Picture pub pizza

I remember the first time I tasted beer. My parents were throwing another dinner party of sorts, and Karen and I were in the space separating our house from the neighboring house with our contraband can. At the first sip, I remember thinking why in the world anyone would drink that nasty and bitter brew, and we poured the can out. I must have been about ten or eleven years old.

It's been a while since then, and beer has grown to become my friend. There are few things I enjoy more than a cold bottle, a good burger, and my patio. But, one thing that does come close is pizza, a good movie, a lounge-worthy couch, and a cool pitcher. And, if you've ever been to the Speakeasy in Oakland, you know what I'm talking about.

Susie and I went there last night to see Born into Brothels, a movie I've wanted to see for a while now and one that I would definitely recommend. We bought our tickets and stood in the food and drink line trying to figure out what we wanted. "Do you know what you'd like?" we were asked. "A pitcher," we replied together confidently even before consulting one another. We got a pitcher of a pale ale and a pepperoni and mushroom pizza.

Okay, so food at the Speakeasy isn't all that great. The pizza is usually a bit bland and tastes like the tomato sauce came out of a tube. The pizza we got last night was better than the times I've had before, not tasting too much like plastic tubing, and with a toasty crust that I like that got soggy by the end of the movie, which I don't like. The waiter man who brought us our food, however, noticed that we had taken the fake grated cheese, red chili flakes, and dried oregano shakers and said that they belonged out front. I wasn't about to leave the movie to return things I wanted. So, he came back for them and I had to hand them over. Lesson to me: next time when in possession of similar canisters, place them out of view of wait staff.

The beer was good though. The same beer out of a tap anywhere is pretty much the same beer. It's tough to make that taste like plastic. Ours was cold and came with not too much foam on top, a decent pour. The tricky part is always pouring a good pint in the dark theater without spilling. And, not to brag or anything, but I think I've almost mastered it--tilting the glass so that a trickle of the amber liquid hits just the glass and slowly fills it as the tilt of the glass becomes less acute, all while trying to read subtitles. Not a task for amateurs.

We left the theater and the sun was still out, so much to early to call it a night. More drinks, it was decided. We went to this Japanese restaurant on Grand that advertised Kirin for 99 cents. We had to see if this was for real. We asked the waiter guy if we could just get drinks. He said no, we couldn't do that, and then he said, okay, yeah, we could order our beers while pretending to look at menus and then tell him later that we decided not to order any food. For this, however, he had to sit us in the corner. I felt like such a bad kid, being relegated to the corner, like I was back in kindergarten and being told that it wasn't cool that I threw paste at little Jimmy and had to stay in the corner until I learned my lesson and was ready to apologize. Susie and I were okay to find our drinks elsewhere but the waiter guy had such a slightly elaborate plan that we couldn't fail him and let it fall through, so we sat in the corner.

Our beers came icy cold in glasses that must have been stuck in the freezer. It was so cold that there were actually chunks of ice that had to be pushed around with wooden chopsticks. The Kirin was so light and crisp compared to the pale ale from earlier in the night. I thought that we would have one beer and that would be it, but waiter guy kept asking if we wanted another. We didn't know what was up but were like, okay, if that's okay with you? And he was like, sure, I'll be right back. Waiter guy was awesome. He knew what the deal was and he was ready to humor us. I was about ready to marry waiter guy, he was that great. But, I didn't. Instead, we left him a very nice tip.