Monday, December 03, 2007

Insight at the Saloon

I went to the Saloon recently. I've walked by it a variety of times but never been. And it's one of my new favorite places.

Laura and I sat at the bar and had delicious lentil soup. As we started nibbling, the owner came out with more fried onions to put on the top. He said that made it even better. He was right.

They have all these lovely beers there, and when I arrived Laura, who had gotten there a bit before me, was snacking on pistachios and sipping a beer called Saxo Blonde. She'd been trying to choose between that one and one called Nessie, which I wound up ordering at the recommendation of the bartender. And because it's hard to resist intriguing names.

At some point the owner asked my why I'd chosen that particular beer, because it's his beer of choice.

I said we loved the name and the bartender had recommended it. And that I liked but didn't love it. And thought I might prefer Laura's. He said he'd help me choose the next one.

And so he pulled out another bottle of beer, poured a little taste in a glass so I could see if I liked it. Which I did.

It was also compellingly named - La Sirene.

Oddly enough, nothing weird happened to us the whole night, even though I was with Laura, and typically some kind of bizareness trips over us while we're out. But we just spent the evening catching up, very low key in this really warm, comfortable bar.

Eventually we decided to split a third beer. And so I was trying to decide what else I wanted to try. I asked the owner for a suggestion.

He said, "Didn't you like this one?"

"Oh, I absolutely did. I liked it a lot."

"Then why don't you just stick with it?"

This gave me pause. Why not just have another of the same? I liked it - why not stick with it?

By the same token, there are a ton of potentially delicious, intriguing, unknown options. Why not try a different one?

All I can do is smile and shrug and say, "I think I'm just like that."

6 comments:

  1. Agreed. Once you like something, you know you like it and you know it's always going to be an option- so why not try something new? Who knows, you might like it even better. And if you hate it? You can just go back to the thing you know you like.

    This, unfortunately, doesn't work so well with boyfriends.

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  2. Exactly! And about the boyfriends - yeah, I learned that the stupid hard way.

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  3. How can you NOT like an establishment that has
    No Standing
    No Television

    on its door?

    Awesome!

    They also have a beautiful upstairs section that's only open on the weekends and for special events. Up until recently, you could book the upstairs room for free for an evening if you lived in the neighborhood or were a regular. I think they've started to charging for this for the holiday season. We're holding my room mate's 30th birthday party there later this month. Since we (or rather, his girlfriend) called to book it before he decided to charge, we didn't have to pay anything! Awesome!

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  4. This post may as well be called "A parable of Scott's conundrum when it comes to dating women."

    And how fitting it is that beer is the star.

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  5. I went to Salloon on Saturday night when I was in D.C. - amazing beer and hilarious menus. I've never been to a place that had that many rules! I do love how the owner publicizes his international community service programs - so neat!

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  6. VVK - Such a cool place! I'm glad you're having a party there. I loved everything about it and will definitely consider it for a party in the future.

    YIHA - Yup, I hear you.

    MI - Wow - you spend one weekend in town and go to this cool bar I should've discovered ages ago! I was very impressed with his community service projects too.

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