Jeremy B.
Yelp
Was walking down 14th street one night when I stumbled upon a new bar called Kingfisher. My initial reaction, as I'm sure is most people's, was, "Nyomygod, is this a bar based on the classic 1991 Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges comedy-drama film, The Fisher King?" I was disappointed but, sadly, not surprised to learn that no, of course it is not.
Having said that, they were showing Free Willy on the TV, so maybe it wasn't such a crazy thought after all. I know, I know, Free Willy is an American treasure and can't really be put in the same realm, let alone conversation, as The Fisher King, which is arguably one of the worst Robin Williams movies of all time (slightly worse than Jack but slightly better than RV). However, they're both early '90s so in that way they are related.
Aaaaaanyway, it was a Thursday night and I was on a first date. Not the most conventional place for a first date, I'll admit, but it worked because the drinks are good and it was relatively quiet as the bar is still new.
This place is basically a dive bar but with bartenders who are knowledgeable and capable of making fancy drinks. Additionally, there's free popcorn! That's right, there's popcorn and they'll just give it to you. No money required in the transaction. All you have to do is ask and you get all the popcorn your stomach can handle which, for me, is a shit ton of popcorn. It's arguably the greatest thing that the Native Americans have ever done...as opposed to inventing lacrosse which is irrefutably the worst thing that they've ever done.
So to summarize the good things: Good drinks at reasonable prices. Free popcorn! On 14th street but not overrun with awful people who like to spill their drinks on you while they grind on other awful people (I'm looking at you upstairs at Provision). Oh and did I mention there's a jukebox? Because there is...although it's not quite functional yet...but they said it will be soon (sorry to put you on such a roller coaster of emotions there). In the meantime, the music is provided by the bartender's ipod which plays a lot of 1960s and sometimes 1990s. Perfect.
My one complaint is that when I ordered my date's drink--a grapefruit-flavored Hefeweizen--the bartender should have warned me that it's not really an alcoholic drink (2.5% ABV). I mean, it's a first date, we're nervous--we're going to need alcohol. More importantly, she's going to need alcohol as I had already made a very unsuccessful Fisher King reference earlier in the date. Which is on me. I mean, that was truly a high risk/low reward reference to go with. I can see that now. Luckily, and this is 100% true, later in the night when I made a The Cutting Edge reference, we had already switched to alcoholic drinks. She did not get that reference either; however, because of the magic of alcohol, it was ok. Also, that's a much more solid reference--one that you can be proud to bring home to mom and dad.
Anyway, the date went great (despite my compulsion to make early '90s movie references). The bartenders were super friendly. The popcorn was delicious. And I got to watch Free Willy on mute for an hour. That's just a solid Thursday night. Can't wait to go back and take the jukebox out for a test drive! Let's just hope they have "The Best of Smash Mouth" on it because I'm going play the F- out of Walking on the Sun.