75th Street 18th Anniversary
The time; 1995, when round glasses were cool, the Dow was at 4000 and 60 HR was unthinkable. A couple of days after a beer goggles moment in my 22 year old life, I got drunk. A friend and I spent the day drinking at Tanner's on 87th Street. I walked home about 5 and my roommate was home and raring to go to the bars with his buddies from his work. Dinner was set to be at 75th Street Brewery. To say I was hammered would be an understatement, I weighed 140 pounds and I'd had at least 6 20 oz beers at Tanners.
My roommate, of course, drove us to 75th Street Brewery. As we arrived, the beer goggles girl arrived with her roommate who worked with my roommate (hence the original hookup). I was forced to explain to my reasons for not calling in the past couple of days in the back parking lot of the brewery. I have no idea what my sweet tongue was able to come up with but for the rest of the evening my drunken hookup was attached to my side.
I don't remember much of the meal we had at 75th Street, but I do remember my roommate's coworkers forced as much bread upon me as the kitchen could bake up. I also remember using a lot A LOT of butter on the bread. I'm sure I got up to 141 pounds that evening.
Sadly, I don't remember much of my time at 75th Street on my initial visit. Later in the evening we went to Kelly's and I stood right at the ramp to go down to the lower level holding hands with my mistaken hookup.
Looking back now it seems like such a long time ago, in my case 16 years, but it's actually been there 18 this week. To celebrate their 18th anniversary they're having a special every night this week.
It looks like tonight and Friday night are the nights to be there. Tonight they're opening some Barrel Betty, a spiced Belgian Dubbel aged in oak pinot barrels with Brettanomyces which they're calling a sour brunette. While it sounds funny, it makes perfect sense since the beer garden is called the alley, but they're offering free tastes of Barrel Betty in the alley.
Friday night they're tapping a firkin of the combo of Summit St. IPA and Good Hope IPA dry hopped with some more Tomahawk hops. As they put it "2 beers enter, 1 comes out...it's the Thunderdome". I'm down for any firkins but this one sounds especially appealing even though I'm not a big fan of one of the Good Hope IPA.
The other nights sound like pretty good events as well, but Thursday night everyone's going to be at Blanc for the Lagunitas beer dinner, right? Now nod your head. I'll wait while you make your reservation...Okay, so if you were too late to get a reservation, Thursday night will mark the release of some rare bottles the likes of which you can find only at the better beer bars in town. Going forward, 75th Street Brewery will be a place where you can find some of the rare beer releases to hit KC.
Click on the poster for more info on the other nights. 75th Street can make some good beers, this will be a great week to give them some support.
