Yes, I had a milestone birthday this year (I’ll keep the exact number with my hundreds of Facebook followers.) After celebrating, it was hinted that I MIGHT be too old for a bar crawl! It was quite eye-opening so I decided to plan an official “senior” adult beverage three-day event. I’m grateful for friends with a sense of humor but who may wish to remain anonymous, let’s just call them Leslie and Janna. With so many amazing local beverage institutions in Lawrenceville, we had to limit it to just a few. So, here are our very scientific GBC (Golden Bar Crawl) taste findings.
#1 Vintages: A Tasting Room – Day 1
Near and dear to our hearts is this cozy wine bar. You don’t have to be there long before you meet new friends and become part of the family. Try a glass or bottle of your new favorite pour or enjoy a flight of three that you choose from the board of WINE WARS winners. That’s right, every couple of months, owners Lorraine Green and MB Strickland bring in three distributors and let their customers vote on their favorite new wines to add to their wall of fame!
#2 Tequila Crawl – Day 2
We started the evening early at Rreal Tacos. We chose the margarita flight which includes Rreal Margarita, Passionfruit, Strawberry and Mango. While each was deliciously sweet, three out of four chose the Passionfruit as their favorite. The next stop for the evening found us at D’Floridan. We tried their signature drink, the D’Floridian Margarita and a couple of skinny margaritas. Everything exceeded our expectations! The final stop for the evening landed us at Añejo. Our final mission of the night was to taste their house specialty. Proudly placed in front of us was La Reina. Beautifully prepared with lavender, cream of coconut, lime and agave with just a hint of blueberry, this drink was possibly the prettiest one of the night.
#3 Beer Crawl – Day 3
I’m not even going to pretend to be a beer aficionado, so this was a job for a professional. Now, the question was where could we find someone with the knowledge and tasting power to guide us four Golden Bar Crawlers … of course! Right next door. When I say next door, I mean the door that I walk by every day going up the stairs. So, I asked my office husband, who wants to be identified as G, to join the fun. We started at a spot with the most beers on tap – Exhibit A(le). Owned and run by local attorney Jesse Hachat, we excitedly asked for tasting flight suggestions. We picked the Schilling Alexandr (1), Sequential ART (14), Tripping Animals No Bad Trip (5) and Prairie Grand Hazelnut Reserve (17). Of these, the ladies enjoyed #1 the most, while G voted for #14. We HAD to go to another spot that produced its own beer so we headed to Slow Pour Brewing Company. With grumbling bellies, we pulled in, anxious to find some fresh-brewed beer and snacks. They had some very tasty pretzels, so we grabbed a couple of different flavors, plus a SP Light, Hawaiian Haze, Moonscraper and a Limoncello Beer Slushy. It was no surprise that the ladies voted for the SP Light and G gave the nod to the Moonscraper.
Lawrenceville is a great city to dine, drink and celebrate! There are so many great places we can’t mention them all here. While the nights out from the past happened more often and we stayed out much later, the new GBC gang appears to have a three-day and five-hour per day limit. But that is a FULL five hours of fun and laughter, making new friends, getting a little sloppy and enjoying every minute of it!