The Foundry One80
After a long day of manual labor, a couple of good beers and a nice steak Stella and I were ready for some cocktails. Stella wanted to go somewhere new and I've been wanting to go to Manifesto (a modern day speakeasy) in the basement of 1924 Main. While she was getting ready I tried texting Manifesto for reservations. They texted back that they only accept reservations for 4 or more people. Since the place only takes 40 people you may have to have a "short" wait. We thought it might be worth it so we headed downtown to Manifesto.
We got to 19th and Main and looked around for the "secret" entrance, unfortunately we were looking at the back of Tootsie's instead of 1924 Main (they're a block apart and, in my defense, look alike from behind). Once the mistake was realized and Stella cemented in my mind that we wouldn't be good partners on the Amazing Race we made the block walk over to Manifesto. We found the "secret" back door (look for the purple lighting) and rang the buzzer. A guy came up the stairs and told us there would be a "short" wait and took my phone number so they could call or text when they were ready for us. Then he led us to the bar at 1924 Main and we sat. Approximately 48 hours later I still haven't got a call or text.
We waited around for about 10 minutes before giving up, 3 or 4 couples were ahead of us and not a one of them had gotten in yet so we figured we'd be waiting at least an hour. We don't get out enough to wait around for an hour, there are many acceptable places to go for a cocktail. I'm sure Manifesto is great, I'm just not waiting around.
We decided to hit up the Foundry since Stella likes the Cheryl Tiegs martini (raspberry vodka, triple sec, champagne, pineapple and cranberry juice) they have there. We sat down on the patio and got our drinks, Cheryl Tiegs for Stella and a McCoy's belgian wit for me. Stella was somehow hungry and decided to get the beer pretzels, I think because of the beer cheese fondue that comes with them. We really liked them when they came even though they were more like pretzel loaves and not all bendy like regular pretzels. The stout mustard that came with them was really spicy hot and the honey mustard was wonderfully sweet. I wish that we had gotten more pretzels to eat with the dipping sauces.
We settled in and did some good old fasioned Westport people watching from the patio. I think I should have gone with a Goose Island Matilda or any of the fine Belgian beers the Foundry has to choose from. I just haven't enjoyed much that I've drank from McCoy's in the past year, maybe because the last time my beer had pinky toe toenail clipping sediment. Once we finished up our drinks we decided to head over to One80 across the street.
We were able to find a nice booth to sit and perused the list of cocktails. I immediately decided upon a French martini which is my new go to cocktail because it includes 2 of my favorite things, raspberry and pineapple. Stella decided upon a mango mojito. I don't know if One80 is a scratch bar, I'm pretty sure they're not, but my French martini was pretty fabulous. Stella's mango mojito seemed to lack any mango flavor but I consider that a feature, not a bug. Stella liked it anyway but she decided to get a French martini for her second drink. I decided upon a McCoy's IPA more to get some liquid in me and I chose the IPA as my delivery device.
As we were drinking we were noticing a couple who had obviously come from the Royals game. Stella asked if people usually drink Red Bull from the can in a bar and I thought it is usually mixed in a cocktail. Well the guy WAS drinking Red Bull from the can at 11 PM and his little pixie in her blue sundress was had this look like she knew she was going to get schtuped all night. I hesitate to call the guy a douche since he had a freebie KC Royals t-shirt on not an Ed Hardy t-shirt, but I would call him a tool. I couldn't figure out why he wouldn't go into the bathroom, do a couple of rails and come out and have a real drink, it wouldn't make a dime's worth of difference in his alert level and he could really enjoy a nice drink. Drinking Red Bull is a really good indicator of a person's level of toolitude. Anyway, I felt kind of sorry for the girl that was with this guy, she's probably still sore and turned out.
One80 was a really great place aside from the music being a little loud, but I'm old and don't get the whole DJ thing. But the music was pretty good, the cocktails were great, the crowd was pretty cool (except for Red Bull guy) and the prices were pretty reasonable.
We got to 19th and Main and looked around for the "secret" entrance, unfortunately we were looking at the back of Tootsie's instead of 1924 Main (they're a block apart and, in my defense, look alike from behind). Once the mistake was realized and Stella cemented in my mind that we wouldn't be good partners on the Amazing Race we made the block walk over to Manifesto. We found the "secret" back door (look for the purple lighting) and rang the buzzer. A guy came up the stairs and told us there would be a "short" wait and took my phone number so they could call or text when they were ready for us. Then he led us to the bar at 1924 Main and we sat. Approximately 48 hours later I still haven't got a call or text.
We waited around for about 10 minutes before giving up, 3 or 4 couples were ahead of us and not a one of them had gotten in yet so we figured we'd be waiting at least an hour. We don't get out enough to wait around for an hour, there are many acceptable places to go for a cocktail. I'm sure Manifesto is great, I'm just not waiting around.
We decided to hit up the Foundry since Stella likes the Cheryl Tiegs martini (raspberry vodka, triple sec, champagne, pineapple and cranberry juice) they have there. We sat down on the patio and got our drinks, Cheryl Tiegs for Stella and a McCoy's belgian wit for me. Stella was somehow hungry and decided to get the beer pretzels, I think because of the beer cheese fondue that comes with them. We really liked them when they came even though they were more like pretzel loaves and not all bendy like regular pretzels. The stout mustard that came with them was really spicy hot and the honey mustard was wonderfully sweet. I wish that we had gotten more pretzels to eat with the dipping sauces.
We settled in and did some good old fasioned Westport people watching from the patio. I think I should have gone with a Goose Island Matilda or any of the fine Belgian beers the Foundry has to choose from. I just haven't enjoyed much that I've drank from McCoy's in the past year, maybe because the last time my beer had pinky toe toenail clipping sediment. Once we finished up our drinks we decided to head over to One80 across the street.
We were able to find a nice booth to sit and perused the list of cocktails. I immediately decided upon a French martini which is my new go to cocktail because it includes 2 of my favorite things, raspberry and pineapple. Stella decided upon a mango mojito. I don't know if One80 is a scratch bar, I'm pretty sure they're not, but my French martini was pretty fabulous. Stella's mango mojito seemed to lack any mango flavor but I consider that a feature, not a bug. Stella liked it anyway but she decided to get a French martini for her second drink. I decided upon a McCoy's IPA more to get some liquid in me and I chose the IPA as my delivery device.
As we were drinking we were noticing a couple who had obviously come from the Royals game. Stella asked if people usually drink Red Bull from the can in a bar and I thought it is usually mixed in a cocktail. Well the guy WAS drinking Red Bull from the can at 11 PM and his little pixie in her blue sundress was had this look like she knew she was going to get schtuped all night. I hesitate to call the guy a douche since he had a freebie KC Royals t-shirt on not an Ed Hardy t-shirt, but I would call him a tool. I couldn't figure out why he wouldn't go into the bathroom, do a couple of rails and come out and have a real drink, it wouldn't make a dime's worth of difference in his alert level and he could really enjoy a nice drink. Drinking Red Bull is a really good indicator of a person's level of toolitude. Anyway, I felt kind of sorry for the girl that was with this guy, she's probably still sore and turned out.
One80 was a really great place aside from the music being a little loud, but I'm old and don't get the whole DJ thing. But the music was pretty good, the cocktails were great, the crowd was pretty cool (except for Red Bull guy) and the prices were pretty reasonable.
