Only in Dallas

So as part of my effort to be more social this year I went out after work last night and didn't get home till around midnight. Now for some this is common practice but I am a creature of habit, perhaps too habitual. Usually on a Friday after work I make a beeline for the gym, head home after working out, cook, watch TV, internet, read some and then sleep. I think if I continue on this course I will be in danger of becoming the main character of a Lifetime movie.

The evening began at happy hour at Avanti in the Fountain Place tower in downtown Dallas. This bar is exactly the kind of place that I like to go to. Its corporate and reeks of anonymity. Think of the bar where Glenn Close and Michael Douglas have a drink for the first time in Fatal Attraction. Its the kind of place where illicit affairs begin, born out of the constraints of corporate protocol. That combined with three dollar Bloody Marys and I was in love.


The highlight of my evening was when we went to Adair's Saloon in the Deep Ellum district of Dallas. Its a honky tonk that has survived in spite of Dallas' efforts to be the cosmopolitan epicenter of planet Texas. The quirkiest aspect about this place was that they didn't sell bottles of beer but instead sold cans. I don't think I've ever been to a bar that has done that and I actually kind of liked it. I was completely bowled over when I saw a sign over the bar "$2 Pabst Blue Ribbon." At that moment I had to give in to my surrounds and go with the flow. I solicited my friends for some bills and approached the bar to get my trashy-ass can o' beer. I returned to my group, propped myself against the Golden Tee machine, opened my first place beer and observed the quintessential Texan crowd. Its not really my scene but it's nice to know that there are places in the city where you can get cheap trashy beer.

I'm glad I went out.