The Wandering Marketer

Chase messaged me that he was in town, and I asked him if he was going to the high school reunion. "What reunion?" He asked me. I'd gotten blasted with Facebook notices about it, but apparently this was the first time he heard of it. At any rate, no.

Chase was in town to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family, and his friend Neils came down with him. He and Neils shared an apartment in Shanghai with a bunch of Aussies, which is how Neils, who is Dutch, came to speak English. So he sounds like Crocodile Dundee, to my endless amusement. Chase invited him basically to show him what a traditional Thanksgiving is like.

I met them at the Biltmore MercBar, a bit of a crusty place per the neighborhood, but very skilled at making cocktails. Chase was drinking a Hemingway Daiquiri, and I tried an Aviation, which I really enjoyed.

From there, we went to Roosevelt Row downtown to Fillmore Vig. I sipped on a shot of Herradura blanco (tequila) and I also tried a sip of a Scotch whisky called Islay de Laphroaigh which had a faint flavor of salt. It's the best Scotch I've ever tried, but I'm usually not a huge fan of whisky's.

I actually ran into Quinn and Ryan there which is probably not so surprising. Seems to be their go-to spot. I actually like it a lot because it's a place which captures a lot of the feel of Phoenix. Adaptive reuse of an 1930s house, the sprawling outdoor seating, warmth of wood, strung lighting for the mild weather. Chase and Neils both seemed to enjoy it as well.

Next we walked over to the Rum Bar, a bar part of the Jamaican Breadfruit restaurant by day. Its a cool little bar. Jamaican bartender in a white straw fedora in front of a wall of over 100 types of sugarcane based spirits, from rum to aguardiente to Brazilian cachaça. I ordered a cup of the day's house punch, which was a delightful mix of red fruits, ginger, and rums.

We moved to the back porch for Niels and Chase to puff on a cigar with their rum drinks before moving on to the last stop of the night. We walked the fifteen minutes down the mostly abandoned and chilly downtown to CityScape, where we went to another one of my recommendations, Blue Hound. I think I like it better during the day. At any rate, we all got fernet, a medicinal-tasting apertif/digestif to round out the night.