Sorry we've been out of commission...

Remember in September when I was apologetic and said I'd never let my blogging lag again?! Paint my face red, I am a liar. I must say, the last few months haven't been the best, and although Mary and I did knock out like 5 bars the first week of October for her birthday, and I was excited to back to the regular blogging, the next week hit me with some shocking and saddening news. My dear Stephanie, best friend in the world, passed away in Niger, while serving in the Peace Corps. They say it was natural causes, she died in her sleep, which I suppose I'm happy she didn't suffer, yet I still can't believe she's really gone. So of course, in my time of grief I thought, is going to 50 bars really important in this life I'm leading?! What even is important?! How can I go out and have fun knowing Steph will never come back to join us at these bars? But, knowing Steph for a decade or so, I know she'd never give up on a mission, and she'd never turn down a good night out with friends. She'd also be judgmental of me if I gave up on anything, as she always wanted her friends to follow through. So, Mary and I soldier on in our quest...we'll probably not finish the 50 bars before Phoenix Magazine releases the latest addition of the 50 best bars, but we will do it!!

I promise this week I will get blogging on the 6 or so bars we've been to since the last entry. I know you're all dying to know what we think!! :) I also promise Mary and I will get some quality bar time in before I go off and become a married woman!

Skeptical Chemist

Wowza I haven't blogged in forever!! My deepest apologies, walk and wedding planning have consumed my life! NO excuses! Bars should always come first I know.

So anyways...way back on August 10th Mary and I with a few from our crew headed out to Skeptical Chemist. We went on a Tuesday, since they have trivia on Tuesdays and Mike G is a trivia guru.

We had a wide array of beers that night, Grimbergen, Sweaty Betty, Smithwicks and Guiness. Mary and I really liked the Sweaty Betty, fun name and it was yummy. Not really a huge dark beer fan, but the boys enjoyed.

As far as food goes, we had the basics, chicken fingers, wings,the cod sliders and the steak sandwich. The steak sandwich was super delicious!!

Happy hour had pretty good deals, 50% off all appetizers and flat breads and $2 off beer and wine.

It was a nice atmosphere at Skeptical Chemist, great bar if you live in the area, it was just a tad far from our neck of the woods.

We liked this place, it was a cool place to hang out and enjoy happy hour. Trivia was hard. Either that, or we aren't as smart as we think we are. But I'm pretty sure that's not the case!

So check out Skeptical Chemist, and if you're a Seahawks fan...this is your bar for football this weekend!!!

Geisha a Go Go

Friday night, after we both had hair appointments, Mary and I headed to Geisha a Go Go for some sushi. We really liked this place, we were supposed to go there for happy hour, but since we put beauty before business, we missed it, but the happy hour specials were pretty impressive, and I will be going back to enjoy them! Who doesn't love half price happy hour?!So first thing, Mary gave them a thumbs up for their website, I just went on it and agree it's pretty cool. So props to their website designer!!

The place is smaller than I thought, but we didn't go in the back area where the private karaoke rooms are so it's probably spacious back there. Anyway, we had some lovely wine and sat out on the patio which was nice, there was even a double rainbow (what does it mean?! haha)

We ordered a few sushi rolls, Philadelphia Roll, Caterpillar Roll and the Fresh Water Eel Roll. All very yummy. My only issue was with me and Mary, neither one of us is really a sushi expert and Geisha a Go Go had a very exciting list of specialty sushi we were to scared to try so we didn't. I'd totally want to go back with a sushi pro and try out the other kinds.

<-- Sorry if my rock blinds you in this photo hahaha jk!!! Obviously we didn't take pictures of our meal...we seriously need someone there reminding us what we're supposed to do. You'd think this far in we'd remember!! So yes, Geisha a Go Go is a winner in my book! The waitresses were super sweet and cute. Note to single dudes, you'll feel like they are totally macking on you, yes, macking. I loved this place, I was actually sad that I'd never been there before. I'm not a karaoke person, but if I were I'd bet that would only add to why I love this place.

The cool "cleaning" options in the bathroom were also a plus in my book. Mary and I held up a line for awhile checking out this amazingness. I love bathrooms that do something weird or interesting, I don't know why, but it's a real draw for me. Kudos Geisha a Go Go.

So...yes we'd go back again! This place was super cool and really good, who can turn down sushi and drinks at a good price?!

San Tan Brewing Company and Fibber Magees

On Friday night, we ventured out to Downtown Chandler to check out San Tan Brewery. We didn't get there until close to 11 p.m. but there seemed to be a lot of people there for it being more of a like go out early kind of place, if that even makes sense. Anyway, we ordered beers and some food. Mary got the HefeWeizen, good, but a bit stronger of a beer then what we light beer gals are used to. I got the Sunspot Gold, which I thought was good and Ryan had the Epicenter Amber Ale, he liked it, of course, I don't think Ryan ever doesn't like a beer.

So Mary and I shared the Chips and Dip Trio, which was delicious, the beer cheese was amazing! Ryan got the Devil's Chicken Fingers and they were huge!! They were really good too. Ryan got another beer, Devil's Ale and I had the Arizona Cosmo, which was good. This place was pretty cool. I don't think I'd go there on a Friday night to get crazy by any means, but say on a Saturday, I'm in Downtown Chandler and I want some good food and beer, this would be the place to go. The other cool thing about this place was you could take their beer home with you! They had cool jugs for bottling and they also had six packs you could buy. So that was pretty cool. I think if this place wasn't so far from where I lived, I'd go there pretty regularly, for now I suppose I'll have to save it for all those times I head out Downtown Chandler! But it was good, and we'd go back again!!

So after San Tan we headed over to Fibber Magees. A little bar in a strip mall, not what I would usually think of for one of the top 50 bars in Phoenix. We went in, it's probably around midnight, and there were about 20 people in there. There was a band but not too many people sitting around actually listening to them. The bar was spacious, and lots of different seating areas so that was cool. We went into the back area to play pool and lose a quarter to the hunting game. That was sad...

Anyway, all in all, if I lived across the street from this bar, I'd probably go there. Otherwise, there wasn't really anything spectacular about Fibber, except it's name. When we left San Tan, there was a Irish bar, <>Murphy's Law next door that was poppin, I wondered why that place wasn't on the list. When we started this mission my dad, the cinical dude, said these bars were only on the list because they paid to be. Always willing to argue with my pops and said no way. But it is sort of seeming to be that way. We've seen a few pretty great bars not be on the list, but on the other hand we've also been to some cool places on this list that we didn't know about before. It's a toss up really. So I'd probably never go back to Fibber Magees again, but I know why people around there go, it's a chill place, but I felt like I was on vacation at a random bar, not just a few miles away from my house.

The District

Hello all! Well playing a bit of catch up with our posts, please forgive us. If this blog was my full time job, you'd be annoyed at how many updates you got!
So, a couple weeks ago Mary, Ryan and I went to The District, at The Sheraton Downtown Phoenix. I was looking forward to this place because I long to be hip enough to live and work downtown. I know downtown Phoenix isn't the hip area that some downtowns are, but I think it's getting there, and how cool that I knew about it before the rest of Phoenix?! Anyway... we went to The District for Happy Hour, the place was pretty full, but there were a few open tables. We ordered our drinks at the bar and then snagged a table by the window. Maybe it was because we already had our drinks, or maybe it was something else, but from this point forward we were never acknowledged by any of the waitresses walking around. Mary and I both got the White Peach Sangria, as it was a suggested idea from Phoenix Magazine. It was okay, a little too peachy, and not enough ice for me, not cold enough in my opinion. Ryan got the Four Peaks Scottish Amber, and he thought it was enjoyable.

So there we sat, for a good 15 minutes, as waitresses hurried by us to ensure all the other patrons were receiving good service. Finally I just went up to the bar and asked if we could order food from him as the waitresses seemed to have it out for us. We ordered the All-American Cheeseburger, Spiced Sweet Potato Fries, and the Sloppy Joe's Sliders.

The food was good, but I wasn't blown away by the menu options. The bartender who brought us our food also brought us more drinks, Mary and I had wine while Ryan tried the Nimbus Blonde. I think by this time the bartender felt sorry for us, because he also came out and cleared our table and validated our parking. As we sat there with nothing on our table, a waitress finally came over and asked if we wanted our parking validated...seriously. It was like we were wearing invisable suits for over an hour and then all of a sudden right before we left it was gone!

Pretty sure we won't go back to The District. The Happy Hour wasn't that impressive, and the fact that we never once were acknowledged by the wait staff, well that never sits well with me.

Trader Vic's

Mary came back from all her travels and we got right back into the swing of things with our Bar Mission. We met at Trader Vic's for Happy Hour to plan out the rest of our adventure...note to followers, the title of this blog may say Summer, but don't get crazy when you're still hearing from us in December!! Yes, we do think it will take that long. Did we bite off more than we can chew? Probably. But we also weren't really thinking of all the things that pop up in our busy

lives, birthdays, work events, engagement parties (woohoo I'm engaged!), meetings, tailgating, vacations...the list could go on.

So, as we caught up on all excitement missed in the weeks we weren't together, we enjoyed the $6 happy hour drink specials, I had a Honey Money, very yummy, and Mary had a Naughty Lemonade, super good, also super strong. Thursday night is also ladies night, so the specials continue for ladies past 6 p.m. which is nice, especially for my friends as we usually can't keep Happy Hour to a few short hours.

We got a lot of yummy food for really cheap too. We had the Lettuce Wraps, Maui Burger and two orders of Bruschetta. The Maui Burger was enough for a meal, and it was only $3, seriously, amazing deals here at the Vic!

Outside Trader Vic's they have a sandwich board boasting about being voted Best Happy Hour, and I'd have to agree, getting food for $3 is amazing! And $6 for a drink when you really only need one to feel good, is also a great deal.

We would go back to Trader Vic's in a heart beat! I've actually made the decision to add it to my groups regular Happy Hour spots!

Another adorable anecdote about this place...this tissue dispenser in the bathroom. Reason enough for me to return!

This Saturday night, July 24th, we'll be heading to Scottsdale to hit up American Junkie, Saddle Ranch and Coach House. Come out and see us!! And if you love reading about our Bar Adventure why don't you follow us, literally, follow the blog, I don't mean sit creepily in the bars we're at and watch us! :)

Four Peaks

So...I bet you thought we gave up on this adventure, well we didn't!!!

We went to Mexico, then got busy I suppose and them off went Mary to travel around the midwest for what seems like months! Well we're back together again, and ready to take on the rest of the best!! <----- Clever!!

So, before all the madness of summer took off, we went to Four Peaks to enjoy Happy Hour and the kick-off party for the Roger Clyne concert in Mexico.

Nate and Paula joined us, as they were headed to Mexico as well for RCPM, Elise stopped by too, and of course Dave came, because he's an avid follower of this mission. The place was pretty full, it was a Thursday, and they were doing the RCPM kick-off but I am pretty sure it would have been a good crowd no matter what.

We tried the Arizona Peach Ale and the Sunbru Ale and both were pretty tasty. We're still new at this, so our food photo was pretty much half way through actually eating, but I think you can get the point. Mary and I shared the Shrimp and Goat Cheese Brushchetta, it was amazingly good. I could have eaten the entire thing myself. Paula and Nate shared the Margherita Pizza, they enjoyed it, but thought it was bit too cheesy. I'm a huge cheese fan so I'm not sure I would ever say something like that, but I guess not everyone feels the same.

All in all, we had a really good time. They were giving away prizes for the concert that weekend, we didn't win anything, but the guy felt sorry for us, so gave us some free shirts, which is always a plus in my book!

Four Peaks definitely is a great Happy Hour, and we'd go back there again for sure!