I have been a busy little Guinness Seeker since my last mini-pub crawl. I decided to create an adventure out of it and use the city bus last week.
A little background on me, I'm about as suburban white as you can be. When it comes to riding a METRO bus or train, I am clueless. But, I'm a quick study.
Another thing I learned is MidTown may be mostly white, but they don't seem to ride the bus as much as the neighboring 3rd Ward (4th Ward on the NW corner of MT). What this means is, just like the Monkee's theme song, "I get funniest looks from everyone I meet."
I say all this a little tongue in cheek. Everyone on the bus may have have been curious enough to stare at me because of all my tattoos, or my dashing good looks. The real truth is most people ignored me. I did get a stare down from one thug looking guy as he came on the bus, but I just smiled and got off.
But enough about my tales of public transportation, this thread is about Guinness.
I tried a restaurant called
Hefly's in Midtown (138 W. Gray). I read somewhere it's the old Luling BBQ place. Nice Texas interior, and a nice selection of beers. They also serve hard liquor. I was there at lunch and was told they do BBQ for lunch but switch to a more "burgery" (my word) menu at night.
Hefly's Guinness was draft and was $4.00
Now here is where my Bus Adventure takes off and goes to three locations, with some interesting finds.
First up,
Molly's downtown Houston, on Main Street. When I got off the bus (no transfers) I walked over two blocks to Main, and there were two Irish Pubs across the tracks from each other. It was as though God wanted me to drink Guinness.
Molly's is what you could call well-worn and probably looks just fine at night. But during the day it is a place you are likely to see a cock roach run down the bar.
However, who cares about the occasional State Bug of Texas when you happen into a place on a Thursday and it is BIG ASS BEER DAY. 23 ounce domestic drafts are $2.50, and Imports are $3.50.
Now the young lady behind the bar was sweet, but admitted she thought Guinness, although technically an import, may get special pricing. Since she wasn't sure, I got a 23 oz glass of Black Goodness for $3.50. God Bless
Molly's on a Thursday.
Being a wise man, and afraid of Zombies on a bus, I knew I should leave after one Big Ass Beer, and continue my quest before night settled in.
I crossed Main Street and went to
McElroys. I'm no detective and I didn't ask questions, but this has to be a sister location to my other favorite place, the McElroys over off Shepherd, across from Stag's Head.
The
Downtown McElroys is the polar opposite of Molly's. DT McElroys is very nice. It looks recently remodeled and has a very classy behind-the-bar storage set up for the liquors. It also has $5.00 regular size glasses of Guinness. Bummer! But, sometimes you don't need to be able to buy your beer in cheap giant glasses.
With plenty of daylight left, I headed south on Main, and there was the Mecca of Poured Beer,
The Flying Saucer. There's no need to detail the Saucer for you local beer drinkers. But the good news (if riding a bus) or bad news (if fearful of DUIs) is I returned to a place with 23 ounce glasses of Guinness at $5.50.
The Flying Saucer was festive and loud at 5:30 in the afternoon. This place will always be near and dear to me, as I rode out Hurricane Ike in the Guest Quarters next door. They fed me and kept a smile on my face all the way up until the shit hit the fan.
Note: I'm just guessing on the actual ounces in these big beers. Molly's had 23 on their sign and the glass at the Saucer looked the same, so I'm making a deductive reasoning leap here (under the influence of beer no less).
