Is it the End of Times... Gardi gets cut off in an upscale pizza joint!!

As many of you that have known me throughout the years, back in 2008 during the financial crisis I was calling for the end of times.  EOT 2008!  Well, little did I know that the train wreck would be in slow motion.... very slow motion.  Over the last few years I have come to realize that the transition from normalcy to a different type of "times" is truly an evolution that will in fact take much longer than what I had thought.

Well, I have now begun to rethink that, after a little experience as we have headed west.  Maybe indeed...it is now once again... the End Of Times!

When we last left you, we were driving west from Cadillac Ranch, things were getting dark, both in weather, and in the social mood we were experiencing.  We tried a shot at driving the old Route 66 and we stopped in Tucumcari, simply because we were willin', and continued on.  We enjoyed the scenic drive west as clouds cleared and we took a turn north for Santa Fe.  What a terrific scene we were greeted with as we crested a hill and began to climb the hills towards the adobe clad town of Santa Fe.  The sun was baking the car, so as we climbed we were unaware of the actual outside temperature.  Suddenly, at one point, we crested a hill and we were driving in some foreign white mushy substance.  Even I, having been raised in Vermont was baffled.  Had a truck dumped some strange cargo of soap or something?  Hell no!  It seems I have been living in Florida too long, we were driving in snow on the road, and it was melting in the sun!!!  Fortunately it was a short distance, but it made us cognizant of the fact we were at about 7,000 ft, and the air temp was hovering just around 35 degrees.  Ugh!

So we grabbed a hotel and bundled up, walking into the Santa Fe square for dinner and a few drinks.  The town was quite...very quite.  It seemed we were some of the only people walking around town, and the ominous mood that had begun to eclipse most folk's energy had found it's way to Santa Fe as well.

We found a small, upscale little restaurant/bar that served pizzas and sat down at the bar.  Still being full from my tussle with that morning's Chicken Fried Steak in Lubbock, we simply ordered some beers and settled in.  After a few rounds over a couple of hours we finally decided to try one of their signature wood fired pizzas.  The pizza arrived... pepperoni, calamata olives and garlic.  It smelled wonderful.  I thought to myself that it would go well with a dry red wine, and I glanced at my almost empty draft on the bar.  Swigging it back, I kindly asked the barkeep for a house cab. 

Well, welcome to New Mexico!  The bartender sheepishly stated..."I'm sorry sir, but we have a house limit on drinks, 3 without food, and 4 with food, and unfortunately that last draft was your fourth drink."  I looked at the pizza... which along with my taste buds really was calling for a Chianti, and I looked at my empty beer.  My life quickly flashed before my eyes, most of it viewed (Not proudly) through the bottom of a pint glass and I recalled that on many occasions I had consumed four beers before dawn had even broken, I recalled crawling out a window in Physics lab in High School and knocking back a six pack before the end of the period, I recalled doing a power hour (a shot of beer a minute for an hour) before going out in the Keys, I recalled many nights at Bowery Station during the course of a fourteen hour work day consuming at least a couple of beers an hour (again, not with pride)...and I gazed at this young bartender.  I am sure he was a master at the newly evolving "Craft Cocktail" scene.  But was this cat for real??  After a day of sober driving, I had not even gotten the blood in my alcohol down to respectable levels... ultimately I enjoyed the pizza with water. 

We left the pizza joint and went to another empty bar that actually had a band playing.  There was no one in the place, there was no one on the street.  The bouncer asked for a $5 cover.  Now don't get me wrong, we will always support live music to the greatest extent possible, and initially we had dabbled in a few paid shows at Bowery Station, but ultimately we had fallen on the side of our hometown bar in VT, Nectar's.... never a cover.  Pay the band reasonably, and open your doors, win or lose. (Trust me, some nights you lose!)  It may not have been the most profitable method as a bar owner, but in the end I think it made for a much more enjoyable atmosphere, for the venue, for the band, and ultimately for the crowd.  Admittedly I can envision a rare time and a place for a cover...or in bigger markets with big acts...  but on a dead night, with no crowd milling around town.... come on, suck it up and get a few folks in for the band and accept that you might lose a few bucks on some nights if you are truly a music venue.  Rest assured, as consumers we would have far exceeded $5 net on our drinks. 

We left and headed down the street and walked into another bar.  There were maybe twenty people at the bar, we walked up to the bar and painfully watched the poor bartender in the weeds with a few mixed drinks.  After waiting about 10 minutes without even as much as a hello... it was back to the hotel.... and to think with only four beers in my belly.  That truly must be a record.... things would get better tomorrow.  But would they......times were getting dark....