Highland Park Bowl (click on the play button - 10 seconds)
(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) What were we thinking trying to do a pub crawl on one of the busiest drinking days of the year? Yeah, I admit, those thoughts were in my head but I couldn't get everyone in the party to commit to any other days so here we are, heading out on the Gold Line light rail train for a day of bar-hopping amidst the crowds of temporary Irish.
Metro's kind of dropping the ball for us today, too. Their attitude is why would anyone want to take the train instead of driving on this very busy day of revelry? At least that's what it seems like as they're doing a lot of maintenance on the tracks with trains only coming by every 20 minutes instead of the 6-10 minutes they usually do on weekends. Plus, they're only running 2-car trains instead of 3 making for some very crowded trains today.
30 seconds
Well, let's see if we can still make the best of the situation...
There are eight of us on this crawl today. In the best of times, it's always like herding kittens trying to keep people moving along. This will be a challenge but I'm up to it! We just miss the train so it's a 20 minute wait on the platform until the next one, then a 45 minute ride to our first destination, Tacos El Hermano, sitting next to the Pico/Aliso station in East L.A.
We'll fill our tummies with Mexican food here before throwing all the alcohol in later. Back on the train, we go one stop to Little Tokyo and walk one block south to our first drinking stop, Angel City Brewery.
This massive, former steel cable factory (it made the cables for the Brooklyn Bridge) has a wide-open floor plan where drinkers can hunker down into various corners, play games, or sit at the picnic tables facing out the patio doors where food trucks come by to serve their wares.
To me, the beer is a bit medicine-ny...a bit to herby and harsh...but there are a few gems on the tasting menu. The blonde is an easy choice to make if nothing else sparks your fancy.
Moving along, we get back on the train for our second stop. I give my brothers-in-law a choice of destinations and they pick Highland Park Bowl, a short block from the Highland Park station.
L.A.'s oldest operating bowling alley (since 1927), the Bowl underwent an extensive makeover in 2016. It is in a word, stunning.
With a bit of a steampunk vibe, old bowling equipment is used as decoration throughout. Old pinsetters have been repurposed as chandeliers over the bars (two!) behind the eight lanes. Ball return mechanisms hold the top shelf liquor bottles. Walls have been removed to allow us to see the current pin setting machinery at work (click play on the video at the top of the post to take a look).
While much was done, a lot was left undone on purpose such as the raw plaster walls and the old wooden stairway railings leading to the restrooms upstairs (a ground-level restroom serves guests with special needs).
It's a few Jameson shots chased by PBRs for the guys and Moscow mules for the ladies as we squeeze into the booth before making our way back to the station.
Next, it's on to South Pasadena where we're headed for our only Irish pub of the day, Griffins of Kinsale. It's just four doors away from the station. It's packed, standing room only, and a very loud band is play David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars."
I love it but I turn around and see that I have lost the rest of the party. I go back outside and they're on the sidewalk..."it's too loud," they say. Oh well, instead we opt for the quieter confines of Nicole's around the corner.
This French store and cafe serves us well while we're here in South Pas. The ladies have a glass of the house chardonnay while the guys have a glass of Craftsman lager before getting back on board.
The next stop is a little more like it. Near the Memorial Park station in Old Pasadena, we find The Blind Donkey pub and have some sour gose beer. The two staff members are a bit overwhelmed by the holiday merry makers so service was a bit lacking.
The beer was good, though.
Next stop was the Arcadia station and the Vendome liquor store across the street. Usually at this point, we would head to Mt. Lowe Brewery down the back alley but they were having an indoor kids movie festival today while Vendome (which has a nice little beer bar up front) was serving Irish specialties.
I forgot all about that, though, as I had a Belgian quad (name escapes me) while we exchanged bar info and restaurant information with the bartender who was glad to finally see some customers in his little bar that day.
One more stop as we end the day in Azusa at the Catholic school themed Congregation Ale House and brewery here for dinner outside on their patio while we all tipsily recount the day.
That's it from our latest crawl, maybe we'll catch you on the next one.
Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018
All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment