New Venue Needed for the Nor Cal Rabble Kilt Nights

[Panache]

To All,

I ask as a favor that only those members of the Nor Cal Rabble respond to this thread.

Thanks

Jamie

To the Members of the mighty Nor Cal Rabble,

Over the last couple of years we have seen the Devils Canyon Brewery's "Beer Fridays" grow in popularity. Over the last few months that popularity has exploded. All night it is standing room only with long lines to get a beer, food, or use the restrooms. My kids used to like going to Kilt Night to play with the other kids, but the other families have stopped coming. Remember how the F-H.C.A.G. would always get a dance in with Alan and I each evening? Well there is no more room for dancing at the DCB.
Heck it is hard to figure out who is playing anymore. You know I didn't realize it was Knick Knack Jones playing at our last kilt night until well into their set.
The crowd is younger, louder, and drunker

To show how bad it is we didn't even bother taking photos at the last one.

I think we all agree that Chris, Kristiann, Lora, Handsome Dan, Jamie, Dan the younger, and everyone else at the DCB have been really great to us. They are fantastic people and we all are very happy to see the DCB prosper. Lets hope that the popularity of their "Beer Fridays" is translating into more places serving the amazing Devils Canyon Brewery's great beers.

Let's hope that one day we can get Full Boar Scotch ale down at Bev Mo!


This said it is well time to find another place and another date to have our monthly kilt night.

Alan H had a couple of suggestions for locations.

I suggest we move things to the third weekend of the month (so that it doesn't interfere with the DCB's Beer Fridays for those that might still want to stop by for a Scotch Ale or their amazing Red Devil Rye)

So I will open it up to the rabble for your thoughts on this matter.

Cheers

Jamie

[bunchdescendant]

I will chime in that there is a definitely a need for a new locale for our meeting spot. We have a few brewhouses here in Fremont that might fill the bill but I will put it out to the rabble to decide if Fremont is too far off the beaten path for them.

The third weekend is good with us.

Ray and Chris

[Alan H]

One way to go about this is to think about our "regulars" and then pick something that's geographically "the least painful" for most of them.

Way2fractious comes all the way in from the Central Valley, so unless we move it to something right off Highway 580 in the East Bay, I doubt much of anything will make a differece to him.

I'd suggest that San Mateo, would be a good place to start looking.

O'Neills Irish Pub
34 S B St
San Mateo, CA 94401
(650) 347-1544

http://www.tisoneills.com/

I've been there, though only 2-3 times and it was pretty nice, though quiet, but that was years ago when rumour had it that they had a trad music season....they didn't.

Anyway I hear that Behans in Burlingame is closed, which is too bad. I don't know of any Scottish-style pubs in the central Peninsula.

I DO know of an Irish place on Castro Street in Mountain View.: St. Stephens Green

http://www.ststephensgreen.com/

This is a nice place, half restaurant, half bar. There's lots of room in the back and it'd be kid-friendly.

Fibbar and Molly Magee's is also on Castro, but that's really a bar, not so kid friendly...lots of pool tables, really loud music and so on.

Not Irish or Scottish, but a great Bier Garden that's popular with a lot of Silicon Valley types is the Tied House in Mountain View

http://tiedhouse.com/

...which is two blocks north of Castro Street in Mountain View. They have an enclosed patio out back. The view is a parking lot, but what the heck...and kids can hang out there.

The nice thing about all of these venues is that they're sort of in the middle of really interesting "downtown areas", where there's lot of other stuff to do. For example, the best Blues club on the Peninsula is just three blocks from O'Neils. There are a dozen other restaurants on B street and in the vicinity.

Castro Street in Mountain View is chock-ablock with various ethnic restaurants, used bookstores, coffee places, Chinese grocery markets, Red Rock coffee and the like. Also, the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts is about six blocks away.

[Panache]

Alan,

Have you tried any of the Tied House's beers?

It looks like they have a good variety of micro brews.

Err...because I'm sure Tim would want to know...


Cheers

Jamie

[Smayniac]

Tied House used to be one of my regular stops, either in Mountain View before a show at the CPA or downtown in San Jose. They've always had a nice selection of beers, although nothing like "Hades Habanero." There is also a Tied House(or there used to be) in Oakland, near Jack London Square. I haven't tried any of the others that Alan listed.

Scooby and I look forward to somewhere the kids can again enjoy.

Bob

[Alan H]

I've been to all three establishments, though it's been some time. All of them would be appropriate for our rabble....or WERE, anyway.

Geographically, I tend to favor the San Mateo location. It's less of a drive for people coming from Berkeley/Oakland and San Francisco or Pacifica.

It's been so long since I've been in O'Neils that I should poke my head in again on a Friday and check it out. That will be a while, though...I'm currently in Livermore for reasons some of you know about, and won't be back on the Peninsula for probably a week...it's hard to say. I'll go in when I can and report back.

None of them have live music, though. It's pretty tough to find a kid-friendly place that serves beer, food AND has live music. The Live-Music thing, added to "beer" usually means "raucous bar". HOWEVER, the former proprietors of O'Neils were keen on the idea of having a season if I could find the players.

[LANCER1562]

Panache and Smayniac'

Since you guys are in San Jose you probably know about Ye Olde Royal Oak Pub on Coleman Ave. They have a Celtic Night every Thursday night with live Celtic music.

There is, however already, a Rabble that meets there on thoose nights. Richard Brown and a few of his Highland Warriors and some riff-raff from the Guild of St. Gyles Royal Lancers (to which I belong). I'm sure that he won't mind sharing his pub with us. I don't know if it's kid friendly though, since I've never seen anyone under 21 there but it's worth looking into.

[LANCER1562]

I just looked at their web site and they have a children's menu so they are kid friendly.

[Monkey@Arms]

An alternative idea that I kicked around with Jamie, is to have a floating event (not necessarily a Friday night beer night) with each month "sponsored" by a different member of the Rabble. E.g. April - Jamie, May - Jake, June-Demolay, July-WalkerK, etc. (We'd do a sign up in advance choosing the month.)

The sponsor of the month picks the locale and activity, be it Friday night drinks, a Saturday museum visit, Sunday picnic, post-games backyard BBQ, etc. with an eye towards geographic accessibility and group interests. Like when the rabble went to the tasting at the Alameda distillery, and descended on downtown Santa Cruz.

We may want to build in calendar flexibility so we either incorporate or avoid conflicts with the summer games.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Best regards,

Jake

[LANCER1562]

I like Monkey's idea. Especially since the reason I haven't been able to attend the monthly kilt nights and the weekly Celtic nights is because I work evenings during the weekend but a daytime event like the whisky tasting we did last year in Alameda or the walk about we did in Santa Cruz we did the day after Burns Night sounds like a grand idea and should be compatible with a lot of peoples schedules.