Watering Hole

It took us three years, but we've finally found a decent local watering hole close to our home. Sure, we'll go to places like Chili's, Fridays, the Quarterdeck, and the Ale House. But on a Friday night, these places are crowded, noisy, and most importantly - impersonal.


There are a few dive bars near us, but they usually fall into one of three pitfalls which make them unworthy watering holes:

1. They allow smoking indoors - most establishments in Florida do not allow smoking and we have become happily accustomed to that luxury. This is a definite deal breaker.


2. Their food isn't very good. I like bowling alley french fries as much as the next guy, but there has to be some good food on the menu for it to be a regular part of our lifestyle.


3. They have no drink specials on Friday and Saturday nights. I realize that I am cheap, but I refuse to pay $6.00 for a beer just because its Friday night. This is what brings us to the Ale House and Chili's more than anything else - drink specials all day every day.

This weekend, we finally found a place that was a perfect fit for us. It is called Lefty's Tavern and it is located at Hiatus Rd. and State Road 84. Lefty's is somewhat larger than I expected, and also more family friendly than I expected. They actually have an arcade/game room. But here are the reasons that we had an awesome time at Lefty's last Friday night:

1. Our bartender was that perfect blend of kindness and white trash - you may think that is a derogatory term, but in this case, it isn't. She even gave me a few bucks to get the jukebox started - to which we added a few more.


2. They had a digital jukebox. For the uninitiated, these jukeboxes have a boatload of songs on them, and you can download more songs to the jukebox if you like. When I walk into a place like this, I kind of like to dominate the musical arrangement for the next two hours - Kid Rock, Saigon Kick, Warrant, Slaughter, Notorious BIG, JayZ, House of Pain, Prince, Primus, Violent Femmes, Ice Cube, Whitesnake, White Zombie, Metallica, Lynard Skynard - you see where I'm going with this?


3. The menu was huge and the food was the bomb! I had a Cajun chicken Philly with seasoned fries - some of you know that this is the staple of my restaurant diet. My wife had a sandwich called the Soprano (the theme of the restaurant/bar is modern gangsters) that was chicken, fresh mozzarella, on focaccia bread - equally awesome. And her brother had sweet potato french fries with marshmallow sauce - I've never heard of such a thing.


4. They had Buzztime/NTN Trivia. We played trivia on the t.v.'s for a bit, but then we switched over to playing No Limit Texas Hold Em. At which point I proceeded to clean out everyone in the bar with my unmatched poker skills. I do believe I ranked third highest take for the month for South Florida.


5. Drink specials - all day, every day. Smart.

We had such a good time at Lefty's that it was all we could do to keep from going back there the very next night.