Mission Twitical 2.0

The winter thaw is over so we got the Mission area Twitterverse together to recreate the magic of the Mission Twitical pub crawl. We didn't luck out with the weather this year, it was rainy and a little chilly. Last year the sun and warm weather left us happy in our shorts and flip flops. The rain also forbade me from trying to recreate my favorite moment of Mission Twitical last year when Owen brought his bike into Lucky Brewgrille, threw it down in the bar and said "F... you, I work for the Pitch". I had to settle for Stella driving me over and dropping me off.

I showed up right at 2 and only found @sjwaters, and @c_giffin (forgive me for using Twitter names, not everyone has a blog and I'm not inventing aliases for everyone), co-creators of the Mission Twitical. I asked for the specials and without looking at the taps and wound up with a $2 Miller Lite (give me a break, I was about to drink 10 beers over the course of the next couple of hours). Had I looked at the taps I would have gotten a Sam Adams Noble Pils and had it serve the same purpose with more flavor. If I were going to be a madman I could have started off with some Tank 7 which Lucky's has on tap as well. People started filtering in, I sold The DLC on a pint of Noble Pils (he was looking for a pilsner style beer, he usually drinks liquor). Joey96, originator of the "We wnat Boulevard Irish Ale all year long" facebook group, ordered, surprisingly an Irish Ale from the taps. What I'm trying to say is that Lucky Brewgrille has a pretty good tap selection.

Once we finally got everyone assembled that we thought was coming we all tabbed out and headed over to JJ's Other Place. JJ's might be the lowlight of the pub crawl but it has it's own niche, the jukebox. The bartender, remembering us from last year (I'm going to withhold the twit's name that the bartender knew), put $1 in the jukebox for us. I believe, that @sjwaters and @taracuda selected the worst songs from the jukebox including "YMCA". I'm pretty sure that the 2 or 3 regulars that were in the bar when we got there couldn't wait for us to leave. Unfortunately, we spent an incredibly long time there long past the time I was able to nurse my lone Guinness (Guinness draws will be $4 on St. Patricks day) of the year. Once everyone was finally done a good hour after we got there, we were able to get everyone out for the long, wet walk down to RJ's Bob-Be-Cue. Everyone, that is, except for Chimpotle and his friend who decided to go down to the Sprint Center to see if they could get some scalper tickets for the KU-K-State game.

After the long slog to the wonderful RJ's, most of us were ready to eat and RJ's was our last best chance to get something edible. I got an Odell Cutthroat Porter to drink which started a small trend. RJ's actually has a pretty good beer selection even though they have Tallgrass IPA on tap. The DLC and @C_giffin each had a Greyhound and @taracuda and Meesha had some drink the wonderful big Dave, the big red head guy that is always working at RJ's, concocted made with Clementine Izze and vodka. After finding out that appetizers were half price for us, I decided on Texas Toothpicks (fried onion and jalapeno strings with a cheese sauce) and a Cajun crabcake. The crabcake was quite burnt on the bottom but still pretty good and the Texas Toothpicks were wonderful fried pieces of goodness. I'll probably get them every time I eat at RJ's in the future. Meesha let me have a bite of his pork burnt ends. It was pretty good, I don't normally like burnt ends and these didn't make me a convert because they're a little fatty for me, but pretty tasty. We were running seriously behind schedule because of the hour and a half we spent at RJ's, it was already nearing 5:30 and the event was only scheduled until 6. We still had 3 bars to go.

Because we were running so late, Manhattan Lounge (located next to the Mission Theater) was open. We had to skip Mission Lounge (next to Manhattan Lounge) last year because they inexplicably don't open until after 5.
I really don't understand the rhyme or reason behind when these 2 bars are open but I'm sure it makes sense to someone. I like for bars just to be open all day every day to eliminate any confusion. That being said, Manhattan Lounge (named for the little apple, not the big apple) was quite nice inside. They had Free State Copperhead on tap so I knew what I was going to have. I have a simple motto, if Free State's on tap that's what I'm drinking. I hope for a day when Free State is so widespread that I opt for another beer on tap. But until that day comes, I'll be having Free State. Manhattan Lounge, as of this weekend, was serving beers in Sam Adams perfect pint glasses. But from the sound of glass breaking 3 different times while we were in there, I don't think that will last much longer. Not to mention everyone's going to steal one, the only reason I didn't is because we had a couple more bars to hit and I didn't want a glass in my pocket for the next couple of hours. Chimpo and his friend caught back up with us at this point having struck out trying to get tickets to the game. They weren't willing to pay $150 for upper deck seats. They had to settle for watching the game on the one working TV (of 4) in the Manhattan Lounge. I made a couple of reconnaissance missions around the corner to the Keyhole Tavern to see if 15 of us could fit in there. The Keyhole was packed with people  watching the game. Most everyone decided to skip it and head straight over to the Clarette Club.

I went to the Keyhole, we had such a good time there last year meeting boy Superman that I couldn't pass it up. I picked up a $2 PBR draw and settled in at a table with a couple of other tweeps to watch the last 5 minutes of the game. Unfortunately for all of us but @joey96 and his wife, the rest of the bar was KU fans. But not the type of people I usually associate with being KU fans, there were at least 2 people unironically wearing overalls. There could have been more overall clad patrons, it's impossible to know. Once the game was over we made the last part of our trek over to the Clarette Club on the back side of Mission Mart.

Once we got there and found the rest of the group and noticed that the Reuben Roll eating had already occurred. The DLC and @C_giffin tried to get me to eat one, but I don't even like Reubens so there's no way I would try them in rollup form. I got tired of waiting for our waitress (who was quite nice and bubbly, a nice departure from the servers I've had there the other 2 times I've been) so I went up to the bar to get a glass for the pitchers. I couldn't get the bartender's attention so I just grabbed one and headed back to our table. I was long past the point of caring about social conventions like waiting to be served by bar staff. It was past 8 at this point and I mostly just wanted to go home. I texted Stella to have her come get me and the group of us spent the time waiting talking about The D's dildo collection. I'd like to say that wasn't true, but that's really what we talked about.

It was a long day but it was a fun day. I think we'll be doing it again next year. Hopefully Mission gets its act together and actually paves the sidewalks in all areas to be the walkable city they want to be. I really didn't want to get my shoes all muddy, but I did. Last year we actually walked on hay in some areas. It was rainy and pretty miserable this year, but that's the price to pay when you schedule an outdoor event in March.

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