We spent time in the city last Saturday looking at the various Pride light displays and also getting our steps in ahead of our vacation to the British Isles starting next week. We did walk quite a ways, ending at the Ferry Building, but we did stop for a breather on the way back to the car by rolling into Pagan Idol at around 10:30.
We’d been to Pagan Idol a couple times on the weekends over the past two years and it was not crowded, but it was anything but calm on this visit with people two or three deep at the front bar and plenty of people standing around. Seeing only one bartender on shift at the front bar, I guessed correctly there might be two stations in the back room. As I got into the line to order, two young ladies were ahead of me but they couldn’t figure out what to order, so the bartender leaned over and asked me what I wanted and of course I was ready. Otherwise, you shouldn’t be approaching the bartender when it is busy, right everyone?
Our drinks were pretty good, two that we hadn’t tried here before. I ordered the La Linda, featuring charanda, gin, Aperol, and hibiscus – lighter but still with plenty of flavor that I really liked, though I couldn’t taste much gin or charanda. Mrs. Mai Tai tried the Mr. Hanalei, with rums, allspice, orgeat, and lemon. This definitely leaned into that allspice and I dug it a lot, Julie less so.
We were hanging out by the fish tank, sadly only containing two small fish. Wave after wave of people came into the bar, including about a dozen who must have come from a wedding. It was pretty chaotic which is good for Pagan Idol at least, and we were able to take a load off before the final mile back to our car.