey game on Valentine's Day in the lovely city of St. Paul. I figured what better place to try out a pint of DANK beer on tap. My mouth salivated as I viewed their tap line up. The Redhook Ale ESB(www.redhook.com) caught my eye because I havn't tasted this sweet morsel since I was in the Seattle Airport waiting for my flight back to the cities. As the bartender poured the brew the perfect amount of head floated to the top of the glass so you could get the full aroma of the beer. The ESB is their flagship brew and has a full flavor to it. If you like to taste the hops in your brew then this beer is for you. Plus if you are ever in town for a game getting a pint is the best bang for your buck. It was $4.50 vs. paying $4 for a bottle of domestic. You can figure that one out for yourself if you are a beer lover.

I would recommend this beer to anyone who loves a smooth but full bodied beer. The overall rating is 4 out of 5 stars. A thumb and a half up on the competition!

Now, you maybe wondering why this is called the Eagle Street GrilleD Cheese Experience? Let me get started on this little side rant! Alright, me and my friend showed up two and a half hours early for the game and thought that it would be sufficient time to get seated, get some grub and get to the game. The hostess gave us a wait time of 25 minutes so we went to the bar to get a beer. That is where the brew review came from but anyhow, 55 minutes later we still weren't seated, yet. I went up and asked the hostess, "What is going on here?" She was flustered and said, "I am sorry we messed up and we will sit you next." Again, 10 minutes passed ans we still weren't seated. I asked the hostess again. Well, she had one table available in the back corner, it was small but available. We decided to take it because we were hungry and just wanted to get to the game. The waitress came out and I voiced my displeasure in the way that we had been treated. She just gave me a snobby attitude which just irritated me more. Literally, we were sitting in the kitchen. I mean in the kitchen. We looked like we should've been cooking our own food! We placed our order instantly so we could just get out of there. Then the kitchen manager had the nerve to ask us if we were splitting a grilled cheese sandwich? Was it cut in a heart shape for Valentine's Day too? I mean come on, we couldn't believe this. But they did get us our food instantly and did apologize for the hostess's disorganization. By the end of the meal we were just laughing about the situation. I will post a picture or two of where we were seated. Good thing the beer was good, eh?