Main Street in Manayunk is what South Street would be like if you gave everyone who went there a 401K and made them abide by an unofficial dress code, as in one that doesn’t include tattoos and Mohawks.
Seriously, everyone in Manayunk seems to shop at the same store. If you’re a guy and you aren’t wearing a white shirt with vertical blue stripes or a very dull colored golf shirt, people will give you dirty looks (Ryan’s note: Needless to say, my black Rolling Stones T-shirt didn’t go over too well).
Ladies, we’re not sure what they were all wearing, but there was definitely some sort of low cut top, Capri pant ensemble that seemed very popular.
Anyway, we got a hot tip that the Bayou at Rector and Main streets has a happy hour special of $1 “You-Call-Its” from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday nights. Sure enough, the sign outside the door confirmed that we’d only be paying a buck per drink. So we headed upstairs to the much less crowded patio and tiki bar area where we were able to get $1 bottles of lager and some seats.
After a second bottle we decided we needed to step up our game due to the time limit, so we asked the bartender for two shots of the good old German cough syrup: Jägermeister. The bartender informed us that shots of Jäger were not covered under the special, despite the fact that we called it – he also informed us that bottles of High Life were not covered under the special either! (Corey’s note: Coronas, which I’m usually too embarrassed to order, were not covered either despite the several promotional banners for the Mexican cerveza).
Too perplexed for outrage, we politely (remember last week’s article?) asked our good bartender what exactly we were allowed “to call.” Drafts and bottles of pre-selected (read: cheap) beers and well drinks.
Not to be daunted, we ordered another round of Lagers and gin and tonics. Watching him make the drinks we noticed that he only put one shot of Banker’s Club Gin in each. However, a dollar is of course a dollar and so we each had another beer and G&T before we left as the special conclude at 8 p.m.
Our next stop was Pitchers’ Pub at Cotton and Main streets. The bartenders were hot, so naturally, there was a wall of men permanently glued to the bar like a skater to the pavement next to the Cecil B. subway stop. Feeling obligated, we ordered a pitcher, which came to $8. Not bad when split between three people.
After spending a whole dollar (damn you Touch Tunes!) to play “I Wish” by Skee-Lo on the jukebox, our friend “Tall Dan” suggested we do a couple of Car Bombs to cap off the evening. We told him that we referenced Car Bombs in the column twice already and we are vehemently against reusing material, but a good idea is a good idea, so we moseyed up to the bar to prove once again that we were true men.
“Two Car Bombs, please” we told the hot bartendrix.
“Sure, that’ll be $7 altogether,” she replied.
$3.50 for a Car Bomb? Friends we had hit the jackpot! We even had enough money for another round and made ourselves a lot more “goodly” than we had originally intended and it was only 10:15 p.m.
Worth it for the money? Happy Hour in Manayunk worked like gangbusters and the best part was that we were in bed before midnight. Not too shabby.
Our Beef? The Bayou wouldn’t let us finish our drinks. The bus boys kept grabbing our bottles when we still had a few sips left. Also, we didn’t really get to “call” anything. We understand that all specials are limited, but just let us know what our options are.
Corey and Ryan’s note: This being our last column, we hope our seven readers have enjoyed our antics over the past semester. If just one person has found us informative and maybe saved some money, we will feel we made a difference in the Temple community, no matter how small. I’m sure with those few extra dollars you saved you can take us out to dinner, Mom!
Ryan T. Barlow and Corey Fenwick can be reached at Under21andOver$20@gmail.com.
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