Where: E Burnside
When: 5pm - 2am
Honeys Heart: Decor and cocktails
In between Katie coaching dance, me trying to figure out this whole dating thing, and us kindly inviting Doug to join us when we go places he wants to try too, Katie and I still try to prioritize checking out new bars and restaurants just the two of us. Recently we decided it would be fun to do a "back in time" bar crawl where we started somewhere we might like to go now, as mature 30-something year olds, and travel back in time through the night to places we frequented in our 20's (aka only places in NW).
Our list included Elephants, a toast to The Gypsy (from Muu-Muu's), Vault, and Life of Riley. Disclaimer: we did not make it to all of these places.
Elephants circa 2014- those are the strongest drinks of all time
To begin, we checked out a recently opened restaurant/bar called Hey Love in the newly-built Jupiter Hotel addition. With its tropical vibe and elevated tiki-style drinks, it was a great start to the debauchery to follow.
Hey Love's description of itself: "a community meeting hall, an afternoon study spot, an exceptional cocktail lounge, a hidden garden, and a house party - all wrapped into one." And to be fair, we met there, studied the menu, drank cocktails, commented on the plant-life, and returned at 1am to a wedding party and a DJ playing old-timey jams without a dance floor. We liked the vibe.
Our bartender, a friendly woman with bright red hair, big earrings, and a colorful top, offered a warm greeting and suggestions of her favorite cocktails. We started with the Companion Fare ($11) and one of two rum slushy options. The one below featured strawberry and some fresh citrus and while both slushies were delicious (obvs we had to try both), they aren't sustainable additions to our daily drink repertoire as they lean a little sweet.
Recognizing that we had plenty of drinking ahead of us, we decided to try some of the tropical-inspired comfort foods. The Macaroni & Cheese Pie ($7) was an obvious choice for us and was made even more satisfying with wagon wheel pasta and the accompanying sauce.
After another round of cocktails, we ordered the pork cheek sliders to be safe. Good, but I don't think about them like I think about the mac.
We wrapped things up, saying again "oh my gosh, we just love this place" and requested a Lyft to Elephants.
You might remember our first ever Elephant's post in April of 2009 where we raved about their incredibly cheap happy hour, then in October of 2009 when I explained my preference in bartender (sorry bartender Kelly), then in 2010 when Katie and I were SO funny and Kelly and Steve chased us out of the restaurant, then in 2011 when we copied their three citrus margarita recipe (we'd seen it made a few times)... and that's probably not every time they were mentioned. Point is, this stop was a MUST.
On our way there, we debated whether or not we would stay if bartender Kelly wasn't bartending. We decided we'd skip it since it just wouldn't feel the same without his adoration of us. As we walked up to the door, Katie saw him through the glass and immediately goes, "oh shit." We walk in, a bit enthusiastically, and from behind the bar we hear "oh shit." Bartender Kelly shared our sentiment, and probably a little bit of fear, of where this night was going.
We had a couple real strong cocktails and for old times sake, I put the bar stools up.
We left here to have shots at Muu Muu's and toast to The Gypsy's old location, now home to a new building full of retail space and apartments. Then went to Low Brow for lemon drops and went in very drunk search of somewhere to dance. We failed. As you can imagine the night went downhill and we should let the past live fondly in our memories.
