Picture credits... Dan N. i have shots too... but... i was drivin... more shots here...

https://plus.google.com/photos/100084739448604068575/albums/5718718641947128529?banner=pwa&authkey=CMvOh87j9LKhngE

So been itching to get back down to indy and do a good run.

This last weekend with wingman, thewimperpoo, ran around to a handful of places, stuck to said itinerary in this thread.

I did want to see if anything had been updated at subsurface, and since dan had his camera, I didn't hafta drive and take pictures at the same time risking death or arrest... which is always awesome.

But you're here for the beer element. Random Silver Lady included.

That started at crown liquors downtown... and for some reason everything seemed pricey... and it paid off in the end regarding the beer buying as it turnt out to be cheaper at kahns. But on with the show.

Crown downtown is convienent for the poor sob who is stuck in the semi ghetto downtown with it's barrage of panhandlers, pawn shops of which there are many, and other such entertainments such as the silver lady we passed... Crown has a decent, maybe 8-10 door cold selection with a couple good shelves of warm and a really nice layout for a liquor store. the centerpoint being the round tasting bar downstairs... no growlers tho... again, if you're there and you're visiting and you're without a car, crown is great. Both wimperpoo and i had bottles in hand only to put them back down and mosey over to tomlinson tap room.

Tomlinson had a great vibe going on an auspiciously warm march day in indy... inside their city center market, it's a bunch of local food stalls and stuffs with a nice 15ish tap bar in the upstairs... I like this place due to the fact that growlers are available for everything and it's reasonable for the growlers... the pints were like 5ish on the regular, but a very conseravative taplist from ones i've seen in the past, that also being said, prolly a good idea for the start of our day... very cute bartender... which also makes for a pleasant vibe. I had a procrastinator from people's (amberbock) and wimperpoo had triton's fieldhouse wheat.

With the taplist like it was, it was already 1pm and on a saturday that signals the opening of sunking's tasting room in their brewery. so we rolled the mile or so from there over to sun king and sun kinged. The osiris was on fucking point... really hoppy on draft... we were offered three standards and three specials. The isis... was meh... a hairs breath away from a barleywine and contrasting to the freshness of the osiris... god damn it was day and night... wee mac was doing well, as was the cream ale... the dopplebock was conservative (reminded me of orbitalr0x) and the irish stout was really roasty, but not the roastiest beer we had all day... that honor was two stops away at the overall most awesome of the stops. But no skipping ahead...

Looking at the taplists online was suspect cause as all of you know, most but not all places, are bastards when it comes to updating taplists online. But knowing that wimperpoo had camera in hand... A stop in at the rathskellar was required for a peek at the amibance and glory of old indianapolis... and glory it was... but as i have the bavarian lodge, history takes a backseat to taplist dominance and i can't cheat on a girl who's never let me down, i was faithful to the lodge and will remain so till she does me wrong... but the interior is stunning... get inside the rathskellar.

A few minutes in and out, typical of most men early on in their beer travels... I almost felt we were rushing the day... starting at noon eastern time... it was rounding on 2:15... Time for some quality at flat 12.

hold the phone tho... a note worth noting... you might notice the neighbor. we stopped in and took some shots and were slightly dissappointed that nothing was to go, until we headed toward flat 12... and saw the sign which lead to the menu which led to the food, which led to bliss and satisfaction.

Now the esteemed howardf of beerspot notariety had good things to say about flat 12 and respecting his opinion, on beer, i was excited to get in flat 12 and experience the beers, but especially the porter. The lacto stout and the ipa turnt out to be my fav's of the bunch surprisingly, and the heavily roasted, black malted porter took a back seat... i couldn't believe it either... ipa's were on point in indy and I felt like a forsaken whore with not a malty beer to turn to... three floyds quelched that later with their... again getting ahead... fuck.

The enviormens at flat 12 are as such... inside with a bunch of backyard metal chairs and table and then outside with a wooden fenced in. And on a day prolly supposed to be snowing and or rainy and cold regardless, it was 50 something and sunny... just look at the dog... that's the vibe at flat 12. They had bags, good conversation, and they had the food.

I had ribs, dan had a sandwich... foood pron away. We were satisfied and sated and happy and the food was great... having the ribs... it was nothing but dry rub and fat (in moderation and feeling that way afterward) and meat and delishousness.

The standout beers again were the ipa of which I got a bullet of and the lacto stout on nitro (love nitro...) 

What's a bullet you might ask...yeah it's plastic, it's a growler, it's a soda bottle plastic growler. Was having a conversation with wimperpoo afterwards about how this would be more functional than full growlers for limited release beers.

We pryed ourselves away from flat 12 with reverence, but can understand howard's multiple endeavors and beers drank at this place... another compliment to the beer scene in indy.

After that and a well placed text to deco, upland brewing's indy tasting room had beer... it was very... upland. Porter, red, and black lager... all were clean, but the black was the best of the bunch... lambics available, cherry, dantillion, and gilgamesh... 20 for the first 2, 25 for the third. The taproom itself was nice and there was a food truck with a horse like dog out front... it tried to kill me as it sensed evil....

after that it was over to kahn's and the cleaned out glassware section... yup... all good things.

kahn's did let me walk away with some sixpoint resin and new albanian baltic porter, so there's that. and getting back to price point... the sixpoint was a dollar cheaper than crown, the schafly barleywine that dan bought was 2 dollars cheaper. the baltic was a wash. so between the two places... 4 dollars saved on similar bottles... +1 to Kahn's.

after that... but now a moment for yoga pants... 

back to the story...

went over to bier brewery... a nano that served up a heapin amount of beer, but was just okay.... i had high hopes for this place but was a bit crestfallen... but then shook my fucken head and said don't build up a place that makes for a good time with good beer and snap the fuck out of it...

so i did.

They had a good coffee porter, very cold coffee, but that was all it was... carbed cold coffee. Dan and i dueled out a painful game of darts here, deciding to call it a draw due to our lack of either being able to win. Bier offers samples and growlers... no pints. That made our decisions easy... and after we left, we realized that... the beers at sunking and bier didn't cost us a thing... and that too made it better... in it's way.

Heading to the last leg of the indianapolis part... was broadripple brewing, three wise men, and brugge.

broadripple was full but not packed, and my goal was to walk a bit and shift the beer with walking and hoping the morning's beers were shifting into the methane that goes with a long day of drinking, and walking did it's magic advising wimperpoo to keep upwind from me... but to me there's only 1 beer at broadripple that needs drinking.

Their esb... on handpull... it's traditional and tasty... and sorry tickers, it's not extreme.

Walking around the maze that is broadripple, checked out the dart stube, the other requirement for broadripple, and no darts no cry... so we sat outside and had our beer...

there's a art museum close to the brewpub, so we wandered over there.

and wandered back to a shitshow packed house at 3 wisemen... not our wisest move. I walked in and got to the bar, told dan to pick two beers, determined that they were using too much soap on the glassware making the off taste unpalatable, and headed to brugge.

Now you might be thinking that brugge would be a shit show too... and it was, but dumb luck and good timing presented dan and I with chairs and a spot at the upstairs bar seconds after we walked in... sat down without a thought. Got beered... Got food.

Pooka isn't great taste pooka, dan had that, and then some samplers. The tripel, black and ipa. Dan got mussels.

I had the tyro and then dirty old man with my steak frites...

we got 5 of their sauces, and i must remember to get the horseradish next time... it was KILLER with the frites, tho the vinegar and sea salt was good and so was the blue cheese.

A while later... after much leaning and relaxing...

It was time to head north...

A stop at three floyds on the way home, because you never know when that place'll burn down, was required.

Hell's Black Intelligencer was needed about 2 hours earlier in the drive, but the coffee oatmeal stout was very sessionable... please bottle that, three floyds.

Three floyds is in a current state of construction, so you get to walk into the brewery when hitting the pisser.... always fun.

After that it was a ride home and a long sleep in that order.

till the next trip...

shoutout to kev... my condolences.

So... i get into town and get on the bart from the airport. Getting a clipper card from one of the kiosks that sell them, the card gives you bus and train in a scannable card. it's handy... doing a little research on what buses go where expediates things. With that in mind... Lets begin.

getting off the train, finding some food, beer... grabbed a dba from firestone as my first beer...

so, lay of the land, hotel, cleanup. Mosey to citybeer.

city beer's got goodstuff on tap. alesmith brown, giardin guezue on tap, and a bottle of RR framboise for a cure.  Draft giardin is different than bottle instead of an older beer added a younger blend is added, really really tasty. Teh RR makes LA's framboise, taste crappy...  Its so dry. so delicously dry. recommended. for those of you that havent been to city beer since the expansion, way bigger... cold and warm storage take up the volume of the old space, and the new space is basically the whole other side of the new bldg. It's really nice.

moving on from there, went to the opening ceremony

 ale industries had a great sour cherry stout. The new wit from almanac is tasty. the black label hopocolypse from drakes is really good.

too many good beers to name. the venue is new, bathrooms were an issue. Having the entire bay area beer scene in one place works for me. it's a great event and is better to make than the barleywine fest at the end of the week, worth it. if you hafta choose..  so anyway... I get in line for russian river after the plinyfrenzy cause thats what it was. Had the temptation always good.

passed on it at the opening because i knew id get to try....

(Dear constant reader, typing with the new keyboard that attaches to the tablet i bought isn't very feasible while lying down... it has one of those pad mouses... and that fucks up a bit while trying to type long documents. so I stopped. and now to resume...)

the pliny the younger at the dipa festival the next day... i've had it before. It's just another beer, especially with drakes black label hopocolypse in the room and a line of 4 people to get that... i love locals that take a non ticked beer for granted. tricks are for kids.

long story shorter, I started at 5am and it was 12:30ish pacific time. Dave needs sleep.

The next morning i had a bit of a conundrum... there was an ale industries bottle release not too far from my hotel and it was a coffee stout, limited bottles, single store and brewery... brewery wasn't in the cards.

and there was the dipa fest. and they started at the same time, and dipa fest's over in hayward across the bay...

most of you are like, duh, no contest, but i've been to the dipa fest for the last 4 years, that i've either strong beer month'd or sfbeerweek'd so i'm like it runs till 7, tho i wouldn'ta got my pliny the incest... so i went dipa fest.

The dipa fest was great, i wore a this in a hoodie and got approached by some gun nuts that went on forever about the weapons the women had... boom

It was great. buy extra tix right away... makes sense. But notables for me at the dipa feat since i kept the list.

43 dipa's and 15 triple ipa's. Yeah it's worth going to.

Boneyard's notorius was good from the triples as well as pliny and drakes. Triple crisis from 21a was pretty good too. I had 4 kern river citras, cause i could. Auburn's pu240, Green flash palate wrecker, and the duece by el toro were standouts. Midnight sun's Obliteration VIII was second only to the citra...

After that i had signed up for a beer thing at the amsterdam cafe... it was mediocre at best... was organized by one of the "meetup" people... I showed up late due to the dipa festival and the guy running the event was sorta put out. His name is tom, and he's kind of a dick, ticker at best. Anyways.

Had a couple of beers at that event but then noticed that amsterdam had cantillion kriek on, not available to the tasting i was at, but when you see cantillion on draft you don't fuck around... I drank 3 of those. It made perfect sense... and put a sourer but nicer edge on the evening...

Finished over at social kitchen... they had strong beers and desserts as orderable pairings... went lebowski and did the white prussian, it was solid.

after that... time for bed... for the next day was to be the sour fest at triple rock...

So gatorbeergeek, everetends and i are chatting in of all places, chat, about roadtrips. Gbg is like, haven't done that many, family really didn't do them when i was younger... not the case for me. So in that respect i felt the need to get some more miles in and hit the road.

Everything in michigan seems to either open at 11 am or 3pm, sort of annoying if you're trying to plan something around a roadtrip, but it's about the journey... so it's cool. I got going around 10 am to arrive when both were open and i didn't need to wait, also set up lodging in grand rapids as i needed to as I planned to drink fairly well.

First stop was New holland brew co... I more recently stopped at greenbush and didn't feel like revisiting it, although they had had a recent rash of interesting beers on. New Holland always has some interesting pub beers on imo, not a big fan of their standards, but that doesn't mean they don't make good beer, just not a fan.

There was a session esb at 3%, kinda what i wanted after a long initial drive, and for dessert i had their trippel... not a tripel guy persay, but it sounded interesting. Looking over on the board of upcoming beers, it appears I was about 2 weeks too early. Grabbed a small pizza there as they're okay at that...

New holland is to me first and foremost a restaurant with a small brewery in it, a great swag shop and what used to be a cool backroom, now reduced, but they have the still equipment back there so it's okay. But just okay. It fits very well with the vibe of the town, but if you live anywhere with a pulse, you really feel the urge to sell crack here or something to give the place the edge it needs... the damn town is like an ambercrombie ad.

Next stop after getting my hotel stuff squared, was founders, mike was there and he and i shared a beer and some conversation and completed a trade for a bottle of the heretic bottled by hopcat. I can never get over how much i like the space at founders, it reminds me of an airplane hanger with peanut shells all over the floor, much less then their old space, but still, the charm still lingers. Having a selection of frangelic porter (used to be stout, like it even more as a porter and on nitro no less.) breakfast stout, galactic ale (galaxy hopped pale) I moved thru those three with happiness. Mike had some other business to attend, but said he'd meet up with me at vivant later on if i was game. I was.

So off to hopcat I go... you can't go to founders and not go to hopcat. And vice versa.

So they had publican porter on tap. x3 of those for this porter whore. Had a taste of their cedar aged wild... tastes like it came out the wood too early, a bit buttery as well, but that's the way it is sometimes.

tastes just as sexy as the picture.

For those of you that haven't been to hopcat, it's a nice wide space with interesting ceilings, a sturdy L shaped bar seating around 50, an awesomely decorated mens bathroom with icons of manly prowess giving you the finger and a great selection of beers that they do growler for the right price, spensive to the locals, i'll take it cause i cant get it to you and me, cause when you drive 2ish hours to get to grand rapids... it's nice to, as long as you're in the mood to the next day or two, to bring home some nice fresh beer and drink the not available stuff in the comfort of your own mancave... anyways... after that...

i swung over to international beverage selections... you can only break the mold by not going to siciliano's so many times, but i was determined to try a new beer store. This didn't disappoint as i spent a modest 40ish bucks on some new to me beer... This is a solid store, some glassware, interesting glassware, belgian selection that you can totally miss when walking in, but a solid amount of warm craft, 6-7 doors of cold craft, and the prize for me was seeing the bottles of kuhnhenn 9 for sale here... 4 bucks here, 6 bucks at the brewery...

On my departure i got a text from mike and rolled over to vivant which was only a few miles away...

Vivant was in a word, splendid.

I really haven't drank in a space like that and i voiced my first thought to mike when we got beers after an impromptu tour with the owner who happened to be there, very randomly. I really appreciated the walkthru and the hospitality i received while there. Felt like a dick cause i was out of business cards, note to self, don't be out of business cards. But my first thought was tbs gathering at this place... this would be a great place as they have two common tables to sit and drink and conversate and that's what's in my opinion, is missing at a lot of places.

Vivant's place to be if you're riding solo or with a friend is belly up at the bar... and the church like interior isn't a turnoff at all... kinda pulls you in and wraps around you... It's a pretty small place with pretty tall ceilings giving a the space a bigger than life feel which compliments it... they have these great booths which seat 6-8, so a larger party can kick back and be obnoxious in the comfort of their own section, and the feel of the place is just chill. Craft beer drinkers know what's up and this place was full at 9pm on a wednesday, it's the place you can unwind and enjoy.

As for the beer. Everything I had was solid... a belgian oatmeal stout and a barrel aged contemplation and a taste of the Uytzet... as well as buying a 4 pack cans of their farmhouse. I look forward to trying more of vivants beer.

Mike asked me if i wanted to hit one more spot cause it was near his house and he was in the mood for one more... Logan's alley... I haven't been to Logan's alley since like 2004. and i remember it being a very smoky oldboys bar with a decent craft beer selection, but it sometimes had sketchy lines, so hadn't been back... it's smoke free now. We both got a beer and the beers were okay but nothing to write home about and called it a night.

Hideout brewing and Oddside ales were the ones that got away this trip, i'll make it next time.

Then the long sleep, pool. nap and ride across 96 to buddy's, kuhnhenn, champagne's, and jolly pumpkin in ann arbor.

94 and 96 are similar, but 96 has less services, so when going that route across 96, gas up.

I could have hit michigan brewing company along 96, and relived the celis, but i wanted to get to food, as i hadn't eaten, sans light road snacks,

Gorged on buddy's which is my favorite pizza outside of chicago pizza. Recommended. Detroit staple since 1944.

Then a quick 40 dollar trip to champagne's which is a good liquor store in warren, beer selection is back in the left corner, but if you haven't been there before, take a minute to take in the animals. there's a giraffe, some wolves, a couple lions... it's different. The selection there is good, decent layout, some prices good, some a bit more than other places, but you're more likely to find it here than merchants, not that i don't love merchants.

Kuhnhenn wasn't that busy on a thursday afternoon... had a dripa and a simcoe silly. Both solid... they had new swag, bought kev a glass and me a hooded sweatshirt.

It still screams old veterans of foriegn wars and everytime I go in there I think of the folding tables and mismatched picnic chairs it started out as...

After that, time started getting away from me and it was more than after noon... i did want to stop in jp, bells and darkhorse before i got home, so i mosey'd.

Jolly Pumpkin is fun, foody and eclectic. Great new swag, not made for fat people. only xl.

They have a Fuego label shirt with some wraparound graphics for those interested... if you love that beer, you'll rep the shirt.

Had a maracaibo on tap as well as a fuego. Both so good... it's nice to say that both of those beers are pleasantly sour while still keeping a malty backbone... jolly pumpkin masters the fine line of subtle excellence and that's all I need.

So i leave there and some guy in a caution orange hooded sweatshirt is leaving something under my windshield wiper... and i yell, hey... i paid for parking, i should be good... and he responds... some dude hit your car, i saw it, broke my drivers side, sideview mirror... he left a number where he could be contacted, but here's his plate and a make and model on his car... i'm like... fuck.

So all wind out of my sails... i drive home. End of trip. On a side note... this turnt out to be a good thing as snow slammed the midwest on friday... spent the day drinking and resting and sleeping and laundrying.

ps. called the guy after getting the estimate on the replace the sideview mirror and he's sending me a check. so i'll update on that.

up next san francisco beer week... feb 10-16.

Today's jaunt starts off at greenbush brewery... I felt i needed to be random and finally get out to this place, it's starting accounts around chicago, but i need sort of a "this is what it tastes like at the brewery" base to know if the beer is worth drinking in my area.

Greenbush had on like 16 or so beers, and i went in and had their sampler, with some extra samples.

Standouts for me were the Distorter (porter) and the closure which was the pale... they also had an old fashioned styled beer, i think was called LSD. That really was an interesting beer, something not the everyday.

The interior of the place is kinda fun... they have a handful of retro stuffs old ab/blatz/schlitz stuff but not everywhere, just thrown in here and there. I don't think i'd like to see this place busy as capacity is like 30ish people. I like the swag, tho i'll get some down the road, been on a swag buyin frenzy lately. Really impressed with the amount of specialty glassware this place had, maybe 6 different styles of glassware.

the cheese sammy is good here, they use 4 kinds of cheese and you get chips and a pickle.. it helped drinking the 60 oz of beer i took down at greenbush.

The patrons provided good conversation and that's the mark of a successful brewery. Folks who are there to have a beer, sit and enjoy... like minded is easy pickins here. all in all i'd go back or stop back from a michigan jaunt.

as for easy access, it's right off the highway, same stop as the lions den. exit 12.

From there i headed toward st. joe/benton harbor. I had left early in the afternoon and had spent maybe 2ish hours just chillin at greenbush, chatting with the patrons and bartenders and brewers and stuff. And down the road another 12ish miles is the livery...

I like hitting the lighthouse that's off the st. joe pier... so here's some shots.

and

But as the sun set and my fingers fell off again, it was time to revive with beer at the livery...

I originally went to the livery before the lighthouse to grab this fine action shot, came back and it was a bit darker...

The livery is the basement brewery, with the upstairs bar and stage. I really like basement, it's comfy, it has enough vintage and modern swag to keep the eye roaming, there's a small sandwich station down there besides the bar with its dozen and change taps...

Only had 2 beers here and some samples, but what i had was quality.

Started off with their special bitter, as i like to do at most places that offer a bitter... it's a challenging style. And this one was very floral with slight bitterness, but tasty nonetheless. The beer that caught my eye was the barrel aged farmhouse... merlot barrels with brux. Everyone's usin brux these days and I couldn't be happier, fav strain of brett.

The sourness in the farmhouse was considerable, puckerable... most impressive livery.

On big brew day they had around 25 people brewing at the livery, and they beer competitioned that brew day beer at a later date... the winner was a robust porter... it was tasty too. Had spent grain pretzel bites with homemade honey mustard... yum. those were dense as fuck and really held things down as far as an app is concerned.

They were gearing up for their trivia nite and i finished my beer upstairs, don't usually get to sit up there so... a shot and i'm out...

and then a quick trip home stopping only at three floyds for a drunk monk, alpha klaus, and a moloko... cause who can resist moloko?

on the way to livery, ran into this americana... a dinosaur and the ten commandments? beat that!

and that ends today's adventure... up next san diego. 3 days of hard drinking.

so a nice windown the night before and an assload of walking and i'm up and off in the morning... i've got one stop left, or three in canada, and one of them is mill street brewing.

I love the mill street and it's fine coffee porter. It's good, but i didn't drink a drop of it while I was there... I had 3 glasses of the framboise they had on... it was clean and dry and tartly sour in a subtle way and I wouldn't have kicked it out of bed for all the hops in washington...

So a pleasant sit inside the confines of mill street lead to their store... they have hockey jerseys... not in my size... but they have them... killer swag for those planning on going up... settled on two bottles of roggenbier and a couple of metal coasters with bottle openers on them... yeah. you'd hafta see em.

The distillery district is just begging to be photographed... so I obliged her whorish attentions with my lazy eye. When i got back to the hotel the night before... tommy boy was on... the scenes where farley is sitting in front of his dads company at the beginning were shot in the distillery district... it was kind of a cool... hey I recognize that moment... So wanting to be there for 15 minutes and just buy and go turned into 2ish hours of grazing with a bakery and chocolate shop filling out the breakfast aspect of my morning.

So pulling away, I headed southeast toward my next destination...\

On my way down the 403, I ran into some road construction, but with a gps and no set schedule other than to meet steve tasker that evening at coles, I pulled off the highway at a random exit and powered on the gps and went to trafalgar ales... Look at their website as they offer "real strong beer"... I stopped in and bought a few bottles, they're very small. and 2ish bucks so worth the stop just to try... the pub wasn't open until 4, so I just poked around and asked my questions... it's a mom and pop beer joint for shure with set clientel... it'll be one of those places you wonder how stays in business, but just does... But anyway...

Back on the road and headed into Niagara falls... Slowly I turned...

I went to niagara falls and while there beer related stopped by 2 different LCBO's. All Lcbo's are NOT created equal... and the niagara ones really stink compared to some around the toronto area... it's really strange when you hafta use their website to look up stock allocations... but anyway...

I went to niagara to see niagara again, and all the horrible people watching with all of the schlocky crap I could get my hands on... It inspired me to go to the dells after great taste, the dells is tame compared to niagara... (sans the upside down white house) and after maid of the misting it using up most of my bills and most of my change to park for a few hours... I got my fill...

I almost felt obligated to buy some random tourist crap just to buy it, but satan compelled me to save it for beer. So I did.

Duty free and 30 min later and I was stateside again... yay... Getting back into the states was good... felt at home...

The ride from canada to buffalo isn't that far...

First stop, premier gourmet... the tips I got on here were really helpful, I woulda hit the wine section of the gourmet and gotten frustrated with the place...

premier gourmet is like the blandest crappiest most swapmeet like liquor store you've ever been in... the outside is a nice facade, so I was worried... most of the best liquor stores are ugly on the outside as well. But the beer selection was good... I didn't get much, maybe 6 bottles... 65 bucks in beer... easy money. Was expecting to spend more.

from there I dropped tasker another text and we firmed up plans of when to meet at coles, but from the gourmet, I went over to the village beer merchant...

This is more what I would have expected from premier, but the corner craft beer shop in the hood it was in was just right... it's a cozy sorta joint...

I hunted around and stumbled across an ithaca 10... that went to brac. Found some other beer and another 50 bucks in beer in my cooler.

After that, it was coles and conversation with steve tasker for a few hours.

Real good kid, kinda stuck in a wasteland with no craft beer friends, but he's got a cutie of a girlfriend and he could live in north dakota, so there's that...

It was funny... showing up at coles on a monday is a crapshoot... they don't rewrite their boards till midweek, so "sorry sir, that keg blew this weekend was uttered 4 times" and when I asked for a gueuze on their beer list, sorry that's out was well, but we do have some dogfish peche... check please.

Coles is a great drinking establshment that I hafta think was made by a couple.

One side is casual dining with a bistro vibe... the other side is fratboy, collector, dark, with a beautiful oxblood bar and seating for 30 at at the bar proper... I really took a liking to the merry go round horses they had.

I tried talking steve into hitting 4 more bars with me, but he had work... (in the middle of the week, can you believe it... come on...) and from there the obvious choice was to go to pearl st. which I passed on the way to my hotel... but that was not to be... I went instead to ulrich's...

driving to that neighborhood, I thought my gps had gremlins inside of it cause it was directing me to a hospital and I was like... and there it was.

Ulrich's is a great bar... I just went in and drank 3 beers and chilled and people watched. That suggestion was great thanks bakes and bison. I haven't been in a joint like that since wolski's (if ever in milwaukee, wolski's is wisconsin's ulrich's)

super chill on a weekday night... just what I needed.

after that sleep and then a slow run down to cleveland, but before that... one of best breakfasts I've had, top 5 for shure. 

Pano's had exceptional pancakes. Fresh oj, great sausage... I was in heaven.

Funny part was on my way from my hotel back up to pano's... I started craving cereal... like I was pregnant or something... I look around to see a post factory in the distance and it smelled like oats and malt... It was great... But after that and hunting down some potato chips... (meh... bakes I need to send you some mrs fischers... those are good potato chips) I was off to cleveland...