The Beer has arrived!

Last night, I was in Doral with friends at a birthday party. Towards the end of the party, I got a text from someone on the Bed Race committee telling me that the beer for The Burgundy Room for tonight's (Saturday) Pamaja Pub Crawl, was delivered to the Barracuda Bar because no one was at The Burgundy Room when the beer guy made the delivery. So it's not unusual to get weird calls and texts from our committee members at all hours, even in the middle of a Friday night. Yesterday, during the day, I got a text to go out and take photos of a couple of the light poles near where the starting line of the Bed Race is. I didn't ask why, I just did it.

This is how we got one of our celeb judges, I had access to the celeb and we did it all via text. Even some of the racing teams have been texting me pics of their beds, asking if they are building it right, you know, to code (I wrote the rules for that so I felt responsible, I just told them all they were doing a great job, I'm not even sure, we'll find out on the track tomorrow).

So last night, I told one of my friends, lets leave the party in Doral and go to The Burgundy Room and tell Marshall Crane, the GM, that the beer needs to be picked up at Barracuda. By the way -- The Dolphin Mall in Doral? Mobbed. Wall to wall people. There literally were no parking spaces left in the parking lot, cars had to wait for others to leave to park, the bowling alley, movies, restaurants, stores, etc. were packed. Apparently this is where people are on Friday night.


So when we got back to the Grove, my friend Victor made a comment about how nice and quiet the Grove is, which I don't think would go over well with business owners on a Friday night. They don't want it nice and quiet. But that's another story. So we got to The Burgundy Room and I saw Marshall at his usual perch right out front, overlooking CocoWalk from the railing. I told him about the beer and he said he would get it in the morning.

Victor and I left, heading over to The Grove Spot to look for a couple of friends and then I turned around and saw Marshall with Tony, one of the bartenders from Burgundy Room, with an old shopping cart walking through the Grove. They decided to go get the beer -- at midnight.

I thought it would be a good photo op, so I tagged along, but the funny thing is, I didn't get the best photos, because I guess I wasn't thinking but the photo op was these two guys with a shopping cart, walking through Coconut Grove streets, searching for the beer.

The funniest part was when they went up Fuller Street and all the Barracuda bar patrons on the street looked and laughed, and parted so they could enter the bar with the shopping cart. The bartenders were sort of not amused. They didn't get it. Finally when we explained about the beer, we were sent around the corner to the back entry on Grand Avenue and the beer was retreived.


There's a long, deep hallway behind the Barracuda, which goes all the way up to the front where H&H Jewels is -- all the way from Grand to Main. Below is a tunnel. I have been told this story many times, something about the old bank, which was H&H and a jewelry store which was across Grand, somewhere where the dry cleaners is. And that tunnel is below the long hallway.

I was telling everyone and people were thinking I was making up stories, but a couple of guys there, some from the piercing place next door, I think Luis, and one of the bartenders, corroborated my story. There is a sealed tunnel under that building which goes across the street (underground) to the other side of Grand Avenue. A weird link to the past.

But anyway, the beer was retrieved and tonight is the Pajama Pub Crawl. Both Barracuda and The Burgundy Room along with a bunch of other bars are part of it. It starts at 8 pm at Mr. Moe's, you can sign up there. Tix are $25 for the crawl, you may purchase them on the spot. They may have some early tickets still available in the day at Barracuda and The Bookstore, where you can get them for only $20, if you're out and about, check it out and save a few bucks. Oh, and don't forget to wear your jammies and sleeping cap for the crawl, we'll be out and and about taking pics and would love to snap some of you in your nighties.