A night with friends…

Earlier this week, I sent out an email to some friends (like Jocelyn, Carlos, Shawn and Toshi, who are all listed on the Links page), and to Drue and Derek (Fray, Hey Geek Girl, etc… all listed on the Links page) letting them all know that Janet and I were planning to be at the Toronado on Saturday and invited them come and have a beer with us. Well, not everyone showed up, but Janet, Jocelyn and I were there for the whole night (9pm to 2am). Jordan, another boxer from Kings Gym in Oakland showed up for a couple of hours in the beginning and Shawn showed up for the last two hours or so.

Going out drinking with a bunch of people is extremely different from when Janet and I go by ourselves. Don’t get me wrong, drinking with friends is great… but the paternal instincts kick in near the end of the night. You get concerned that the people driving home might not be in the best condition to drive (“Jocelyn, here’s our address just in case you feel like you can’t make it home…), or that people aren’t having a good time (Jordan, need a refill on that cider? No? Are you sure?), or that you weren’t a good enough host (Shawn, let me get you another root beer there…). That, and when we go with a group, I feel like we end up ignoring the bartenders… which we hate to do. But, we only go drinking with friends every couple of weeks, so I guess the bartenders can do without our company every once in a while 🙂

Aah, the bartenders. Last Saturday, Johnny had the day off so it was a Robert-Ian shift. So this week, when we saw Ian there by himself, I asked him where Johnny was. He said that Johnny was at the other bar he bartends at (El Bobo in the South of Market area)… so typical bitter me, says “Oh

suuuuure he’s running late at his other job”… not the brightest thing to say when Johnny’s girlfriend is sitting next to us. But I resolved not to stick my foot back in my mouth for the rest of the night and made sure to greet Johnny with a warm “Hey, I was getting worried that we weren’t going to see ya tonight…” Damage was controlled.

The conversation was fun during the night. Jocelyn regaled us with her stories of professional ice-skaters hitting on her, Shawn proved that he could down a liter of liquids faster than me, and we got a surprise visit from Vagabond Jim… oh, and a vagrant named Mitchell almost caused a scene. When last call was announced by Johnny, it didn’t felt like we had been there for more than a few hours, not the five hours that it actually was!

Beers Consumed: 2 Boont Ambers, a Mendocino Red Tail on Cask pump, a Belk’s Bitter and a Hop Ottin IPA Geez, could I have been any more boring? All of the beers (aside from the Red Tail) were from Anderson Valley Brewing… I just wasn’t in the mood to experiment.

Coming Soon: This Wednesday night, a Stone Brewing night at the Toronado (makers of Arrogant Bastard Pale Ale)