the dharma blog

You can differentiate between types of bars by those that decorate entirely with the free stuff that their liquor suppliers give them and those that don’t. The Groveland Tap has the best of both worlds. Classy neighborhood joint up front, neon, logo-ridden adornments in the back.

Through the front room with the booths and tables, then down the skinny hallway with the bar with the coathooks hiding underneath, the place is a homage to Mac-Groveland. Or maybe not so much an homage but its progeny.

My favorite piece hanging on the walls is the large, nicely-framed, three-color map of the neighborhood by the door the ladies’ room. It’s nothing fancy, but just a nice map of the area bordered by Summit to the north, the Mississippi to the west, Ford Parkway to the south, and I’m not quite sure what to the east, but I think it’s probably something like Lexington Ave.

It’s a simple statement: Here is where we live. A map of the community, it maybe defines what the neighborhood is better than anything else can. The area is as diverse as anywhere in Minnesota, but you can’t fully capture diversity in words or pictures. The map is of a distinct area, and it’s up to the individual to know all that lies within its boundaries and fill it in while they look at the map.

Once you get past the bar and another small room with some high tables, you hit the backroom where the pool tables, the jukebox, the Golden Tee (and the new hit, Silver Strike Bowling), the pinball machine, Big Buck Hunter, and, my favorite, Hydro Thunder, are all located. Back there, it’s all Budweiser and Miller Lite and MGD. The lights over the pool tables are Nascar number 2, and on the wall by the dartboard there are two Nascar hoods, one Bud Light, one Miller Lite.

Budweiser and Miller are probably not the most popular beers at the bar – it being a place that attracts our crew for the four Summit brews on tap – and it’s also not the kind of place full of people watching Nascar and drinking Busch Light on a Sunday, but it’s something to look at while you’re standing around, watching your friends play pool and chatting.

And that was last night. For the third week in a row, we took advantage of the Summit Beer Tour – a pint of all four Summits on tap and a glass to take home, all for 10 bucks. It’s been a small gathering the past two weeks, but somehow last night it all came together and we got quite a gang there.

It’s always a good thing when my lovely wife is having such a good time on a weeknight that I’m the one begging to go home and go to bed because we have to work in the morning. And it’s always nice to have something in January that makes you wish the month wouldn’t come to an end so quickly. Next week is the fourth and last week and I know a few of the folks who came last night didn’t drink all four of the beers on their coupon so they’ll be back to get their money’s worth next week.

ps - ha ha! I’m not the only one blogging about the Summit Beer Tour this month. Palmer said he asked the bartender how the promotion had been going and the bartender said “It’s kind of a tough sell getting people to commit to four pints on a Wednesday night.” Funny enough, we’ve been there all three weeks and I think will score 100% after next week. I don’t know how much more you can sell it than with the basic facts: Cheap Summit. Hump day.