"bar" news and stories

If you drowned your sorrows at the local bar, should you bike home?

In court it all boils down to how a state defines a vehicle. Many states consider a bicycle a vehicle, so the argument follows that drinking and driving laws should apply to cyclists the same as drivers of motor vehicles. While most states require bikers to follow the same road rules as motor vehicle drivers, we have all seen cyclists riding without signaling for turns, riding against the flow of traffic, and riding through stop signs and red lights. Add several beers, a couple of glasses of wine, or a few martinis to that scenario, and danger potential increases.

The response from many people is, "Well, at least they're not driving." True, the impact of a heavy vehicle under the control of a drunken driver can be more severe than a mere bike -- but public safety for everyone on the road is still a main concern of all law enforcement agencies. The California Highway Patrol has had enough fatal bike collisions from BWI that they have begun cracking down on cycling under the influence. Drunken biking is significant enough an issue in Sacramento that the highway patrol was awarded a grant to enforce traffic laws for bicyclists. Recently cops charged seven riders with drinking and biking in one night.

Tiki has long been a beloved sub-genre of American culture, revered by those who love retro, irony, carved wooden heads, eccentric glassware and powerful, fruity drinks. All these things come together at the tiki hourse of worship: The tiki bar. Yet tiki bars are few and far between, with many having been torn down or stripped of their grandeur--only a few beloved relics like San Francisco's Tonga Room, Los Angeles' Tiki Ti and Tuscon's Kon Tiki remain.

But there's a new tiki in a town that rides its own undercurrent of retro and irony. Las Vegas now hosts the planet's only 24-hour tiki bar: Frankie's Tiki Room, which offically opens today, December 4.

Frankie's is a lovingly crafted example of authentic tiki style, with woven palm thatching, carved wooden chairs and blowfish lamps, along with one-of-a-kind art and design by tiki titan Bosko and space-age bachelor pad painter Shag, among others.

But, of course, no tiki bar is a true tiki bar without an extensive selection of fruity, sugary, unexpectedly powerful drinks. The menu at Frankie's Tiki Hut goes all out, offering classic rum-and-pineapple tropical beverages like the Mai Tai and the Zombie made with original Don the Beachcomber recipes. There is also an abundance of specially-created cocktails like the Mojito-esque Bearded Clam, the clover-and-hazelnut spiced Jonas Grumby and the Bombora Blast, which combines 151-proof rum with guava-flavored energy drink. The menu categorizes drinks, with a rating of two to five skulls indicating strength, from pleasant libation to lethal concotion. Given the deceptively sweet nature of tiki drinks, it's a big help.

Well it's Friday again. That means the weekend is almost here. If you're planning on going to your local bar this weekend, take a look at this nifty how-to on bar tricks from Wired Magazine.

Instead of just knocking back a few cold ones and chatting with friends (not that there's anything wrong with that), why not use these new tricks to impress your friends, and maybe make a few new ones. I think it's always great when someone brings something new to the table, so this weekend you can bring something new to the bar!

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Park Slope, Brooklyn, has gotten a reputation in the past few years for being, well..a stroller mecca, to put it mildly. The tight-knit community, safe streets, and good schools make it a natural choice for couples looking to raise a family.

The stroller news - moms taking over coffee shops to hold "Mommy and Me" playgroups - seemed to have died down, until a January blog post by Park Slope columnist, blogger, and mom Louise Crawford. The proprietors of Union Hall, a neighborhood bar that features local bands, hung a sign that read, "No one under 21 admitted. Please, no strollers."

The owners cited liability and safety as the reasons for the new rule, saying that the bar's bocce court and open stairwell didn't mix well with kids running around shoeless.

According to Crawford, who was featured on a recent NPR story about the issue, the bartender has since loosened the ban, and now wants to start a late-afternoon group specifically for moms and their babies.

I'd imagine that the bartender had little choice in the matter, though - those Park Slope message boards can be ruthless, and one person is only so strong when they're staring down a half-dozen moms and their Baby Joggers.

The Times article had a quote from a woman who was incredulous at the "cubes, crayons, and candy" at the top of the bar. For the record, a bar I frequent in Philly, Tattooed Mom, serves up toys and Dum-Dum pops alongside PBR and shots of Jim Beam. And while I thoroughly enjoy these nods to childhood, that's all I need...a nod.

What about you? Do you think it's too harsh to ban kids and strollers from a neighborhood bar? Or is it completely legitimate to ban whomever you want from your bar, especially if you're worried about their safety?

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Forget your percolator: this is siphon coffee.

The newfangled machine looks more like it belongs in a chemistry lab than your local cafe, but that seems to be half its appeal. It's a siphon bar, it costs $20,000, and it lives at Blue Bottle Cafe in San Francisco, California. And it's certainly is fun to watch:

Essentially, there are several burners, each with a glass or metal bulb suspended above. You put your coffee grounds into one, and your water into the other. You light the burner, and as the water heats, it is pushed through a pipe into the coffee grounds. The coffee brews, and when it is finished, it is sucked back through the pipe to the first canister, where it waits patiently until it is consumed. The bar allows baristas to do this process several times simultaneously, like in the photo above.

Now, just to reiterate: this machine doesn't make espresso, or froth your milk, or contain storage containers for cocoa and cinnamon. It just makes plain ol' coffee. But fans of the machine say the taste is extraordinary, because the process keeps the water at just the right temperature when it mixes with the grounds, creating a heavenly cup.

If this sounds appealing to you, luckily, there are cheaper siphons (also called 'vacuum coffeemakers') currently on the market, like the Bodum Santos Vacuum Maker (from $55 to $80, depending on where you look) or the Yama 8-cup Vac Pot Siphon Brewer (about $50).

But if you want to get the true experience of the siphon bar, you'll have to head over to the Blue Bottle Cafe.

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