Not the sharpest knife in the drawer

Monday night, before the Built to Spill concert at the 9:30 club, I met up with a friend at the Velvet Lounge for a pre-show drink. Or rather, I would have, had the Velvet Lounge not been mysteriously closed. No problem, we'll just walk a little further down U Street to the Saloon. A drink shall yet be had! Except, no. It was closed too (but at least we know why - their sign said they're closed Mondays. Still unclear on why the Velvet Lounge wasn't open to rake in the big bucks).

Getting a trifle annoyed, we walked even further down the street. I knew of a new Thai place that'd just opened up as part of the whole gentrification thing going on at the U Street Corridor, and I figured their bar would suffice. It did. We got seats near the friendly bartender and put in our drink orders.

The bartender asked us, since we weren't eating, if we wanted any chips and salsa. That's kind of a weird thing for a Thai place to offer, I thought, but hey - you never know with all these fusion places these days, it might be the next new thing, right? Maybe it's like corn mango salsa and rice cake chips. I dunno. I never turn down chips and salsa, so I said sure.

Then, after more chitchat with the bartender, he started to tell us about their drink specials. "But the real thing we're known for, of course, is our tequila," he informed us. Which is a REALLY weird thing for a Thai restaurant to be famous for.

But, as it turned out, not so weird for a Mexican restaurant named Alero to have on hand. I'm still fairly certain that there is some sort of Thai restaurant along that strip, but I have yet to find it. I can, however, speak quite knowledgeably about good sippin' tequila and pomegranate margaritas now.