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No Smoking!

Well, if you’ve been reading this week’s Barfly Chronicles, you’ll realise that Avery’s been stuck in a Brown Shugga rut. Brown Shugga is a beer that was brewed by accident at Lagunitas Brewery. Subsequently, they only made a few kegs, and once the Toronado burns through it’s last keg, it’s over. Forever.

So, every day since Wednesday night, we’ve made a point to go out to the Toronado, hoping to get a last few pints in before it goes away. On Thursday, I went over to the Toronado after work and had a few glasses of Brown Shugga (one half-pint and two full pints).

Friday night, Janet and I went over to the Toronado after meeting up with Jocelyn at a local bar called Chances. Chances are that we won’t be going back anytime soon. Actually, that isn’t true. Janet and I will probably go back to hang with Jocelyn, but the beers were sort of expensive, and they had Jagermeister on tap (icch!!!). Combine that with an excessive amount of smoke and really bad air circulation, and chances are that Chances will never be a regular haunt. Still, they have a couple of pool tables and an ATM and a good selection of hard liquor. But if I want hard liquor, I’ll just go to An Bodhran (the local Irish bar).

Anyway, we went to the Toronado after finishing up at Chances and hung out with the people. Janet will tell you more about what happened Friday night… but suffice it to say, I polished off five pints of Brown Shugga and Janet had 2 pints of Guinness, and a bottle of Lindemans Kriek.

It wouldn’t be a Saturday if we didn’t go to the Toronado. However, this week we went there really late (about Midnight) hoping to miss the crowd. Well, we didn’t miss the crowd… but we did get there in time to watch this little weasely dude really piss off all of the bartender.

The Scenario: This little weasely guy is nursing a pint of Guinness. He’s got a lit cigarette and is hiding it under the bar ledge… because NOBODY ELSE is smoking. You see, Johnny is an ex-smoker. On top of that, he doesn’t have any patience for people doing illegal stuff at the bar… and smoking is still verboten in San Francisco’s bars. So, Johnny comes over and asks the guy to stop smoking. The conversation below is paraphrased… I don’t remember the exact quote.

Johnny: Hey there… You know the law, no smoking.

Guy: I wasn’t smoking (he then drops the cigarette and casually stamps it out).

Johnny: Yes you were… you had it under the table, and I don’t appreciate it. Next time, take it outside.

Guy: Ok, I’ll think about it next time.

Luckily, he left soon afterwards, and Janet and I took his seat at the corner of the bar. The mood was relatively somber… Johnny wasn’t in the best mood, and everyone just seemed on edge. So we had our two pints each (Janet had a Beamish and a Guinness and I had two Brown Shugga) and when the bell tolled 2:00am, we left for home. Still, we’ll be back on Wednesday for a beer with Ian. Hopefully, it’ll be a Brown Shugga.

Posted in The Barfly Chronicles.


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