White Lightning

Last night, I made an unscheduled trip to the Toronado.

After a long night of sushi with Toshi (whose 31st birthday Janet and I were celebrating) he decided that he wanted a beer or two before calling it a night. Janet was feeling a little tired, so it ended up being a guy’s night out! We made it to the Toronado and it was wall-to-wall yuppies. I mean, there were khakis and cardigans as far as the eyes could see! Tad (the bouncer) was in rare form… wearing a muscle shirt and flexing his 2 inch biceps whenever we walked by us.

so, Toshi looked at the board to see what was new… and we saw the new White Lightning from Speakeasy Brewery, their first attempt at a Belgian witbeer. It sucked… horribly. All of the great characteristics of a Witbeer were missing from the White Lightning… no yeast taste, too strong of a malt taste, too sweet, not enough coriander. Toshi finished his… for the first time ever at a bar, I couldn’t finish the drink. It took almost a whole pint of Boont Amber to get the taste of that White Lightning out of my mouth.

At 11:15, all of the bridge-and-tunnel yuppies left for Marin or Berkeley, or wherever the hell the yuppies live, leaving the Toronado sort of deserted. We used this opportunity to procure a bottle of Framboise Boon 1995… the traditional end-of-the-night-beer when I drink with Toshi. All in all, it was a fun three hours at the Toronado.