Overdelivering

When a “local” business unexpectedly goes above and beyond, I’ve got to call them out on it.

Last night was the “Blackout” pub crawl celebrating the birthdays of Ruchee and the Nuh-Uh Girl (pictured here). Everyone wore black (well, except the people who forgot or weren’t told about the theme).

The second stop was Local Gastropub. The Nuh-Uh Girl had told us she’d set up some “AWESOME drink specials” including $3 beer. Knowing the Nuh-Uh Girl’s tendency to exaggerate, I expected to be paying $3 for a Bud Light.

I was pleasantly surprised, though. The $3 special included delicious local Ghost River beers. Now we’re talking! I got out my money and got ready to enjoy a Ghost River Glacial Pale Ale.

Bad luck struck, though. Right as the customer ahead of me was being served, the CO2 tank blew. All the beer lines were down. The bartender thought for a minute and said, “Well, I tell you what, I’ll give you a bottle for $3.” She listed my options and I went with a Red Stripe with a lime. Red Stripe for $3? Not bad at all.

Gotta give them kudos for overdelivering. They did indeed have an “awesome” beer special for the party, and then they made the best of a bad situation to make sure their customers left satisfied. Very pleased to see it. When the place first opened a year ago, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the service, but based on my experience last night it appears the problems have been corrected.

Also gotta give them props for what they did this morning. I’ve complained that they pander to UT fans too much, but this morning they opened at 10 for Tigers fans to watch the game. Good job on that.

They have crawfish boils every Sunday in March at 5 PM. I need to stop by for one of those.

I need to find out who won “Blackout Bingo” that was played last night at the pub crawl. People got squares for accomplishing certain tasks, like tweeting a photo of them taking a bar’s specialty shot, or tweeting a pic of a prominent feature of a bar, like the stripper pole at Raiford’s. My bingo card accidentally got misplaced in the garbage can at Bardog (not sure how that happened) so I didn’t win any prizes.

On to today… St. Patrick’s Day parade on Beale Street at 4. I’ll probably pre-game at the Saucer for an hour then head down there a little after 3. I’m bringing the camera and plan on wandering around a lot and taking pictures. First St. Pat’s parade in years that it’s been warm enough to wear a T-shirt and shorts. Should be a fun Saturday. Let’s get this party started!