Summer 2008 Day Thirty: Otto's & Hill Country

So...the plan was this: Thom and I get off from work at 1, we each go home and do our thing. Dylan finishes at work around 4:30, I'll meet him after work. Dylan and I would then find a bar near Hill Country at which to partake in Happy Hour, and wait for Thom to join us. The rest of the kids coming to dinner were going to get off from work at 8. So the first part works out. Up until the finding a bar part. Dylan and I canvassed a good portion of Chelsea trying to find a bar where a) we could get cheap drinks, b) we could be close to the restaurant, c) we'd all be comfortable with the surroundings. This proved difficult when the bar closest to the joint looked more like a seafood restaurant, and the only other close by bar had IRONS for door handles. Seriously. Irons.

So we decided to head down to Otto's Shrunken Head which is, apparently, the only good Tiki bar left in this fair city. I have to say...it IS pretty darn awesome. The saga continues: Thom is still in Queens...he'd gone home to paint and had, by the time we actually reached him, managed to dump a bucket of primer onto his older sister's head. Yep. And he was still waiting for her to get out of the shower when he reached him. So Dylan and I spent a few hours at Otto's sans Thom, but we did meet a friend which is always nice.

At about 7:30 we decided to head back uptown to Hill Country where we met everyone else (including the now-freshly-showered Thom). We were 6 altogether, which made for a fun group for BBQ. My suspicions of Hill Country being a great Texas BBQ place were confirmed when Dylan (...Texan) declared that it was so. We attempted to keep the party going by inviting everyone back to Otto's, but it seems everyone else was too tired.

So Dylan and I headed BACK to Otto's where, at this point, there was now a band playing, and a LOT more people. We had to give up the idea of sitting at the bar and opt for a booth right by the pinball machine, which was great WHILE Dylan was playing pinball. Once we both sat down and there was someone else playing, the pinball machine got annoying. Or, rather, the ass of the guy PLAYING pinball got annoying. Ick. Altogether, the evening was great. Hill Country was just as amazing as last time. But, we DID bookend the Hill Country trip with Otto's, making Otto's the highlight of the evening for sure. Especially when someone dropped their $10 Tiki glass. Boo on you.