you should really go to the Chatterbox Pub.

Chatterbox Pub.

There happen to be 2. The one I was able to check out was in a burb right outside of St. Paul. I was expecting to see some yuppy habitat with overdone lighting, a big line. I don't know, something fancy pants and overdone. Did I get that? Not at all.

This place was set up as a hole in the wall and it lived up to it. It had a nice contrast inside. 2/3 of the pub had some nice, large booths for big parties as well as a large section of the place filled with vintage 70's couches which all had a small console with a 19in LCD tv and a coffee table. The couches looked like something you'd get for free from Craigslist and they definitely felt used, but I didn't mind. They were squishy in a good way.

Those couches pictured are a pretty fair comparison to what we were all sitting on throughout the night.
I should back up.
We get there. Easy
We park. Somewhat easy

As we walk in we're greeted by 4 or 5 people. They're already cracking jokes, which is always a plus. We get our asses parked in a lounge area with couches that looked like picture #4. We were set up with the original NES.
I tell the server (one of 3 who kept stopping by) that we'd be taking up this space for most of the night. I think we came in around 7 and did not leave until 12 or so. They were cool with it and we took full advantage of it.

After a bit of waiting everyone came. Susan, Carrie, Sadie, Kim's pal from middle school and Jonathan. I'd never met Jonathan before that night (Carrie's BF) and I've got to say, he was one cool guy. A lot of fun. A bastard when it comes to Jenga, but that aside, a quality guy (good work Carrie).

Why dwell on details...let's see...

The food sounded familiar but everything had a twist to it that no one expected. Everything was spiced up or made a bit healthier than planned. Everything was delicious, we were all unprepared for what we ate, that's all. I'd have to say the food had a strong bohemian flare, added health, a lot of thought and on-purpose twists that made them a pub joint with food that was levels higher than your typical bar food.

There were servers constantly swinging by to see how we were doing, if they could get us more drinks which is always welcome. Who doesn't love great customer service?

Oh yes, their beers.
For all the great things that CBP had to offer, they sure were tricky beer bastards. That or our group was that oblivious to their pricing. No one asked us "what size," we kept getting fed their $6, not $3.5, brews. That adds we learned. Boy did it. We were swindled and bamboozled with delicious overpriced beers. I knew it was too good to be true and out rolled our tab and reality slapped me like a wet noodle. I was given the Arabian Goggles and then the Roman Soldier for good measure...

Expensive beer aside, being able to sit on comfortable, previously used/abused couches while being able to play nonstop vintage video games with copious amounts of board games will never get old.

I think they have an awesome business model, to get technical. I seriously thought, if I were to open a restaurant their concept makes perfect sense. It appeals to my generation and those older and younger than me. Just provide people with great drinks, better food and some ongoing entertainment and you've got a winner.

What am I forgetting...
Hmm...
Ah the menu of games.
on the back of their menu was a list of their playable games. You had 3 system choices: 1. NES 2. ATARI 3. Sega Genesis
ATARI aside, I could have that set up myself. It cost $2 to have access to any of the games and you could switch them out as you saw fit. Also on the menu were 15-20 choices of board games. Connect 4, Monopoly (it always starts a fight), apples to apples and even Jenga (our evening choice).

The variety kept us occupied. The games are/were a great conversation starter and kept the evening going.

That's basically it.
I don't have anything profound to add about the Chatterbox Pub.
It was an awesome experience.
So, if you're looking for good food, a lot of gaming options, great service, some pretty decent micro brews (at a cost) and vintage couches your parents probably did it on that you can sink right into then the Chatterbox is your ticket if you're in St.P or MPS.

And for the grand finale...more fun photos of the evening.

MN. the recap.

So, I'm a week late, but it's ok. I'm sure no one pined or cried while waiting for me to write something w/o a video as a feature.

I love Minnesota.
Where else, in 3 days time, could I shop one of the largest malls in the country, get my white man dance on at a wedding, see more fat people than an obesity-is-us reunion buffet dinner, learn that a Prius can ride well when being floored to 75mph, play vintage video games in a bohemian-like retro-game pub, AND shoot 2 handguns, 1 assault rifle and a 12-gauge shotty? No where.

...well, I guess anywhere, but not that weekend.

I know 6 hours is a haul, but once you ride it out, it's not a bad drive at all to see some long-time, long-since-seen friends. Our Friday night started with a trip to the Chatterbox Pub. This place was fascinating. It could garner a blog all its own. Yeah, it will. The long and short of this place was it was one sweet atmosphere with funky fare, games, brews and crazy comfy couches. Everyone invited wasn't able to make it out, but I didn't care. The people who came were awesome. Kim was able to meet a large handful of future-wedding-invitees. It was a great way to kill 5/6 hours.

The only major downside of Fri night and Saturday was the hotel. A nice Hilton Garden Inn on the far East side of St. Paul but it was far too expensivo for not getting free breakfast. It was a fine price to pay to get to see Kyle/Steph for their wedding, but F, $140 a night (before taxes and nonstop dirty movies) as the wedding block rate...ridiculous. No. Redonkulous. I realize free wi-fi is nice, but it's not worth jacking the price up to what is normally a $180/night room. Yeah, choke on whatever you're eating, it's that outrageous. Would I recommend staying there? Nope.

Wedding was cute and fun. It was also another opportunity for Kim to meet more people (Brenda, Kyle, Steph, Jenny, Joe...)
Stephanie was a really cute bride. I've never seen a bride hurry her ass so fast down the aisle. If there was a runner, she wouldn't of cared, she was booking too fast down the aisle. When she got to the end of the alter, there were still 2-3 minutes left in the song the man was singing.
That man, I think he was family, was a treat. Flowy 70's Dirk Diggler hair, poofy mustache, late 70's wedding garb and when he got into his singing...man oh man did he get a case of the Elvis leg shake.

I'm not kidding either. He didn't look or sing as well as Elvis, mostly because he took his own artistic liberties on everything...which cracked me up. He looked sort of like the guy in that photo over there. Man...that's eerie. So combine that guy with the Elvis shake and you've got a great rendition of Switchfoot's 'Only Hope.'

That aside, it was a quick and cute service. They had a really cool sand art idea for when the guests left. Each guest dropped in a bag of sand to show their support for the couple. I only fear the day Kyle accidentally bumps into it and it spills all over the carpet...ugh.

Ok, Friday and Saturday covered.
Sunday. MOA. Kim's first time since she was 13. What a difference 12 years and a full-time job make. She tore that mall apart. I've never seen such a successful shopper. We spent a LONG time there. As Kim mentioned in her blog, the best store we found was the store created to sell only Minnesota paraphernalia. Amazing place. It's also where Kim saw that everyone- man, woman, child, fat, skinny, ugly or transgender - wore a Vikings jersey on football Sunday. The state is packed with sports support. It was also the home of a plethora of bustin-over-the-belt guts that Kim LOVED. She was a half click away from running up to a suspender-wearing man and shake his belly of jelly.

Saturday night
Gannon and Jen took us to the closest place to home: Old Chicago.
As Gannon put it, "just because it says Old Chicago doesn't mean the food tastes anything like it does in Chicago. Don't let the name fool you." It was a cool bar where you can take their World Beer tour, which consists of 110 beers. If you do it 10 times. Yeah, 10. You get a big fat mug they leave there for you and 1/2 off a liver transplant. The one catch is, you can only be marked off for 4 beers a visit. That means you need to visit a minimum of 28 times to go through one round. 280 times of 4 beers per visit to get through the tour 10 times. Amazing.

That night was filled with copious amounts of fancy pants beers, touches of Halo, some COD4 then a foray into Castle Crashers and intoxicated (for me at least) Mario Party.

Monday
Are you bored yet? You should be.
We shot guns. Many guns. Many bullets. We avoided the crazy man who lives next door to the range. I nominated and voted myself the Range Master. It's always a cool experience. Kim shot her first firearm and when she returned to work someone said to her (after seeing her in a picture shooting a gun), "Kim, I didn't know you were a republican." That's how you know it was a good time. Let's see what I can show of the day...

Hmm, yeah. A M4, a couple of hand guns and a 12-gauge later, we had ourselves the fun-filled Monday morning we had hoped for. Thanks for the fun, Gannon!

After that it was all-you-can-eat chicken fingers (oh man, so good) and then we were back on the road for 7 hours to get back home. That's right. St. Cloud - B. Grove in 7 hours. We made great time.

That was pretty quick considering the speed that we moved at all weekend long.
I need to go back and I was just there. There are a lot of awesome people and a WHOLE lot of fun things to do, whether it's shooting a firearm, eating nonstop, playing video games, checking out mall-roaming fatties or catching up with old pals. A lot, lot of fun!

And this blog...done

soon, soon

Work's been slowly busy.
I saw this catch and had to agree that it's one of the best I've ever seen.


Alright, until I get off my lazy rumpus to write, enjoy it and thank goodness the weekend is here!

It's coming, just you wait...

I'm terrible at being a consistent blogger. And that's ok. I'll pass on video after video until I have the time to babble. Soon though, very soon.

Susan asked if I'd write a review of the Chatterbox pub. I'd love to.
But after driving 7 some hours from St. Cloud to B. Grove today, I need a recharge before I tackle that wonderful obstacle.

I need to figure a way to word it perfectly. I've been perusing random blogs. Most of them are terrible. Written terribly. There's usually a sense of pretentiousness in the way most people write. It's humorous, but irritable. So, I need to craft a quality, yet fun blog that doesn't read like so many others - which is crappy.

There were oh so many shenanigans that occurred this weekend that I've no real way to snapshot them into a quick blog. For now, I'll sleep on it. Soon you'll hear about M4's, zubas, patronizing managers of chain restaurants, fun weddings, overpriced hotels, a pub review and maybe even talk about Matt's puppy and his love for weed and peanut butter.

Until I figure all that noise out - way to go Cubs (YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS) and FINALLY for the Vikings. I'll see you soon!

Welcome back Tina Fey!

Is there a possibility the SNL could get funny again? No, but this skit cracked me up.

My favorite commercial so far this year

I love any commercial with Peyton Manning. Add Eli - good. Add some trash talking with the 2 she beasts of tennis? Money. Pure gold.

Barack Rolled

Almost as good as getting Rick Rolled
There are some perks to election season.

Ya missed...again...and again

Yo Yo Fat Kid