Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Dive Night’

Dive Night ~ River Garden Bar

Posted in Dive Night, tagged , on November 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Our Dive Night experience taken on the Friday before Halloween with Ruthie and Ray started out at Psycho Suzi’s Motor Lounge.  That was definitely an experience of the good kind.  The thing is, we were in Nordeast, old stomping ground for Husby and Ray, and we couldn’t leave the area without stopping by to call on Tony Jaros.  OK, we couldn’t really visit Tony Jaros because, well, he’d dead.  More specifically, the River Garden Bar.  Yikes.

For those of you who are totally out of the loop (like I am), this bar is home to The Greenie.  I’ve heard about The Greenie for years from Husby.  Apparently Ray has reminisced about the River Garden and Greenies too.  It’s a stiff drink, but you’d never know it because it is so dang sweet and tasty.  So without further adieu I give you…The Greenie.

All I can say is, the River Garden Bar is a place where people go to get drunk.  It is also a trendy stop for people who think it’s quirky to go into dive bars just to drink up the atmosphere.  It’s got character and characters.

This guy was constantly on his phone, but could only see it with one eye closed.

Husby and Ray loved returning to their old stomping ground, the River Garden Bar.  Apparently it is one of those places where you can go back and relive those days of yore because it hasn’t changed a lick in decades.  Ruthie and I loved sitting at the bar making up stories about all the other people, speculating about who will go home with whom, what they do for a living, and what their lives are like.  Of course we would label them with names like The Russian, Staring Guy, Artsy Girl, and Tight Lips.  Great fun.

There were also a bunch of mice who came into the bar.  Humans dressed as mice.  I don’t know if they were supposed to be rats or mice.  Doesn’t matter, they were a very fun bunch and I just had to take a picture of a couple of them before we left.

I’ll remind you we were out the Friday before Halloween, so I assume these guys are dressed for that occasion and don’t normally go out in their black long underwear, white gloves, and mouse ears, but I could be wrong.  They were much fun, no matter what.

So all I can say is the dive dining and drinking for October was quite an experience.  The food at Psycho Suzi’s was great, the Greenies* at River Garden were great.  Of course the company of Ruthie and Ray can’t be beat.  It was the most memorable Halloween weekend I’ve had in a long time.

* The River Garden Bar also makes Blueys (sp?), Pinkies, and Purpleys (again, sp?).  The Blueys taste like Sweet Tarts, and uncannily so.  If you drink too many of all of these drinks you will no doubt barf rainbows.

Read Full Post »

Dive Night ~ Psycho Suzie’s (the old one)

Posted in Dive Night, tagged , on November 12, 2010| 2 Comments »

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about Dive Night with Ruthie and Ray because, well, it’s been a while since we’ve done it.  You know how life gets sometimes.  That’s what’s been happening with us.  Because it has been a while since the last Dive Night we decided to do it big.  The best place to find a dive in the Twin Cities?  None other than Nordeast!

I’m not too familiar with the northeast Minneapolis, but I don’t get out much.  Those of you who know anything probably know about the place we chose as our monthly dive.  Psycho Suzi’s Motor Lounge.

Psycho Suzi’s used to be an A&W Rootbeer stand.  They’ve given the old drive-in quite a substantial makeover.  Think tiki.  We went the Friday before Halloween, so the place was decorated for the holiday and some of the patrons were in costumes.  All of that just added to the fun.

 

The employee of the month is featured prominently next to the restrooms.  I especially liked her quote.

And the bathrooms were aptly labeled.

They even serve exotic Polynesian drinks in volcano cups.

But enough about the decor.  Let’s talk about the food.  Oh, the food.  We started with appetizers, fried cheese curds and Brown Sugar Babies.  The latter are bacon-wrapped smokies with a bourbon brown sugar glaze.  OMG.  And the cheese curds had the most delicate, tempura-like batter that was unlike any I’ve had before and were served with a marinara sauce.  Personally, I thought the dipping sauce was unnecessary.

On to the main course.  I’ll confess I was a little disappointed that everyone wanted pizza.  Pizza?  Well, little did I know that Psycho Suzi is known for her pizza.  I went along with the majority’s consensus and each couple chose a different one.  I’m so glad we got pizza.

These may look like ordinary pizzas, but they were far from it.  The crust was deliciously thin and crispy.  Ruthie and Ray ordered the Four Barrel pizza, which has spicy sausage, red onions, roasted red peppers, and feta and mozarella with the house red sauce.  Husby and I ordered The Barris with caramelized onions, sun-dried tomato, oregano and goat cheese.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a pizza that diverts from the standard Domino’s-type.  Not that there’s anything wrong with Domino’s, but they don’t roast peppers, they don’t caramelize onions, and they sure as heck don’t use feta and goat cheeses.  All of us sampled each pizza and all of us liked both.  Well, I more than liked.  I wondered where this pizza had been all my life.  At Psycho Suzi’s all along.

Check out Suzi’s website ~ it’s as entertaining as the ambiance, service, and clientele of the restaurant.

We couldn’t end the evening with Psycho Suzi’s.  After all, we’d been having that life thing I was referring to earlier, and it had been so long since the four of us had been out.  We found a way to ward off  Stay tuned for Part 2 of this Dive Night post and find out where we partook in a little nightcap.

Read Full Post »

Dive Night ~ JD’S Dining Establishment

Posted in Dive Night, tagged , , on September 10, 2010| 1 Comment »

Well, even though the Minnesota State Fair is over, its essence lives on, especially on this my humble blog.  Ruthie and Ray were in charge of finding this month’s dive.  Much to everyone’s pleasure they chose one on the State Fairgrounds.

I’ve been going to the fair since I was one year old.  I won’t tell you how many years that adds up to, but I will say it is more than ten and less than one hundred.  I’ll also say “many, many” years I’ve been going to the fair.  In all those years I never ate at this place.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Our first instructions were to go into the Food Building and get an appetizer to share with the group.  Husby and I got potato skins, Ruthie and Ray got the spiral chips.

Both were fine.  One thing I’ll say about fair food ~ there’s an abundance of liquid cheese.  Or should I say cheeze?  Plus, this was actually too much potato, even for a potato lover like me.  But we didn’t consult on the appetizers like we would in a regular restaurant, so it was a risk we took.

Then, on to the main event.  The draw to JD’s Dining Establishment is that there is “Definintely Nothin’ On A Stick.”

Admittedly I was a little nervous about eating here.  After all, it had been avoided for many years of my fair going.  Turns out I was missing out on some decent food!

Husby, Ruthie, and Ray all had chili.  It was a blustery day and quite brisk, so a hot bowl of chili sounded good to them.

Along with a bowl of chili, Ray had a hamburger and Ruthie had a fish sandwich.  Both look good and were reported to taste just fine.

 

I decided to pull out all the stops and get the pork dinner.  I was pleasantly surprised!

Included in the dinner was a hefty portion of pork, mashed potatoes, gravy, coleslaw, corn, and bread and butter.  All for $7!  It was tasty and hot.  Normally I don’t eat regular food at the fair, gravitating toward the unusual and unusually unhealthy choices.  But I would totally recommend eating at JD’s Dining Establishment (located across the street from the Butterfly House and next to Choo Choo Bob’s) if you want a decent hot meal while visiting the fair.

Another really nice thing they served on that cold night (and every day and night) is coffee and hot chocolate.  Lots of people stopped by for a cup of something hot to take off the chill.

I can’t wrap up this report without mentioning that the service at JD’s was outstanding!  Yes, we were actually waited on!  And the waitress checked back with us several times to make sure our dinners were satisfactory and to see if we wanted anything more.

What a fabulous dive!  I wish I had been able to get this post out before the fair ended so you could all try JD’s great cuisine.  Please remember it for next year, just in case you don’t want to eat your food off a stick at the fair.

Read Full Post »

Dive Night ~ Miller’s On Main

Posted in Dive Night, tagged , on June 10, 2010| 3 Comments »

Apparently Ruthie was running around the metro area not too long ago, far away from where she lives or works.  I didn’t ask why she was gallivanting around because, well, Ray was sitting right there and I didn’t want to put Ruthie on the spot.  Who knows?  She might have been on the hunt for a pair of $400 shoes or something.  It doesn’t really matter, because during her little road trip she saw this…

She figured Miller’s on Main in Lino Lakes, MN would be a good spot to share for Dive Night.  She was right.  Divey?  Yeah, kind of.

This is the skinny bar area.  It had a lot of character, compared to the eating area…
They tried to make it homey with some country-flavored prints on the walls, but basically we were surrounded by walls of beige with big TVs propped up at the ceiling at each of the four corners of the room.  TVs in restaurants are just uncouth.
No matter, here come the appetizers!
These appetizers were fabulous!  First were the stuffed mushrooms.  Mushroom Poppers, to be exact.  They were stuffed with beef and pork, had a marvelous texture and were seasoned to perfection.  Also delicious was the Artichoke Spinach Dip.  Roasted artichoke hearts, pepper cheese and spinach in a very zippy, spicy sauce.  Really cheesy and really good.  I was sad to have to share with the others.

Our entrees were delicious too.  We ordered quite a variety at our table ~ bison burger (Ray), walleye sandwich with BIG onion rings (Ruthie), spaghetti sandwich (me), and taco salad (Husby).

Husby would have preferred a corn tortilla bowl instead of flour for his salad, but that’s just a matter of taste.  Both Ruthie and Ray had nothing but good to say about their meals.  I ordered a spaghetti sandwich just to try something different.  The spaghetti and sauce were good, the meatballs were good, the bread was good, but for my taste they should not all be combined in a sandwich.  A) You can’t pick it up and eat it, and B) I’ve got a weird thing against bread with sauce on it.  But my it was good, when eaten in its little subsets.  Plus, fries with spaghetti?  Well, they came with the meal and were delicious, so I couldn’t turn them down.

Despite my quirky preferences I’d have to say the food at Miller’s on Main is superb, the service was wonderful and I’d definitely go there again.  The menu is very extensive, and if everything on it is as good as our meals were, then this place is definitely a winner.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts