Caroline on Crack | Thirsty Crow

Tag Archive: Thirsty Crow

April 21, 2011

This Weekend: Free Tequila, Bacon/Cheese Cocktail, Back-to-Back Beer Fests

Happy Earth Day weekend, people! What good deed are you going to do this weekend to help save the planet? You can do something easy like purchase special Earth Day cupcakes from Magnolia and Sprinkles or be a bit more giving and volunteer; you can find find a volunteer opportunity here.

Thursday, April� 21

3rd Annual IPA Festival at Naja’s Place
You likes da hoppy beer? At what is officially the biggest IPA festival in SoCal, you can choose from 70 of the best West Coast IPAs — Alesmith IPA, Stone Ruination, Ladyface Alehouse IPA and Pliny the Elder, to name but a few. See partial list here. There will be exclusive festival beers and casks, too.

2pm. Naja’s Place, 154 International Boardwalk, Redondo Beach (map). (310) 376-9951

Friday, April 22 Earth Day!

Free Tacos by Border Grill Truck
Border Grill Truck will be giving out free Black Thai Grilled Alaska Cod Tacos to the first 100 customers to give them the password “Alaska Seafood.”

11:30am-2pm. California Science Center, 700 Exposition Park, Los Angeles (map).

The Nature Conservancy’s Earth Day Picnic Los Angeles
You love food, you love our planet. Celebrate both with a picnic! Either pick a picnic in LA via the Nature Conservancy meetup or organize your own! The green organization will be giving out free reusable shopping bags at the Original Farmer’s Market where you can then score Earth Day special by flashing your bag.

Saturday, April 23

Grilled Cheese Invitational 2011
The judging tickets may be sold out but that doesn’t mean you can’t still join in the fun. Taste free samples, vote on your favorite grilled cheese at the event, witness something called the “Cheese calling event” and enjoy all the cheese-focused entertainment and demos. My friends and cocktailers Alie & Georgia will be demo’ing their Bloody Bacon & Cheese cocktail which includes a grilled cheese sandwich garnish!

11am-6pm. $12 online, $15 door. Los Angeles Center Studios, 1201 W. 5th Street, Los Angeles (map).

Free Tequila at Spaphile’s Relax After Taxes at Pink Taco
Yup, free tequila at this pamper-yourself event, but it’s only the first two hours so get there early and then partake of the free mini spa treatments, snacks and drinks. Admission is $5 but it goes toward charity Livestrong.

3-7pm. $5. Pink Taco, 10250 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles (map). RSVP: events [at] spaphile.com.

Thirsty Crow’s 1st Anniversary Featuring $5 Cocktail
The Silver Lake bar is celebrating its first birthday with $5 Thirsty Crow cocktails — rye, bitters, ginger beer — (from 7-10pm) along with pie from All Jarred Up. Food truck Willoughby Road will be on hand selling its Southern-inspired cuisine.

7pm. Thirsty Crow, 2939 W Sunset Boulevard, Silver Lake (map). (323) 661-6007.

Monday, April 25

2nd Annual Belgian Beer Fest at Library Alehouse
For 10 days, this Santa Monica pub will go through 40-plus Belgian beers with 12 rotating handles. The $15 taster glass will get you discounts off refills. Monday is the kickoff party featuring Duvel beers including the special release collaboration by Ommegang and La Chouffe. Don’t forget to buy your spot at the Belgian beer dinner on May 6th which will have five courses paired with Belgian beers.

April 25 to May 5. Library Alehouse, 2911 Main Street, Santa Monica (map). (310) 314-4855.

Categories: Beer, Cocktails, Dining, Lists, Los Angeles

Q&A With Bobby Green, Co-Owner of The Thirsty Crow

1933 Group co-owner Bobby Brown.

Last week Silver Lake’s newest bourbon bar, The Thirsty Crow, opened its doors to a neighborhood eager to say good-bye to former occupant, Stinkers Truck Stop. Now, in the place of steaming skunk butts there are antique wall sconces, beer cans are cleared away for a bourbon barrel and the trucker-themed cocktails like the Diesel Martini and the Large Marge have been replaced with the classic Sazerac, Old Fashioned and even a variety of Manhattans. I had a chance to chat with 1933 Group co-owner, Bobby Green, about why Stinkers had to end, how a land-speed record inspired this bourbon bar, and which drink on the new cocktail menu he’s most excited about.

Caroline on Crack: Why a bourbon bar?
Bobby Green: I’ve become a huge fan of bourbon ever since Bigfoot West [a 1933 Group bar] opened. But before that I was a fan of Old Crow whiskey. It’s been around since the 1800s. I build and race racecars as a hobby. I do land speed racing. My car is named the Old Crow after the whiskey. It’s like a torpedo with wheels.

Bobby Green's Old Crow racecar.

We race at the Bonneville Salt Flats once or twice a year. For the past three years we’ve gotten a land speed record. So every time we get a land speed record we have a bottle of Old Crow whiskey. So we get a record, then we open a bottle and then everyone in the pits gets a shot. And everyone that comes by the pits gets a shot. So once the bottle is empty we fill it with salt from the salt flats and then we write the date and the record and it goes on the shelf. So that’s been a tradition for years so I’ve always wanted to kinda incorporate that with opening a bar. I already planned to open the Old Crow bar. Well, it turns out you can’t name a bar after alcohol. You couldn’t open the Jack Daniels bar or the Absolut bar. So we named the bar the Thirsty Crow because it’s one of Aesop’s Fables.

CoC: What made you decide to end Stinkers?
BG: Stinkers drew too much of a bridge-and-tunnel crowd. People from Long Beach were driving to Stinkers to check it out. And we’re more of a neighborhoodie kind of thing. But it was still a little too wacky for [the locals] and they were constantly asking for better stuff, better beer and whiskey. The local crowd was coming anyway but they were like, “You should get this or you should get that.” So we just decided the crowd around Silver Lake was maturing so much more than what we could give at Stinkers. That was our goal anyway, we want to give a neighborhood what it lacks. We can tell from the four nights of soft opening people are just flocking and they’re happy.

Categories: Cocktails, Los Angeles, Nightlife

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