Why do bars have parking lots?

It’s a fair question. Drinking and driving is both dangerous and illegal. Yet in San Diego, most people drive to and from their favorite bar.

The truth is, bars will have parking lots as long as their customers have no viable transportation alternative. That’s starting to change in North Park, however, with the newly-initiated Park-2-Park Shuttle Service.

Begun last week, the service runs Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights starting at 6 PM. It carries foodies and bar patrons to one of 9 stops on a loop that covers 30th Street from Beech to El Cajon Boulevard, then parts of Park Boulevard and Adams Avenue. The cost is $5 for an all-night pass, which is a hard-to-lose wristband. Service continues until midnight on Thursday, and 2 AM Friday and Saturday. Venues on the route include Ritual Tavern, Blind Lady Ale House, Sea Rocket Bistro, Red Fox Room, Live Wire, Lancers, Air Conditioned Lounge, Jayne’s Gastropub, Small Bar, Lei Lounge, and True North.

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You’re probably familiar with other bars and restaurants run by Sam Chammas: Live Wire, Whistle Stop, the Turf Club (where “grill your own steak” was invented), and Riviera Supper Club (where it was perfected). So expectations for his latest venture, the long-awaited Station Tavern & Burgers, have  been high. We got a preview recently during the Station’s two-week soft opening, and it did not disappoint.

The Station really does resemble a train station – the back wall opens up to a long, diagonal outdoor space strewn with picnic tables and colored lights overhead that look like signal lamps. The place is exceptionally kid-friendly – the outside portion has soft, playground-grade pebbles underfoot and a wooden “trolley car” to play on. The vibe is reclaimed vintage, with rich panels of horizontal finished wood and what looks like a salvaged hand-painted cigar billboard serving as a back door. Menu graphics feature an old trolley map of South Park.

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Beer: Proof that the Earth loves us

Happy Earth Day! Did you make it to the big shindig in Balboa Park last weekend? Well, even if you didn’t, it’s not too late to celebrate – Earth Day is today!

As you may know, here at SD Metblogs we love the Blind Lady Ale House, and they are doing something special for Mother Earth today. Among the many fine brews they serve, there are about 7 that are organic. For every organic beer purchased today, BLAH will donate $1 to the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. How’s that for putting your money where your mouth is?

If you’re more tempted by fun or financial gain than doing good, then I should tell you they are also screening some old surf movies on a decidedly non-digital projector, and will be raffling off posters, gift cards, DVDs, and cases of beer.

Beer, prizes, and surf movies? Done. Meet you there!

Get your Snuggie on!

If, like me, you didn’t have the gumption to put on a Snuggie and toddle drunkenly around North Park last Friday the 13th, don’t worry.  Video and photos of the event are now available for your viewing pleasure.

• Snuggie Pub Crawl video (from Sign On San Diego)
• Snuggie Pub Crawl photos (on Yelp)

I especially like the Snuggie Patriot, who described herself as “red white and blue, representing America, and San Diego at large.” It takes a few beers in you to make such a bold claim.

Hope they have another one before the nights get too warm. As one attendee put it, “This sh–‘s hot!”

This used to be Landlord Jim's

See this pile of rubble on the corner of 16th Street and Broadway? It used to be a pretty decent dive bar called Landlord Jim’s.

I noticed on the drive home from work that a favorite game I play (“See Which Local Hipster Is Smoking A Cigarette Outside Landlord Jim’s”) would definitely not be making a comeback.

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Sound like the punchline to a tasteless joke? It’s not. Let me explain:

The Blind Lady Ale House, a recently-established purveyor of craft pizza and beer on Adams Avenue, just got in a shipment of beautiful, new, perfect-for-beer-snobs-ahem-I-mean-connoisseurs beer glasses. Hooray! However, they’ve been open for about a month, using their second choice in glassware. That means they now have about double the glasses they’d need day-to-day in their fine establishment.

So tonight they’re having “Not Quite a Pint Night,” in which they solve their storage problem by giving you one of their old glasses to take home when you order a beer. Heck, ask for a complete set. They must have dozens just waiting for a good home.

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Photo courtesy snuggiesightings.com

I would say “only in San Diego,” but apparently Chicago beat us to it. This Friday, February 13th, there will be a pub crawl in North Park. The only requirement to join: You must be wearing a Snuggie. You know, that blanket with sleeves that’s advertised on TV.

Ruggy J., the local Yelp community manager, is organizing this. I reserve judgement as to whether “Snuggie” rhyming with “Ruggy” is a factor. I just hope someone brings a video camera.

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