The Parkway Tavern will have its fourth annual IPA Fest Saturday. Here, an e-mail with details from the Parkway's always snarky manager John O'Gara about what's on tap:

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I've been working on a story about Happy Hours around town and I've sampled two Bloody Mary cocktails that left lasting impressions. I like a Bloody Mary with a peppery, horseradish-y bite. Extra points for garnishes that can double as a small appetizer. And if I get a puckery blast of lime juice, I'm an instant fan.

The recent sips that nailed my criteria:

Pacific Grill Bloody Mary: Priced $8.25 on the regular menu, the cocktail was spicy with a horseradish sting and dotted with flakes of freshly ground black pepper. I appreciated the garnish – a few olives and a fat spear of pickled asparagus. Click "read more" for the recipe from Pacific Grill bar manager Carol Reutercrona.

Pacific Grill
Where: 1502 Pacific Avenue
Contact: 253-272-6469 or www.pacificgrilltacoma.com

Duke's Bloody Mary: Priced $4.99 on the Happy Hour menu, Duke's Bloody Mary is more like a meal than a drink. The tomato is punched up with a bright lime flavor and the garnish is an impressive spear of two prawns, green onions and a wedge of lime. The drink is served with a pickled green bean spear and a salted rim.

Duke's Chowder House
Where: 3327 Ruston Way
Contact: 253-752-5444 or www.dukeschowderhouse.com

Your turn: where else in town can I find a good Bloody Mary? What makes it your favorite?

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Sarah Rolstad and Blythe Oliver, foreground from left, drinks cocktails at 1022 South, a Hilltop bar that recently opened at the former Monsoon location. Photo by Janet Jensen/The News Tribune.

By Ernest A. Jasmin
The News Tribune

The scene: 1022 South is the thinking person’s watering hole. New Frontier owner Neil Harris opened the hip Hilltop hangout at 1022 S. J St., formerly the Monsoon Room, in late March. General manager Chris Langston gave the cozy lounge a slick makeover, replacing the Monsoon’s tiki accents with new seating, shelving and bar backing, all of them painted black for a reserved aesthetic.

“I wanted more of a masculine feel,” Langston said. “I knew that it was going to have a literary theme, so I wanted it to complement that.”

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Depending on which way you count it, this Saturday will be either the 4th or 9th annual Barleywine festival at the Parkway Tavern.

It’s year four if you count in barleywine years. It’s nine if you count in Parkway years. The mismatch comes from the festival’s organizers jokingly calling the first festival the “fifth” in a snarky attempt to give it some inflated credibility.

And how did it get organized? The way all good events involving spirits get organized: a bunch of people sitting around a bar talking big.

But it started small.

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My post from Tuesday about Chef William Mueller's Guinness ice cream just wasn't enough Guinness for the week, I don't think. Now I've got a recipe for a Guinness-based Irish Stew that will be served at Primo Grill and Crown Bar for St. Patrick's Day events Tuesday at both venues.

At Crown and Primo, both owned by Charlie McManus, a beef and potato stew powered by Guinness will be featured on the menu -- his mother's recipe. Click "read more" to learn how to make it at home.

At Crown, which McManus says was inspired by the Crown Bar in his hometown of Belfast, McManus will serve shepherd's pie, oysters on the half shell, pints of Guinness and a selection of top-shelf whiskey, including Powers, Jameson and Redbreast 12. At his restaurant Primo, McManus will serve Guinness braised lamb shanks, his mother's Irish stew, and more.

WHERE:
Primo Grill: 601 S. Pine St., Tacoma; 253-383-7000
Crown Bar: 2705 6th Ave., Tacoma; 253-272-4177

Know of any other restaurants hosting St. Patrick's Day events? Please comment here, or e-mail me at tntdiner@thenewstribune.com. Send recipes, too, I'll post them if I get them.

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Chef William Mueller's Guinness ice cream combines the stout beer with cream, sugar and vanilla. Photo by Jeremy Harrison/The News Tribune

You have to be a gutsy chef to serve your diners something like Guinness ice cream. Gutsy is a good description for Chef William Mueller, who owns Babblin’ Babs Bistro in Proctor with wife Shannon.

Mueller is the chef who last year gave chocolate covered bacon a shot, after all. Last St. Patrick’s Day, he served the Guinness ice cream.

I could see how an ice cream made with a stout beer like Guinness could work. A bitter beer, mixed with rich cream and sweetened with sugar, is akin to a popular ice cream that also employs a bitter ingredient as a foundation – coffee ice cream. But a problem with using a bitter flavor base is achieving balance between bitter and sweet. Ice cream with a bitter bite doesn’t suit most palates.

I asked Mueller for a recipe, and I tested it over the weekend.

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Starbucks was handing out free packets of its new instant coffee, dubbed Via. I’m a caffeine addict and coffee snob, eager to try any new variation of the sacred bean.

The packet is tiny, not really feeling like a dollar’s worth of coffee. Dumping it into my favorite ceramic mug, it looked like finely ground coffee. Not Folgers-crystally at all. It had a very nice coffee aroma and dissolved instantly (!) after adding hot water from the office water station.

I did add more than the recommended 8 ounces. It was bulletproof with that little water. A full mug of water produced a delightfully nice cup of Joe. I’d say it was much better than a lot of the office coffee pots, but not nearly the fresh Americano that normally results from my coffee runs. For a quick coffee fix, I’d say not bad but a little spendy. While backpacking, this would be heaven.

The ginger martini at Indochine. It may look girly, but it doesn't taste like it.

I was researching cocktails at Indochine for a GO story on cocktail lounges that publishes next Friday. I brought along a co-worker who likes flavorful drinks, but has great disdain for anything cloying (or, as he calls it "gross girl drinks").

He likes flavor, though. We wondered if there were any flavor-punched savory cocktails on the menu (something besides a bloody mary). Indochine bartender Wesley McLain had an immediate suggestion: a ginger martini.

McLain muddled pieces of fresh ginger with a mixture of Yazi ginger flavored vodka and Level vodka (the ginger vodka alone, McLain said, was "too much" ginger). McLain added a squeeze of lime and served it in a martini glass. It was perfect – aromatic from the ginger, refreshingly tart from the lime, and not girly at all (except for the flower on the rim, which we ditched).

The ginger martini is not on the menu at Indochine, but McLain or another Indochine bartender will mix it up for you. Your price for ginger goodness: $8.50.

Indochine
1924 Pacific Ave., Tacoma; 253-272-8200
Website here.

Tiffany Adamowski wants you to have your cake and eat it too – with beer.
She and husband Craig, who own the 99 Bottles beer store in Federal Way, will have their second annual Beer & Cake fest Jan. 20 (details on the "read more" button).
Stop rolling your eyes and shaking your head. Beer and cake do so work. So there. I buy it. Tiffany does, too. Customers, however, were skeptical when she hosted the beer and cake pairing/tasting last year.
“Beer? With the cake? Oh my god. Everyone was scoffing at me. They said, ‘I’m not sure about beer with cake.’ By the time they had the hazelnut (Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar), they said I’m never having milk again with my cake,” said Tiffany.

Photo by Drew Perine/The News Tribune

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Members of the Pierce County dry squad examine confiscated stills at the county courthouse on January 19, 1924. (Tacoma Public Library photograph)

Columnist Peter Callaghan stopped by my desk tonight to tell me that tomorrow is the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment - the repeal of prohibition.

Pop music critic Ernest Jasmin and I mused about how many Tacoma bars have been in business that long. The only ones we could think of are Bob's Java Jive and (maybe) The Spar.

Any historians out there know of any long time bars, speakeasies or hooch halls we're forgetting?

I checked my 401k (dropping every day), took note of gas prices as I drove by the 7-11 (dropping every day) and then headed to Tempest Lounge last night.

After taking a seat at the bar I saw a small flyer with the header "Recession Relief." The Lounge is offering Tom Cat gin or Hussar vodka and your favorite mixer for $3.50. Add a fresh juice squeeze for $1.

Co-owner Denise Tempest says the reaction to this special has been very positive.

I'm not advocating you drink your troubles away. But take my advice: don't look at your 401k before heading to a bar.

Tempest Lounge is at 913 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Tacoma. 253-272-4904

BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse opened Monday at the Tacoma Mall.
The California-based chain is known for its deep-dish pizza, but also has a selection of pastas, specialty salads, soups, sandwiches and creative appetizers like avocado egg rolls.
From BJ’s microbrewery, diners can sample seven standards, including ales and stout, as well as specialty beers. Currently, BJ’s is featuring pumpkin ale on tap.
BJ’s is open 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday.
See more menu items and beer selections at www.bjsrestaurants.com
Look for BJ’s in a freestanding building, near the entry to the mall food court.