After the game...which we watched on TV...

Hi-Tops finally happened. You may remember a post long ago about Redmans, which we went to instead of Hi-Tops many moons ago because thought was neighborhood-y and turned out to be sketchy. Well today we decided to go to Hi-Tops after lunch--we know it's sketchy and we like that and wanted to watch it unfold.

We had an AWESOME waitress (I haven't had many non-awesome servers in this neighborhood) who told us the scoop on Hi-Tops, which we'd heard was recently acquired by the Harry Caray's chain of restaurants. We feared a classy-fyin' influence, but she assuaged these worries. Gone are the wet t-shirt and bikini contests (to that I say: good riddance. I didn't even know they used to have them, and probably wouldn't have liked the place to begin with if I did. So yay). But that is going to be the extent of the classy-fication going on, and I say it's the perfect amount.

The crowds poured in after the game (we got there a little early and caught the last innings on their hundreds of televisions, so we had a table from which to observe). As soon as the Cubs lost (boo) the DJ started up the...hits? He or she SERIOUSLY did not play anything that was recorded after 2000. The most "hip" and "with it" he or she got was "B.O.B." by Outkast and that is from their Stankonia album. GREAT: but old. There was a more than ample smattering of J. Cougar Mellencamp. There was Bon Jovi. It was awesomely bad. This is a multi-generational bar and everyone dances. AWESOMELY BADLY. We left after a few drinks, before the dancing on the bar started, because as much as I love the friendly midwestern-ness of being about a decade behind the rest of the country in musical taste, there is only so much J. Cougar Mellencamp I can take when it is blasted at nightclub-worthy decibels. I sincerely mean everything in that last sentence.

Then we took a siesta, and ventured back out for tapas at Twist down the street. It was AWESOME. I was surprised at the awesomeness because I am just getting back in the swing of my neighborhood. For under $20 we got STUFFED on spanish and fusion tapas. Well done, Twist; well done.