A word from the founder of Drink Deck

You guys! Look what I got in my email today!

Thanks Kristy. Your posts are funny! We have 400 drink decks in circulation at this point and are still working to get the word out! Several retail partners have been added where Drink Decks can be purchased and you can reference them on our web site (still need to add Lush Wines 3 locations).

My friends and I have hit quite a few of the Drink Deck spots thus far and I can tell you that keeping the staff familiar with Drink Deck is an on going battle...similar to keeping bartenders familiar with a new liquor, beer or wine. Over time it will get better as our distribution increases!

Hoping to get more exposure through chitowndeals.com, youswoop.com and maybe even groupon.com.

Additionally, I have applied for the Wells Street Arts festival (to sell photography/prints of the photos taken for the cards along with drink decks) and the Do Division Street Fest. More shows will be applied for soon as well.

Despite your not so positive experiences I hope you and your friend continue on in your quest to hit all the spots. As an additional incentive, I will throw in a free 2011 edition for each of you if you can complete a deck before the end of 2010.

Best Regards,

Will Glass, Founder

Drink Deck LLC

312-929-3730 - office

www.thedrinkdeck.com

Now I'm super excited about trying to hit them all! We have a challenge, goal and prize!

Unexpected Drink Deck night....or MardiGras 2010

The term "Mardi Gras" (pronounced /ˈmɑrdi grɑː/), in English, refers to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and ending on the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday", referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season.

It also includes crazy drinking on a school night.

Jen and I didn't mean to start at Dick's Last Resort. It's not a great bar, despite a fun location on Chicago River. It feels a little touristy. The people we met were from such exotic locales as Park Ridge. But here's the thing: we tried to find other more awesome bars to celebrate Mardi Gras and were denied. We stopped in to Rockit and the place was deserted. No MG celebration there. We decided that perhaps Chicago doesn't enjoy MG like New Orleans does. Fine. We'd go to Rock Bottom, where just that very morning they had advertised a Mardi Gras party. Well, if you consider three purple, gold and green balloons and a handful of beads a party, then RB is your place. I don't. So we went to DLR. We had visited DLR a year earlier and had a great time (because of people we ran into, not because of the bar) and this was the key: we knew that they would be having a Party. With Hurricanes. For $3. And if it was awful, we'd head to Wrigleyville.

It was not awful. We had a great time chatting, drinking hurricanes purchased for us by suburbanites, discussing travel stories of Brazil with a group of middle aged men who had been hanging out since high school and getting beads from the bouncer.

Then we left. And rather than do the smart thing on a Tuesday night (ie..go home), we decided to "have one more" at Duffy's. The good thing is that Duffy's is superclose to my house. The bad? Well, it was a SCHOOL NIGHT and we had already had three hurricanes. But it was decided and written and done. One more at Duffy's. Which, turned the night into a DrinkDeck2010 night!

Again, the staff at Duffy's was fairly unfamiliar with DrinkDeck. One server knew enough to say "yeah, we take those" but not enough to say "by the way, there's a $30 minimum." Yay! So, our hurricanes were free (Duffy's was having a MG party complete with hurricane specials.) and we were able to tip the bartender big. Everybody wins.

Except that there were shots. The bartender bought one and the random guy next to me bought one.

Shots + hurricanes + school night = what was I thinking? That's the new math.

I've given up Mardi Gras for Lent.

February 2010

"February, when the days of winter seem endless and no amount of wistful recollecting can bring back any air of summer."

- Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons

So THIS was the plan for February DrinkDeck 2010:

9p---Branch 27 ("Neighborhood Joint")

1371 W Chicago Avenue btw Ada & Noble; Noble Square

10:30p---Red Canary ("Hip Hangout")

695 N Milwaukee btw Sangamon and Huron; River West

12p--- Paramount Room ("Gastropub")

415 N. Milwaukee Avenue at W Kenzie; Near West Side

However, since the crew was small (Just me and Kelly and Jen. Again.) the plan was fluid. We decided to join some of Kelly's friends for their annual pub crawl. My only demand was that we visit at least ONE DrinkDeck bar to make it a DrinkDeck night.

Revised schedule with new pub crawl friends:

7p----Faith & Whiskey

1365 W. Fullerton

Two things that are awesome about this bar:

a. The top shelf liquors are literally on the TOP shelf. Which means that the hot little bartenders have to scramble up the shelves. Fun to watch.

b. There is a bedazzled animal skull on the wall by the door.

Some not awesome things:

a. There is a lot of Ed Hardy.

b. There is a lot of Ed Hardy.

c. I expected a game of bags to spontaneously break out at any moment.

This is where I met Kelly's awesome friends: Adam (aka "MyAdam"). Kristine (the roommate). Doug & Arlene. Tom & Kim. Shelley. Ray & Jeremy. They are all terribly charming. And smart. And talented. And generous. They sing. They travel. They tease mercilessly. They have really great eyewear. None wore Ed Hardy. I really sort of loved all of them.

left to right: Shelley, Arlene, Doug, Ray, Jeremy

(see what I mean about the eyewear?)

clockwise from the guy: Adam, Kelly, me, Kristine

Tom and Kim

I did not ask for the bartender's suggestion regarding drinks. I just had a rum&diet.

8:30ish---Tavish Bar & Grill

1335 W Wrightwood

Tavish is a boy's name of Irish or Gaelic origin. It's a variant of Thomas. It might mean "twin" or "hillside." Here in Lincoln Park, however, it means the #2 mini burgers in the city.

Tavish was our dinner stop. It's a cozy bar with a fireplace in the front. Lovely for a first date. In fact, I think we terrified several first-daters when our group of eleven strolled in. Fortunately for those losers, they gave us a large, raucous table in the back, filled with delicious appetizers and entrees and drinks and music and fun. I had the fish tacos. The painfully slow fish tacos.

10p-ish----Rocks Lincoln Park

1301 W Schubert Ave

This place has 16 beers on tap, 43 bottled beers and 4 canned beers. I had the Duvel Green (taking me back to Belgium). Delicious. This is where Jen caught up with us. This is also where we started the terrible trend of only drinking half a beer. (Somehow for the rest of the evening, I managed to order a beer, drink half of it and then it was time to go. Good for calories. Bad for $$.)

The walk from Rocks Lincoln Park to Rose's Lounge included snow angels and cows and chickens.

after that pm---Rose's Lounge

2656 N Lincoln Avenue

Rose's is a dive bar. It is awesome. It has every chair from your grandma's basement in the '70s. It was Rose's 75th birthday on Saturday night and the place was full of people helping to celebrate. I had a Miller Lite. I did not mind not finishing that beer. Rose's did have a really fun jukebox, Digital Thunder.

This review on Yelp from Jarod P is a perfect review of the joint:

Okay, here's the thing about Rose's: It's Rose's place. Rose works there. No one else. And Rose is an unbelievable sweetheart who is getting on in years. So it may take you ten minutes to get your whiskey sour. And it may turn out to be a rum sour. And your Jack and Coke may turn out to be Jack and Diet Coke.

But here's the thing: Just nod your head and drink it and pay the lady. Because if you're the type who would complain about the service at Rose's, you are a bad person and should avoid inflicting yourself on people.

If you're not that type of person, just drink your random concoction and ask her about her life and her past and her stories, about how she ended up in Chicago, about life in Macedonia before and during the war. And listen. And then leave her a big effing tip. And ask her if she needs any help with anything.

And if you're not up for any of this, you should go away and never come back. Go hide under a desk for the rest of your life because no one should have to suffer you.

This is Rose.

later that same night pm--- Delilah's

2771 N Lincoln Ave

Delilah's is not for everyone. It's dark. It's super crowded (or maybe just small). There are a lot of tattoos. They seem to have an somewhat unhealthy obsession with Elvis art. And they show films of a genre that I would call "gorno."

But the bartenders are lovely and the Hoegaarden fantastic.

Delilah's is where we bid adieu to Kelly's crew to search for a DrinkDeck bar to end the night. Fortunately, right next door was:

end of the night pm--- Seven Ten Lounge Lincoln Park fka Lucky Strike

2747 N. Lincoln Avenue

Not surprisingly, this bar was empty when Jen and Kelly and I arrived. This seems to be a theme with the DrinkDeck bars so far: empty. Also, the server had never heard of DrinkDeck before. Another theme. I'm beginning to wonder if Kelly and I were the only ones to buy these things. Our server was sweet and it was quiet enough to exchange hilarious stories of college and lost loves/dodged bullets and boyfriends who accused us of being alcoholics (I'm looking at you, Brad Curtis.) I had the Allagash White. We did not bowl.

The upside of having a server who has never heard of DrinkDeck is that she doesn't demand that you order the minimum of $30 before giving you the $10 discount. Nope, she'll just give you those beers for FREE. Which is the perfect way to end a fun night out.

So, let's run the numbers:

drinks ordered: 5

drinks consumed: 3 (1 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 = 3)

$$ spent: $15 (did I mention how generous Kelly's friends are??)

$$ saved: at least $10

uninvolved boys met: 0

awesome new friends: 9

Next DrinkDeck night: March 13. Mark your calendars.

A New Angle to the Experiment?

I'm toying with the idea of trying a new drink with each new bar.

Now, this is a somewhat scary proposition. I'm more than a little bit partial to my vodka & cran. It's delicious. It's light. It's fruity. It's even good for my kidneys.

But what if I ramped things up a bit? What if I said "server's pleasure"? I might find something remarkable. Or I could end up with something that tastes like licorice: not awesome.

What say you, Reader? What drink(s) would you suggest that I try?

January 2010 The Experiment Begins....

Our first Drink Deck Saturday night was January 9, 2010.

This was the itinerary:


8p---Citizen Bar ("Neighborhood Joint")
364 W. Erie Street at N. Orleans in River North
http://www.citizenbar.com/







10p---the fifth ("Wine and Cocktail Bar")
600 W. Chicago Avenue at N Larrabee in River North
http://www.thefifthchicago.com/


12p---Motel Bar ("Hip Hangout")
600 W. Chicago Avenue at N Larrabee in River North
http://www.themotelbar.com/




********************************************************************************
Citizen Bar, scheduled arrival: 8p; actual arrival: 8:15p

This is what I know for sure: 8p is too early to start a Saturday night. (Note to self: next DD2010 night starts at 9p.) I did want to make sure that we got there early enough to get a table. As it turned out, we were in no danger of not getting a table: there were approximately 12 people in the place. The televisions were tuned into the Dallas Cowboys game (win) and the Blackhawks game (lose).


My girls showed up shortly after me.
This is them.

We were but three for the first event.
But a good three.

Here's what we have in common:

* We went to Oktoberfest together in 2009. We were the last ones home on any given night.
* We all lived in Cincinnati. We all escaped from Cincinnati relatively unharmed.
* We all love Chicago, its bars and its men. (You know, for the most part.)
* We don't hate fun.


At Citizen Bar, we quickly became friendly with our gorgeous server (Daniela?) and the hilarious doorman, X. I'm gonna warn you right now, ladies, X is a flirt. We loved him. He loved us. He bought us shots. One was a miraculous concoction that tasted like miracles and peanut butter. The other one was Jameson. We ordered the spicy corn chowder (delicious!) and the wings (fair!). And many many drinks. I'm partial to the double vodka & cranberry, in a grownup glass.

Soon, a group of boys (men? guys? what is the preferred nomenclature?) arrived. Adorned in Wisconsin regalia, the leader (let's call him Alex) approached our table, clearly in need of help, while his followers sat at the table next to ours. It seems, he explained, that they had managed to attract an unwanted girl (from Nebraska!) at their last location, who somehow managed to get into their cab and follow them right to Citizen. Right to this very spot! How, oh how, would they get rid of her? Honesty wasn't an option, so the passive-aggressive "let's-sit-with-these-girls-and-ignore-her" route was taken.



****Dear Reader, I'm ashamed to say that I did not stick up for the braces-adorned stranger from Nebraska. Alas, all I could think was: "hey! This cute boy wants to talk to me!" Also, he was funny. Sorry, Nebraska, you're on your own.****

We stayed and flirted and laughed with Alex & Co. until 10:30p. We were 30 minutes off schedule and it was time to move on.


thefifth, scheduled arrival: 10p; actual arrival: 10:30p

One lesson learned on Opening Night DD2010: always be sure to check the times that the bar/restaurant is open. Turns out thefifth closes at 10p. It was fully locked down when we arrived. Whoops.


Motel Bar, scheduled arrival: 12p; actual arrival: 10:31p

When this bar opened, it was THE bar in Chicago. You couldn't get in. You had to stand in line. It was jam-packed with the young and restless.

Now, not-so-much.

We easily got a table. The music was fairly lame. The clientele was Not Awesome. I will say that the double vodka & cranberry was just right.


*******************************************************************************
To sum up, let's run the numbers:

Bars visited: 2
Girls in attendance: 3
Dollars saved: 20
Dollars spent: 130
Free shots: 2
Rescued boys: 4, maybe 5
Stories & laughs: countless.

Next DrinkDeck2010 night is scheduled for February 13, 2010. Look for a post after that.

Drink Deck 2010....How it started

My friend and I bought these crazy decks of cards called "The Drink Deck." Each card in the deck features a different Chicago bar and gives a $10 discount. It is our goal in 2010 to visit each and every one of these bars in 2010, no matter how cheesy, chi-chi, crowded or lame we may think they are. Basically, we intend to pick a card at random out of the deck, find the two closest bars to that bar and visit those three bars in one night. Get it? Easy.

We will see this city.
We will drink its alcohol.
We will meet its men.

However, lest you think that this is just a "let's go chase boys" night, it is not. The key to finding boys is acting like you are not the least bit interested in finding boys. So, we'll do fun stuff other than chasing boys. Like chat animatedly. And laugh a lot. And barroom bingo. And other good stuff. That I haven't thought up yet. But barroom bingo to start.

And then the boys will come.**

This blog will tell the story of what happened.

**That's what she said.